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pbnjoe writes:
"CBC has a report on apparent price fixing by the country's top carriers.
Canada's big three wireless carriers have hiked the base prices for new plans by $5 in most markets over the past two months.
Rogers, Telus, and Bell Mobility now all charge $80 per month for new smartphone plans with a new contract, $5 more than what many of those same plans cost when they were introduced last year. The prices for other smartphone plans with more data cost upwards of $145.
The price hikes affect every province except Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
This exclusion appears to be due to the strong local competition from MTS and SaskTel, respectively; equivalent plans there are $55 cheaper than elsewhere in the country.
The $80 a month plan includes 500 MB of data, unlimited nationwide calling, unlimited messaging, voicemail and call display.
Existing plans are unaffected.
For more, here's Ars Technica's coverage of the story."
(Score: 1) by JoeMerchant on Monday March 24 2014, @11:14AM
The U.S. rates are improving, slowly. A big thing here is the "family plan" where the carrier reams you for the first phone, then additional phones are added for much less. Right now, we have 3 phones each with 500Meg data per month on T-Mobile for $90 per month, you can add unlimited data for $20 per line per month. I believe the rates are $80 per month for 2 lines, or $50 per month for 1 line.
Like I said about Canada, the infrastructure costs in the US are higher, and not just because of the geography - the carriers have also fragmented the spectrum... it really sucks. Depending on where you live, you are more or less forced into the carrier that has "real" coverage in that area. In North-Central Florida, that means Verizon, but in the Keys it means AT&T. Luckily, the major metro areas have more choice, but when you travel, you suffer - and AT&T / Verizon are much more expensive than what I'm quoting for T-Mobile...