Price Comparisons of Wireline, Wireless and Internet in Canada and abroad

[hugh]

The CRTC has released "Price Comparisons of Wireline, Wireless and Internet Services in Canada and with Foreign Jurisdictions", a new report prepared by Wall Communications on behalf of the CRTC and Industry Canada.

The report is an international telecommunications price comparison of consumer services including: wireline, mobile wireless, wireline broadband and mobile broadband, as well as bundled combinations of the first three services and basic digital TV.

Full text of the report is available here

[hugh]

Summaries from the report

Wireline

In sum, as in previous years' studies, weighted average Canadian wireline service rates generally compare favourably, on balance, with all of the five surveyed foreign jurisdictions.

Wireless

In sum, in terms of mobile wireless service prices, Canada tends to fall into the middle of the pack in comparison to the five foreign justifications included in this study. However, in the case of the Level 1 (low use) service level basket, Canada now has the highest average rate of the group of surveyed countries.

Broadband Service

On balance, Canadian broadband service rates tend to fall within the middle of the pack of surveyed countries for the Level 1 (sub 1.5 Mbps), Level 2 (1.5 – 9 Mbps ) and Level 3 (10 – 19 Mbps) broadband service baskets. In the case of the Level 4 (20 Mbps and faster) broadband service basket, Canada's rates are relatively high compared to most of the other surveyed countries (other than the U.S.), despite that fact the average service speeds for the surveyed services in the lower priced countries are higher than in Canada.


Mobile Internet Services

On balance, Canadian mobile Internet service rates tend to fall within the middle of the pack of surveyed countries. At the same time, however, while the advertized service speeds of the services in Canada are faster than those in the other surveyed countries, the data usage caps are in Canada are lower.

[mkamesh]

I think they meant "Mediocre" and not middle. This report seems to be yet another effort to make us feel that CRTC is not representing the common man's interests but work for the industry instead. Too bad I am paying for it.

[hugh]

I think they meant "Mediocre" and not middle

Actually they meant middle. If you review the report you'll see they actually took into account different levels of service and then looked at price.

This report seems to be yet another efort to make us feel that CRTC is not representing the coman man's interests but work for the industry instead.

Or is it a report that can be used as a basis for intelligent conversation? How can you carry on any discussion without the facts?

This appears to be a rational attempt to make valid apples to apples comparison.

[AmowAgou]

Their selections of foreign jurisdictions weree very limited. Why don't we start our own survery and post the foreign countries we recently visited and their serivce rate?

I recently visited Hong Kong.

CAD$6 for a prepaid SIM card with 400 any time minutes.
CAD$30 for unlimited voice and 3G data.

[mkamesh]

There are numerous studies already which have much wider sampling and a more just analysis which have shown truly where Canadian Telecom belongs. This study is designed to paint a greener picture in a blood red canvas. You know the prices are worse than third world countries when third world nations pay less than you. This report looks like the conclusions were done first and samples chosen later. Like they say " If you cannot file a suit, suit a file".

See this if you care. http://newamerica.net/publications/p...ans_and_prices

[Tezster]

I did a quick scan through the report - one interesting to note is that the study pretty much considers usage/overage caps as a non-issue.

First, they do add a remark or two stating that most other nations do not employ such measures. Then, when you take a note of the values used in all 4 broadband internet levels i.e. 2GB, 15GB, 30GB and 50GB as the 'average' usage in the 4 tiers respectively - thresholds which are conveniently below the existing cap limits available on the bigger/incumbant providers, you realize they become a complete non-factor in this study as far as cost is concerned.

I also noted a discrepancy in the report: the level 2 broadband usage value listed (15GB) in the beginning of section 5 is not the same as the one indicate on table A1.3 (10GB).

edit: just to add - the OECD already publishes reports very similar to this on an annual basis. It'll be interesting to see how the latest OECD numbers compare with these CRTC figures.

[TorontoColin]

Originally Posted by mkamesh

You know the prices are worse than third world countries when third world nations pay less than you.

Hardly. Third-world rates should be lower because the people there have less money and if the rates were comparable to Canada, the telecom's only customers would the rich minority. They make up the difference in rates in the extremely low cost for labour, and often with lower quality service.

It's simple economics. Their overheads are lower (labour) so their rates can be lower.

[mellaby]

I think volume has a lot to due with it also. I spend half the year in the US and I pay Prepaid-$30 for 300min (no roaming or LD charges in US)in a 2 month period. In Calgary I pay Telus $10/mon @.30/min or .70/min LD (outside Calgary). These plans so far have been the cheapest I can find.

[mkamesh]

"They make up the difference in rates in the extremely low cost for labour, and often with lower quality service."

I can't agree with this at all. May be we can call ourselves more gouge-able than them.

[TorontoColin]

You don't think that the staff of telecoms in Nigeria makes less than those here in Canada? I'm sure a handful of execs still make a ton of money, but what about all the frontline staff and low level tech staff? Most of them will be making a fraction of their Canadian counterparts.

Now, all the countries in this report were first world countries. However, it's important to note that only Australia can compare with Canada for low population density, which can drastically affect costs to the providers.

[hugh]

Honestly, how can you even begin to compare wireless, wireline and internet service in Nigeria with the service provided in OECD countries.

mkamesh, rather than point to other studies and point out meaningless comparisons, why not discuss the survey before us.,

If its problematic, then suggest why rather than going off on tangents.

[Tezster]

The new entrants in the wireless field should be grabbing this report and running with it. Specifically, if you take a look at tables 3 and 5 (see below). Just think of how much higher the average monthly wireless costs would be in the report if it weren't for Wind, Mobilicity, etc... which seems to me is one of the messages this study is trying to communicate i.e. Canada is in the 'middle-of-the-pack'.

[hugh]

Nice spot Tezster.

[jcab]

Well, this survey is... biased in the statistical meaning of the expression*. And this is why I think so:

Since we want to compare with OECD countries, well, guess what? An OECD Study was out this year, for broadband.

2.5 to 15 Mbps - Canada ranks 28th out of 33 countries (the survey covered eight different Canadian plans)
15 - 30 Mbps - Canada ranked 29th out of 33 countries (the survey covered four Canadian plans)
Faster than 45 Mbps - Canada ranked 23rd out of 28 countries (the survey covered three Canadian plans)
(reference: http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/5883/125/ and http://www.oecd.org/document/54/0,37..._1_1_1,00.html

Now, That is hardly middle level... Of course this study isn't comapring only 6 country together (not hard to be third I guess, if you choose your data carefully).

Please note that the study was commishionned to a private company that also have theses clients:

-Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association.
-CTV
-AT&T Canada Enterprises, TELUS, Call-Net Enterprises, Clearnet, Group Telecom, Microcell, PageMart Canada and Optel Communications
-Cable Atlantic
-Global Television Network
-Canadian Association of Broadcaster
and many others, but theses were easily obtained throught their website: http://www.wallcom.ca/publicat.htm

Now can't say it's really an independant study (survey) now can we?

Anyone that has worked with numbers, stats knows that you can make number say anything, if you choose carefully your sample and / or the questions asked.

One thing we should all have when it comes with anything coming out of the CRTC, would be to keep a "sense critique". And not accept a compleasant study.

As a nation, Canada must wake up. Many things in our future economy will be dependant on internet access, from availability to speed, not forgetting bandwith quota and cost. And Frankly, the more I think about it, the more worry I become...I work for a non-profit company that may well see it's future somewhat dependant on this to fulfill it's mission, at a reasonable cost. That is a whole other debate, but if we're honest, and not anti-capitalist, or we're pro-capitalsit, you have to admit, we're not paying a "just" price for our telecommunications. We can't. We would need to have an open market to see a just price.

PS:
Another important bit from Geist site:

"In addition to the OECD tracked the range of pricing per megabit - Canada ranked 28th there too. Moreover, Canada remained one of the only countries with universal data caps as all plans reviewed by the OECD included an explicit bit cap (the only similar countries were Australia, Iceland, and New Zealand - all far more isolated than Canada)."

*:In statistics, bias is systematic favoritism present in data collection, analysis or reporting of quantitative research.