According to Moody’s, Canada’s wireless market is “an oligopoly”. And, not surprisingly, prices are twice as high as the U.S., which has caused market penetration (56%) to lag behind the U.S. (76%) Stop the presses, you mean Canada’s wireless carriers aren’t aggressively battling each other for business by offering consumers attractive deals? You mean all the talk among wireless executives about “disciplined pricing” is just code for raising prices higher so ARPU can be increased.
Well, wonders never cease. And I thought there was healthy competition within Canada’s wireless market as carriers fought tooth and claw for market share. Then again, the Canadian government did shrink the competitive landscape when it approved Rogers’ $1.4-billion acquisition of Microcell. And it’s not like the MVNO market has spurred more competition, although Virgin Mobile is really trying hard to be a pain the ass to Telus, Rogers and Bell.
Who knows, maybe the de-regulation of the local telephone market will cause home phone prices to increase, which, in turn, could make wireless service more attractive. Then again, there’s no indication wireless carriers will stop chanting the “disciplined pricing” mantra any time. As long as there’s growth left in the market, why offer deals when there’s no need for them?
3 Comments
Can anyone answer me this – Can a MVNO offer data services aka Blackberry plans? Am I tied to my carrier for data, do I have to bend over and take it by Rogers for there 25MB plan? If there was competition could I sign up with a MVNO data carrier?
When local number portability starts to become available next month, you’ll be able to take your phone number and Blackberry to another carrier. Virgin doesn’t offer Blackberry service, and I’m not aware of Amp’d’s plans.
Neither of which are a GSM carrier, so basically I am pooched until there is a MVNO on Rogers GSM network in Canada. Lovely, how do you set up a MVNO? Sounds like a good post topic.