I had no idea this story would strike such a nerve:
1300+ diggs
10,000 visitors to this blog in the first hour
1,300 flickr views, and 18 favourites
185 comments on Digg
60+ comments and trackbacks on this site
50+ links from other blogs according to technorati
I’m amazed and impressed by the quality and volume of commentary the post has generated.
Some key points:
Apollo says: “Rogers has added a new data plan with the launch of its HSDPA network that is $210 for 500 MB.†(Note that this plan would take Rogers rates from 40x New Zealand prices to “only†5x as expensive. hooray…)
A few people noted that the CRT C doesn’t regulate wireless in Canada. Which, if true, would clearly be part of the problem. We do know that it took an act of parliament to bring in number portability in Canada and that only years after it had been mandated in the US.
Barry provides the following very helpful advice on what you can do:
Thomas, I suggest you put this up at the top of this thread, may and be as an update to the original and post.
It’s easy to take action. So please do it. Here’s who you write to:
Email Maxime Bernier, Minister of Industry Minister.Industry@ic.gc.ca
Email the Prime Minister: pm@pm.gc.ca
Find and email your member of parliament.In addition my two cents: Historically, things were MUCH better. Only a few years ago you could get unlimited data for about $20/mo from Fido. This is gone. It was also available via Hiptop, as mentioned above. The interesting thing is that as the 3 (or 2 depending on how you look at it) companies that control all of Canada’s wireless communications realized they had an oligopoly they raised prices. Even SMS is 15 cents/message, while everywhere else in the world it averages 5 cents/message. We pay three times as much here as well. Please write your MP as well as the others above and let’s see if we can change things.
And many, many more comments over on the digg page.
Uh, write to Bernier? That sounds, well, sketchy. The wireless industry is regulated exactly how he wants it. Which is not at all. Heck, his deregulation agenda has even got his co-Parliamentarians scared. Which is why the House of Commons Committee on Industry, etc., went to war against his ongoing deregulation orders by fiat.
Oh, petitions, letter-writing campaigns, etc. sound great. But if someone out there actually wants to do something about this, they should put together a good application to the body that regulates this stuff — you know, the CRTC — making cogent arguments as to why it regulates mobile data prices. You know, kind of like a court case.
So far, noone ever has.
Uh, write to Bernier? That sounds, well, sketchy. The wireless industry is regulated exactly how he wants it. Which is not at all. Heck, his deregulation agenda has even got his co-Parliamentarians scared. Which is why the House of Commons Committee on Industry, etc., went to war against his ongoing deregulation orders by fiat.
Oh, petitions, letter-writing campaigns, etc. sound great. But if someone out there actually wants to do something about this, they should put together a good application to the body that regulates this stuff — you know, the CRTC — making cogent arguments as to why it regulates mobile data prices. You know, kind of like a court case.
So far, noone ever has.
Forget the CRTC, we need to dump the foreign ownership restrictions and destroy the cartel. Andrew Coyne had a good column on this here.
Forget the CRTC, we need to dump the foreign ownership restrictions and destroy the cartel. Andrew Coyne had a good column on this here.
Thomas: thanks for the post.
Thomas: thanks for the post.