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The State of Wireless in Canada Sucks

Posted by Rob Lewis on Fri, February 29, 2008 12:03 PM · Filed under Mobile , Wireless · 7 Comments

Thomas Purves of WirelessNorth.ca did an Ignite presentation titled The State of Wireless in Canada Sucks earlier this week at DemoCampToronto17 and received a standing ovation. I can see why.

The idea behind Purves' presentation was born last April when he posted a mobile data rate comparison bar chart on his personal blog comparing Canadian rates to those in other countries. The rates of Telus, Bell, Fido, and Rogers tower above similiar packages from Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the US, and Rwanda. This chart ignited a discussion on his blog 148 comments strong and elicited over 1,600 Diggs.

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7 Comments

Michael Parkatti said on Fri, February 29, 2008 at 1:59 PM

Holy crap... thanks for posting this, but I can't help but want to tear out my eyeballs after reading it. I knew we were getting screwed, but this is ludicrous. They can claim to be overextended because they have a lot of country to cover, higher expense base, etc etc... but at the end of the day, this is a major competitive disadvantage for our entire country.

The general population really wouldn't understand the problem, though, so how do we make enough noise to get noticed?

Todd Sieling said on Sun, March 2, 2008 at 9:03 AM

It's too bad that RIM has bent over backwards to every whim of the carriers. With the iPhone deal, Apple at least fights for a much better customer experience by requiring an affordable unlimited data plan, unlike RIM which willingly disables features to keep us in the wireless ghetto.

Tony said on Mon, March 3, 2008 at 8:14 AM

I was at DemoCamp17 and this was an absolutely amazing ignite presentation. I know the event was recorded on video as well, does anyone know if there's a copy of that available somewhere?

Thomas Purves said on Mon, March 3, 2008 at 10:51 AM

Thanks for the kind words Tony. There is video, it will be posted at some point soon I hope.

iPhone in Canada: The Waiting Game said on Fri, April 18, 2008 at 3:27 PM

[...] month buys you unlimited data, Rogers asks $65 a month for 1 GB of data. It’s well known that the state of wireless in Canada sucks, and the Canadian wireless cartel seems content to drag its knuckles on innovation while [...]

Bovey King said on Mon, May 12, 2008 at 9:14 AM

Why the rate from Bell Canada so cheap? only $7 per month with any existing voice plan for unlimited web.

I moved from Oregon to Alberta last October and found the rate is the best in whole world.

I enjoy its service for almost half year now. Usually I have lot of snapshots and live video in my cell phone for my home monitoring service. I really only paid on $7 for internet connection in the past half year.

Why complains if you can get such a good deal in Canada.

Norm said on Thu, September 17, 2009 at 4:37 PM

If you are called by Bell`s sales Department trying to sell you a better internet deal, Never agree to it unless they can send it to you in writing…..

It`s a Scam !!!!!!!!!

I`ve been fighting with these Bastards for over a year now, Calls are always re-routed to countries where people have no fucken clue where Canada even is, much less about anything else you are asking them. Bell`s game is that most people will get tired of waiting & being given the run around and passed from 1 agent to another, so they end up paying the Inflated bills.

Every time you take a service from Bell, they will tell you .…this is a Contract.

But along the way they will scam you by Adding hidden or inflated fees to your bill, that is Ok to them when the higher fees are in their favour. I was sold a service at a set price, but never had 2 bills come in with the same amounts on them. U can spend Hours trying to rectify the problems, but the idiots pretend they have no clue about what you are saying, even if you called them the month before, they lost all records of it.

Bell are among the worse fucken crooks there is out there, BEWARE !

Keep all your pass statements, cuz if you don`t they will rip you off even more.

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