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Canada's Big Carriers Appear to be Price Fixing

posted by LaminatorX on Monday March 24 2014, @10:01AM   Printer-friendly
from the Hosed-by-Hosers dept.

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."

 
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  • (Score: 1) by JoeMerchant on Saturday March 29 2014, @08:11PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Saturday March 29 2014, @08:11PM (#22980)

    Absolutely, the real price fixer is "whatever the market will bear" - when you've got the potential of being mauled by a bear out in the middle of the woods, you'll likely pay a lot for reliable cell service. When you live in the high density cities, you make enough money to pay higher rates for the service than it costs to provide them.

    Cable and telcos have made huge profits by fixing a "flat price" across everybody. Some people out in the boonies get their service for less than it costs to provide it, but I think the government regulators smile on this and give the monopolistic bastards a pass when they price gouge in the cities.