Bells’ President and CEO, Mirko Bibic, defended Canada’s high prices for both wireless and fixed broadband internet in a recent interview with SaltWire.
Bibic didn’t shy away from the fact that Canada has some of the highest internet prices in the world. “Our prices are certainly not the lowest in the world and I’ll never try to argue that,” he said.
In fact, the Bell head stood behind the current landscape. Bibic was unapologetic for how much Canadians have to pay for internet access, arguing that operators have to charge high service fees in order to maintain and constantly improve quality and reliability.
“If our goal was to have the lowest prices I can guarantee that we will not have good networks in Canada. You can’t have a leading infrastructure in a country this size with this few people in it. We want leading infrastructure here because that is what is going to power the modern economy.”
Bibic went on to claim that internet prices in Canada are on a downtrend. “Prices are going down,” he asserted.
“We were asked if we could deliver more high-quality value at decreasing prices and we got the message loud and clear. So, we did. Over the past two years alone, wireless prices have come down by 28 per cent. No other sector of the economy can say the same.”
However, a recent telecom report from Wall Communications, commissioned by the federal government, concluded that internet prices in Canada have consistently gone up since 2019. The same report found that a 100GB cellphone plan overseas is cheaper than the average 50GB plan in Canada.
Canadian internet pricing was actually going down heading into 2019. However, wireless and broadband bills started going back up after the CRTC announced a reduction in wholesale rates but eventually overturned the decision following uproar from national operators like Bell.
According to Bibic, a significant portion of Bell’s margins go into providing better service to its users by way of capital investment.
“At Bell, we actually spend about $800 in capital investment per subscriber per year and that’s more than any other telecommunications company in North America,” he said.
Bibic also noted that Bell is on track to double its network-wide top speed of 1.5 Gbps by November.
Another key area of focus for Bell is reinforcing its core network against mass outages like what happened with Rogers last month.
“No network is perfect and we do suffer from outages as well, but we’ve architected our network to avoid situations in which the entirety of the wireless and wireline networks go down at the same time across the country,” Bibic said. “The Rogers incident was unfortunate and we all tried to help.”
Bell last week reported its financial results for the second quarter, posting an 11% drop in profits for the period to $654 million.
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I keep hearing them say prices are going down but some how my prices have only ever gone up, not down by 2% or 8% and definitely not 28%, only price increases. I guess I’m the only one?
If Canadians had competition you’d find out how unhappy people are with Bell, Rogers and Telus prices.
Nah, it’s just you. 😃
But also, since YOUR price went up (so did mine) that means a lucky dawg got a 50% discount… amirite?
You’d expect he would show how ARPU went down by 28%….got news for ya, it went up.
Loyalty definitely doesn’t pay. If you keep switching back and forth between providers, you’ll be able to pay lower prices / get better value.
In which one of the multiverses? I’d like to know.
In which one of the multiverses? I’d like to know.
Thousands of comedians are out there looking for work and Mirko Bibic is trying to be funny. Sit down Mirko, you’re drunk!!
Lying comes naturally to these fvckers…”we actually spend about $800 in capital investment per subscriber per year “…
You POS, your revenue is a bit over 9 billions and yet you claim to spend 8 billion (10mil*800$) and still make 3 billion profit not even accounting for OPEX.
The only time I got a drop in my wireless bill was to switch from Rogers to Freedom.
This is what you say when you have the regulator in your back pocket because it’s full of people who either worked for you or want to. If we had MPs who actually cared this sort of thing would be punished. There is zero reason we should be paying such high rates in Canada. As taxpayers we pay for the CRTC to allow them to squeeze us shamelessly for profit. It’s high time they worked for us instead of against us.
What a joke. Bell and their cabal (Rogers, Telus) should stop lobbying the govt to prevent real competition — T-Mobile, At&T — from bring allowed to enter Canada. They’d show these scammers what cheap and good network is
Ian Scott, Chief chairman of the CRTC sleeps with these telecom companies. He worked at Telus, and drinks with Bibic:
“From 1990 to 1994, Scott worked in the telecom directorate at the CRTC. Scott then joined the private sector, working for Call-Net Enterprises (now part of Rogers Telecom), the Canadian Cable Television Association, and Telus as a lobbyist with the title of vice-president of federal government relations.”
“In December 2019, Scott was caught drinking beer with Bell executive Mirko Bibic (then COO of Bell, currently CEO) in a pub. This meeting took place just 1 week after Bell filed their appeal of the CRTC’s 2019 wholesale rates.”
Excerpts from wikipedia
Remember, this is the guy who said his rural offering was as good or better than StarLink. Still waiting on those +50mbps speeds.
I call his claims “bull 💩” …..ok, maybe “🐴💩”
“Our prices are certainly not the lowest in the world and I’ll never try to argue that” – no one was arguing that. We’d be happy with being somewhere in the middle. Look how he twists the question from focusing on charging the highest rates to a question about the lowest rates. What a tool.
“If our goal was to have the lowest prices I can guarantee that we will not have good networks in Canada.” Again, no one asked him to do that. We just want fair prices.