Wireless prices down in Canada in 2019, but still high internationally: ISED report

Mobile wireless prices are lower or have stayed the same across all service "baskets" compared to last year, but the higher data plan prices remain stubbornly higher than most other countries, a new pricing report shows. The 2019 edition of the annual price comparison report prepared for Innovation, Science, and Economic Development finds that mobile wireless pricing dropped by as much as 9.7 per cent for the highest-usage level 5, which the report categorizes as a shared plan with three phone lines, unlimited nationwide talk and text with 10 to 49 GBs of data per month. The report, prepared by Wall Communications Inc. and released on Thursday, shows prices for level 4 plans, with unlimited talk and text and 5 GBs of data, were essentially flat with a marginal increase of .3 per cent. Meanwhile, prices for level 3 (unlimited with 2 GBs of data), level 2 (1,200 minutes, 300 texts, and 1 GB) and 1 (450 minutes and 300 texts) were down 1.4 per cent, 8.7 per cent, and 4.6 per cent respectively. Prices were lowest, the report found, in the cities of Winnipeg, Montreal, and Regina, consistent with last year's report. Across the country as a whole, prices for incumbent flanker brands -- like Rogers Communications Inc.'s Fido, BCE Inc.'s Virgin, and Telus Corp.'s Koodo -- were 22 to 34 per cent lower than those offered by the primary brands, except for in the highest usage level 5 plans, which were higher by 3 per cent. The regional brands -- Saskatchewan Telecommunication Holding Corp., Bell-MTS, Bragg Communications Inc.'s Eastlink, Shaw Communications Inc.'s Freedom and Quebecor Inc.'s Videotron -- are "significantly" cheaper than the incumbents across all five usage levels, offering prices that were 34, 45, 31, 28 and 12 per cent lower for levels 1 to 5 respectively, the report found. While prices have dropped in the last year, Canada's prices for plans with data are still higher than other countries, when adjusted for purchasing power parity. The Wall report's findings are in line with the findings of a study released in October by Finnish consulting company Rewheel -- that prices are down in Canada, but also everywhere else. The report comes as Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains announced the details of the government's plan to lower mobile wireless prices by some 25 per cent, a central campaign promise of the 2019 Federal election. The report adds in a special section that most of the data was collected in May 2019, before a raft of unlimited data plans hit the market, causing prices to drop throughout the summer. For example, prices for incumbents’ level 4 plans -- unlimited talk and text with 5 GBs of data -- came down nationwide during the summer. For fixed broadband internet, prices were also down across six different baskets, determined according to download speeds. Prices, the report said, were down 11, 7, 22, 17, 19 and 25 per cent, respectively, for baskets 1 through 6. "Over the last five years, Canadian broadband prices have trended downwards," the report said. But the report shows that Canada’s prices for those higher download speed baskets -- from levels 3 to 6 -- were at the high end of the group of surveyed countries, although U.S. prices, when adjusted for purchasing power parity, were higher “in all cases.” — With reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Adam Langenberg at alangenberg@thewirereport.ca

Wireless prices down in Canada in 2019, but still high internationally: ISED report

News | March 5, 2020

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Wireless prices down in Canada in 2019, but still high internationally: ISED report

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