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