They only allowed regional carriers with existing spectrum to use others networks. It doesn't allow any other company to use the large carriers networks which limits the ability to start a MVNO carrier as you need existing spectrum licenses in order to piggyback on others networks.
Yes, exactly. This ruling doesn't change much. All it provides is that regional carriers will now be able to offer services outside of their service area with mandated roaming wholesale tariffs instead of private commercial agreements. This might allow for players like Freedom or Videotron to start offering services in more areas, perhaps leading to a decrease in prices where only the Big 3 were previously available, but I do not expect any crazy disruption to retail pricing, as the numbers of players competing in the market will still be limited.
There won't be a Mint Mobile or a Google Fi in Canada for a long time, unless these players decide to partner with a Canadian regional carrier. And even then, I don't know if this would be legally possible, as majority foreign ownership of telecommunication providers is not allowed in Canada. Once again, the Canadian telcos have managed to keep their oligopoly untouched.
The small carriers piggybacked on big networks are just a facade for the big networks. If the are not owned by those networks, they hope to be acquired.
They just provide different branding at a bit of a discount, like Toyota vs Lexus kind of thing.
Things are better than they used to be. E.g. one half decent alternative in Canada is Public Mobile. E.g. my cell phone plan has unlimited Canada-wide calling and texting. If I pre-pay $25 for a month on auto top-up, I get 1.5 G of data, which is fine for my use. I don't go out to sit somewhere out of Wi-Fi range to stream videos. Just from a battery use POV, that would be a nonstarter, even with unlimited data.
Though that pricing may seem laughable to people in some parts of the world, the fact is that it costs $2 less than what I paid for a land-line in 1987 to operate a BBS.
In absolute dollars, not adjusted for inflation!!!
On that land-line, calling just across town (e.g. Surrey to North Vancouver or vice versa) incurred long-distance charges.
Wow, was that ever a rip-off. Let's do the inflation using inflationtool.com.
Evidently, CAD $27 in 1987 is like $56 in 2021. $56 a month, with unlimited calling only to immediately neighboring municipalities. (Data? What's that: 1200 baud modem or something).
Meh, CRTC has a lot more good to do before we can forgive them for enabling the telecoms to keep robing Canadians, with most expensive prices per gigabyte in the whole world.
I wonder if geography or population density matters in these conversations. It costs 6.5x more to bring a cell tower to your neighborhood than it does in the US - but you will continue to compare Uganda or other countries that are postage stamps in terms of size compared to Canada - and act as if thatβs logical.
Also in front of the scenes: the largest country with the smallest population. In the world. Giving a Canadian cell access costs 6.5x more than it does to provide ab American the same service. Why would the prices be even close?
What are some examples that don't favour entrenched interests (Rogers / Bell / Telus ) looking to legislate away competition, or subsidise politically approved "artists" while making it harder for us to access content we actually want to see?
Some places have it now. I'm in the The Maritimes and here ISP Eastlink also has mobile phones. I went from $90/month Bell to $30/month Eastlink mobile (with $15 bundle, otherwise $45)
