Last week, a friend of mine bought a prepaid plan to Wind Mobile. Living in the suburbs, we expected the signal to be fairly weak, but figured that it’d be alright. When we got home, however, the phone wouldn’t work at all. No wonder nobody recommends Wind, right?
Telus, BCE (Bell Canada Enterp
rises), and Rogers, nicknamed the Big Three, have dominated the Canadian phone industry for years. While small, independent companies such as Mobilicity and Wind Mobile have struggled to survive, the Big Three have expanded to cover the majority, if not all of Canada. Meanwhile, smaller companies lack the resources to gain cellular coverage over large areas. In a recent article, the Big Three acknowledge that a fourth competitor could emerge, but they would likely struggle to match their quality of signal.
Clearly, emerging companies would struggle when pitted against such large corporations. While in the past, these companies had been given a large amount of assets free from the Canadian government, competitors are given a small advantage against the Big Three. According to the Huffington Post, when Verizon considered entrance to Canada, they would have gotten the opportunity to bid for two of four blocks of spectrum in an auction, compared to the one each of the Big Three. The Big Three, of course, protested this, posting campaigns over television and the internet. A bit unfair, seeing as a good amount of starting spectrum had come to them free.
While Canada is not the most expensive country in terms of wireless service, the addition of competitors could help lower prices, and possibly provide more jobs. Of course, the Big Three will likely hold their stake on the Canadian wireless market for a while yet.