Earlier this week, the federal government released its Budget 2024, which aims to lower junk fees on cellphone bills when customers are trying to switch carriers.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s account on X continues to post random tidbits from the proposed budget, and yesterday’s latest ended up getting slammed with angry replies.
“We’ve cut the cost of cell phone plans in half since 2019 — in part by increasing competition,” proclaimed the Prime Minister on X.
“Next, we’re going after the junk fees on your phone bill, so you can do things like cancel your plan or switch to a cheaper one with no added charges. #Budget2024,” added Trudeau.
We’ve cut the cost of cell phone plans in half since 2019 — in part by increasing competition.
Next, we’re going after the junk fees on your phone bill, so you can do things like cancel your plan or switch to a cheaper one with no added charges. #Budget2024— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) April 18, 2024
This post has seen 1.6 million views and so far has been “ratioed”, meaning there are far more replies than reposts and likes. This means there are usually more negative replies to the post as people are sounding off.
“No you haven’t. My cell phone plan went from $50 to $120 in that span. There is no competition. The big 3 meet yearly and ensure they all price similarly which is why it doesn’t matter if you go to Shaw, Bell or Telus and in fact you approved the merger between Shaw and Rogers to eliminate even more competition,” claimed user DJ Phoenix in response.
“With all due respect PM, this is not true. Most on cell plans try to negotiate a better deal, usually when they upgrade but there’s rarely, if ever, a better deal. Canada is/was recognized as a telecommunications pioneer and we shouldn’t be paying some of the highest prices,” said @moeman61.
“My cell phone bill has went up. Stop lying,” replied Jayde.
“Of all the Trudeau promises that didn’t happen, this didn’t happen the most,” said user @NotaliaMateo.
Another user Kirk Lubimov held a poll asking if the cost of cell phone bills have been cut in half since 2019. With over 14,000 votes, 93.9% voted “no”.
The angry replies to the post by Trudeau continue on and on.
Now, while some cell phone plans are down a lot (just look at flanker brands and also Freedom Mobile), that’s due to how StatsCan measures them. While StatsCan can see the prices of plans on carriers’ website, they don’t know customers are spending exactly every month. They don’t have access to the data that shows the average change in a cell phone bill.
While Rogers, Telus and Bell increase data for free for some customers, this move is seen as a price drop by StatsCan. Just take a look at average revenue per user (ARPU) metrics from the ‘Big 3’ earnings reports. They haven’t dropped significantly.
“With the internet, we have a lot of information, but we don’t have all the information that we would like,” said StatsCan to the Globe and Mail back in February. So again, the federal government is making bold claims but over the past decade, ARPU hasn’t changed drastically.
Has your cell phone bill dropped by 50% since 2019, like the Prime Minister has claimed?
