Why are Canadian phone plans so expensive? (Marketplace)

Addiction is a money maker. A phone is no longer a phone.

Well you go the old fashion way. take the dog for a walk. Or go swimming, it’s a win win…. Why do you need a phone service … you just need an internet provider. Wifi and you can communicate with anyone.

Avoid ALL of this BS and get Virgin. Less than half of what I was paying at Telus for the exact same service, features, PLUS many more member benefits.

Simple! Canada is an Oligopoly! Everytime competition comes in they are blocked! Wind mobile tried to come in and bell rogers telus denied them with their political influence.

Wow, thats crazy the prices. I pay $29.99 with tax for my line and $10 a month for my moms plan, been like that for years. I am in the US tho, guess I take that price for granted

You will never ever get the government to help fix it, they are in the market to destroy our life as we know it. You will own nothing and be happy, if not they have maid for you!!

Rogers is defo the best company in all of them. Minimal transfers, they invest most of their money back into their network. You just got to know how to negotiate.

I surveyed all the signage in Calgary AB for all new Roger’s signs they bought out all of Shaw. Even that buffalo was replaced

when you asked to speak to the managers boss and the callback is up to 72 hours that is correct. However I am a retired Telus rep and they didn't follow policy procedures. They are supposed to give you the escalation case number and they are supposed to do a task and give you the follow up task number. When there is a complaint about a lack of follow up then there's a system called echo. The rules about a manager following up with their subordinate have been drastically tightened up. But that does mean you would have to call back in. What all the big companies hate is a complaint to the crtc or ccts. if you mention about complaining to the ccts it is mandatory that a form be filled out at Telus. I found that in general the best service was provided by Canadian reps but there isn't a direct number to speak to Canada nor for a overseas rep to connect to a Canadian rep. There's set offers for customer service reps to offer if you want better rates there is no flexibility, however if you want the best rates choose the option when you call in that you want to cancel your service, those reps have more offers than a customer service rep

Listen when you sign up for a plan you're gonna get screwed no matter how you want to look at it. Keep it simple people. Buy a phone and get prepaid so you don't go over any limit. And don't live on your phone. There was life before phones.

This Canadian Government seems to act more favorable towards the wants of large business then the public which is funny because it's the voters they are supposed to champion. Vote people, and don't support the parties that don't work in our favor.

Because in Canada, you have to pay more for everything due to increasing corruption and greed, be it directly or indirectly !

"Wind" Has been freedom mobile for almost a decade

Steve Kay, no one has told you this and you need to hear it; those glasses are not it they look terrible

put an end to lobbying.

This is ridiculous. I pay $35 per month with Koodo. These people featured have multiple lines and no doubt teenage kids who yack all hours of the day….including themselves. Silly stuff. Deals are out there.

Who have a virgin plus how to use sim while roaming in united states?

When it comes to anti-competition, Canada's federal government is a joke. Never mind telco and cable companies, Canadian airlines are 10 times worse.

I’ve moved from France to Canada recently, my French plan is 30$/ month (inc tax),has 35GB + calls and texts in 35 countries (including Canada), on top of calls and texts and 300gb in France
Safe to say, I won’t be getting a Canadian phone plan anytime soon

Wind mobile had a no plan, unlimited call & data for 25$ pay as you go.
But was limited city to near-by suburbs, range got better over the years.

Best unbeatable cell plan & had great service.

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉😅

Wow. My mobile plan costs 18 euros and 22 cents per month. 200M internet and unlimited data. Calls and text messages cost a maximum of 4 euros / month. The bill is almost always less than 20 euros.

Johnson Timothy Williams Jennifer Hall Lisa

who cares why, I dropped my 416 phone number for mint mobile in the USA $198.50 USA annual cell phone cost. 10 gig in the USA but 3 in Canada each month with unlimited talk and text including photo text. That works out to be a least 1/2 if not 3/4 less. I did make an error this year leaving my Cdn data on when passing the border, Telus charged me $15 to receive and email by them. It was the last bite at me by Cda cell phone service.

Life gets much easier is clients decide that changing phone numbers is ok.

Decades ago, customer loyalty meant something today largely due to the rise of HR is means nothing, instead new onboarding is the catch phrase that pays, the only way to join the club is to be a new customer every year or 6 months, so you need to ne not so attached to your current phone number.

I have T-Mobile in the United States and I only pay 236 for four lines unlimited everything

It's a lack of competition, the same applies to airline tickets.

Damn those in the US and Canada really are getting ripped off.

I have an iPhone 15 Pro Max 512GB (bought 4 months after release) for which I pay £60 a month. I also have an iPhone 14 on the same provider, for which I pay £20 a month.

Both with unlimited texts, calls and 12GB of data - for £80 a month, which is about $145 CAD.

I would really love for Canadians to work together to try and stop this instead of complaining or relying on politicians to fix this. Canada is an oligopoly and this has to stop now through action from the people.

I don't understand why is there constant, awful music playing in the background. Had to stop watching it because it's irritating.

Surprised CBC left the comments open. 😮

marketplace is the real reason pp wants to defund the cbc (defund the ceo btw)

More corruption. The few preying on the greater public again.

Pay a lot of money for terrible service and quality! Canada in a nutshell

BYOD (bring your own device) and hop around is the best way to get best deals.

The main reasons are Collusion...price fixing...the Government and CRTC allowing them to get away with it... all while limiting competition!
I saw an ad last week in the US watching football for... t-mobile. 4 Free IPhone 16s. 4 lines at $25 each! for...AT&T. free IPhone 16 with an ipad and apple watch for $0.99/ month. All of the suppliers in Canada did away with free phones at exactly the same time... and their plan costs mirror each other with price variances so low...it's like they got together and planned it.

Justin Trudeau of the Liberal Party and Jagmeet Singh of the NDP have destroyed Canada and Canadian values! Jagmeet Singh had a secret agreement with Justin Trudeau to bring at least half a million Indians to Canada!

I call every two years to get a lower rate lol. We're with Tekus, and I call Rogers and Bell just like tgey did in tgis episode. I akways get a better rate than the inxrease after our two years. It's a pain in the butt, but it's worth it to sace the money.

this is actually a perfect representation of services in Canada. I just went through the same thing. Customer service at Telus is horrible. You require heaps of patience and determination to get through to people who can help. To get them to send a waybill so I can send devices back to them after I broke the contract after 10 days, I agreed to it (according to documents, I had 30 days to do so), I had to call 3 times and listen to excuses as to why they can't process the return of devices and why I have to pay for them. Loyalty to them means they are going to try to make you pay more. They only dropped 5 bucks off versus the new activation at Bell, who shaved off 20/m on the same plan and gave me US-CAN free. Funny that Telus called me later (win back phonecall) to offer 10/m off more after I ported the number to Bell. I might have stayed if they started from that to begin with. Greed did not bring any benefit this time.

Great job on a video.

3hr wait for Bell? There’s nothing more to say. I had a 5G unlimited plan with Rogers, dropped to 20GB LTE with Fido (owned by Rogers), bill dropped from $100 to $40. I can’t tell the difference in service, feels exactly the same and I never go past 20GB, no change in my behaviour.

We fund the cell towers. Then bell refuses to share the towers..government does nothing.

Lack of response from politicians and government institutions just confirm they are corrupt an they taking money from big telecoms. It is obvious. Unfortunately Canada is not a law country. They use big words but steal more than in 3rd world countries.

i mean honestly, just save yourself some time and lie and tell them that the other company is offering you some specific deal and watch as they do the work for you lol. Why call a million people?

Why weren't Koodo, Fido and Freedom not mentioned or used as options for the test users to switch to? I've been on Koodo for over 10 years and have always gotten cheaper plans with more features and data. The reception is great anywhere I've been in Canada and their roaming rates are decent.

Could it be monopolized greed?

why does this not explore the Retention deals which no one with bell or telus admits having till you actually switch. my cell phone bill was cut close to half when I switched from telus to bell to telus, Bring your own phone go month to month and pay full price for about two months then switch and about three weeks later a agent will call you back for the retention deal . Ive got 98 dollars total for two phone packages and 120 gigs each across Canada!

To answer the question in the headline: because we’re being ripped off

1. ) Buy skype credit and throw your cell phone company away 2.) Make all your calls on Whatsapp or Line and throw your cell company away. Where is the government when you need them? And that means BOTH major parties. Face it, they are both infected by big corporations with their hands in their pockets. Serious coruption!!!

As a Canadian I have dealt with various cell phone providers in the same way by calling around. I have found that they will tell you one thing over the phone, but when you get your bill it is a total different thing. I have started asking for email confirmation on any deal offerings before agreeing. Strangely enough, I have yet to receive a single one. I have however been added and billed without agreeing. Then come the threats and harassment when I tell them to go pound sand. This has been going on literally since cell phones were available in Canada. Obviously our politicians are in their back pocket.