Why The Canadian Telecom Oligopoly Hurts Canadian Business

Canada is notorious for its telecom oligopoly which causes Canadian consumers to pay some of the highest rates in the developed world for a relatively restrictive service.

For example, in France, for EUR 15.99 a month (roughly CAD 24), users can get unlimited texts and calls to over 100 destinations as well as 4G internet with a 50GB limit, after which internet speed decreases since EU regulation has made it illegal for telecoms to charge additional roaming fees. Now think back to what you pay in Canada for 100MB of data, or even 1GB of data.

This small factor has a potentially huge impact on how consumers behave in Canada versus other developed markets:
– in Europe, where users can afford nearly unlimited amounts of high speed data, they are more likely to actively interact online and use apps and other social media without restraint
– in Canada, many users (particularly youth) simply do not have a data plan or often limit usage of their data to situations which they deem particularly important.

I’ve always wondered why I could never get myself to actively use many of the apps and other solutions made available for free on my smartphone. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s because I am not willing to pay such a high price for limited data access. I think this single factor likely has a disproportionate impact on the Canadian market (consider start-up apps especially), and I would argue that it makes excellent business sense for Canadian companies and marketers to help break-up Canada’s telecom oligopoly in order to create more dynamic interactions with customers as well as a more flexible business environment.

 

 

 

3 thoughts on “Why The Canadian Telecom Oligopoly Hurts Canadian Business

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