Edward Greenspan Also Questions if There is Competition in Cell Phone Services

The pressure continues to mount on Big Telcos to become more serious about competition – particularly with each other and comparatively with other countries. Rogers, Bell and Telus dominate the Canadian marketplace and are hardly rushing to reduce wireless rates in Canada that would bring them more in line with other countries.


Now Edward Greenspan, writing in his Sun newspaper column is now on the bandwagon to question what is happening here. Wireless is unregulated in Canada but with only three providers who dominate the market the consumer is not being well served by the “normal” market forces.

We are not alone in being taken for granted by a market dominated by a few service providers. Mexico suffers as well.
Wireless service is a commodity where competition should work well but is it not. One has to wonder why. One answer is consumers are not protesting to providers about costs and service levels. From the supplier side, if the market will bear the cost, why lower prices? Could it be that Pogo was right? We have seen the enemy and it is us?

If new providers are coming on to the market from the recent spectrum auction, we consumers have to support them if they are to inject some competition and restore a free marketplace.


Then we have to ensure the Competition Bureau monitors matters carefully so they do not get bought up by the Big Three as has been the history of Canadian wireless services.

Leonard Cohen International Festival Gala is a HIT!

I did a note on my Facebook page on a thoroughly delightful evening last night listening to great talent sing and read from Leonard Cohen's works. The event was the Edmonton version of the Leonard Cohen International Festival currently going on in town.

Yesterday was my second anniversary as a Blogger. While this post is not my usual "Fare" anyone who knows me will understand why I would post this Facebook Note about last night's wonderful event.

I watched the Edmonton staging of the Rexall Indy race on television in the afternoon and basked in the words and music of Cohen in the evening. Two of my great interests fulfilled on the same day, open car racing and music/poetry.

Check out my "review."

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Is Big Telco Taking Canadians for Granted?

The expectation is that we lowly consumers will start to get some price and service competition in the wireless services in Canada with the auction of the new spectrum and assuring some competition for the big three, Bell, Rogers and Telus who now receive 95% of cell phone revenues in Canada. The little guys have sure run up the bidding war for the spectrum licenses to $4.25 B - over three times the anticipated revenues. As much as I like to rag on the Harper government, if what I hear is true that they plan to apply this windfall to pay down part of the national debt – I say good on ‘em.


Big Telco has come under fire recently for prices that are usury. The Rogers small reduction in iPhone rates shows a modicum of marketplace responsiveness. The plan by Bell and Telus to charge $.15 per text message received, much of which is spam, is really offensive. The cell phone costs in Canada are ridiculous to the point it makes you wonder if there really is a competitive market in this service. I can get Internet and bundled services on the same wireless system for like $55 a month but some basic cell phone charges can run to $150 per month. What gives? And they wonder why Canada is lagging behind other countries in adopting of cell phones.

A friend just came back from a month in Austria, Hungry and Czechoslovakia! In the Czech Republic, some 20 years out of Communism, she could buy a cell phone for $20 and an unlimited access card for $20 per month. She used her Canadian cell phone service provider for the month instead and she expects about a $2,000 roaming bill. The service levels and costs are not competitive with other countries either. Canadian bandwidth comparables are 7.8 megabytes per second at a monthly cost of $6.54 per megabyte, better than Belgium, Netherlands and Iceland. In Japan you can get Bandwidth at 93.7 Mb/s at a cost of $.36 per Mb/second. France and South Korea provide Bandwidth at about 45 Mb/s at a cost between $.84 and $.97 per Mb/second. Astounding compared to Canada


The other high bandwidth low cost wireless service countries are Sweden, Finland, Australia and Norway. I don’t understand why Canadians are paying such uncompetitive wireless prices for such low levels of service and options. This is an individual rip off and a global competitiveness issue for Canada too. In a wired, globalized competitive knowledge based economy low taxes are nice but low costs are critical factors too.

So the Big Three in Canada used to be in the North American auto industry players of GM, Ford and Chrysler. No more are they dominant. IN fact they are barely surviving. Why? Because Japan, South Korea and Sweden – to name a few car making competitors, ate their lunch. I am all for the free market place where appropriate. Wireless service is one of those appropriate places. But the seeds of failure are planted in the success of the dominant players. It happened in cars and it can happen in cellular services too. Big Telco in Canada is clearly not as competitive as the free market players would have you believe. Nor are they as competitive as we consumers deserve.

I am not saying there is anything illegal going on like price fixing or collusion as in Quebec gasoline prices. I am saying Canadian wireless consumers are being taken for granted and we seem to be taking it gladly by not standing up against usury pricing when compared to others in the world.

I am pulling for the new players coming into the wireless spectrum and looking for options. I expect many more Canadians are with me in this quest.

Dave Taylor Announces as a Liberal Leadership Hopeful Tomorrow?

Looks like Dave Taylor, Calgary Currie MLA and Deputy Leader, is going to be the first out of the Alberta Liberal leadership chute. He has an announcement scheduled for tomorrow morning. What do you think he is up to? What do you think he is going to say?


I wonder what his campaign theme will be. Let me think. How about change? That’s it. Let’s propose change as a reason for Albertans to believe. Everyone ran on change in the last election and Stelmach actually won on it. So, it clearly works. Besides people are used to the change slogans so we don’t have to spend (waste) money on focus groups. All we have to do is smile, shake hands, kiss babies and presume it still turns the citizen's crank. Come to think of it, as a campaign slogan, it may even turn up a few citizen cranks.


Yah, that's the winning ticket...change. Key message: "I'm an Alberta Liberal. Why not vote for me for a change?" That was the Liberal approach to the Alberta voter in the last election, and it produced surprising results I must say.


I am on the edge of my seat in anticipation of tomorrow's announcement. Let see if this postulate Premier learned any lessons from last March. I actually hope for much more than change but would not be surprised at less either. Either way, if Dave Taylor is in, I applaud him for taking the leap and wish him well.

Dallaire Takes on Harper Over Khadr's GITMO Detention

There is a need for serious political engagement on the Omar Khadr case by Canada with the Americans. There is also a serious political engagement emerging within Canada between Prime Minister Harper and Senator Romeo Dallaire.

Harper ‘s position is the Khadr case is an American justice issue and not a political concern about a Canadian citizen and child soldier. Given the political lens that Harper uses to see the world he comes off like an appeaser of the Bush White House. Our Prime Minister and the last two Liberal Prime Ministers all seem indifferent to the plight of tortured Canadian citizens like Arar and Khadr who are just so much collateral damage in keeping Bush and Cheney happy.

We are in a defining moment for Canada domestically and internationally because of how we engage politically protect and treat our citizens who get caught up in the consequences of new terrorist threats. In a fight for the moral and political high ground between Stephen Harper and Romeo Dallaire on these issues, my money is on Dallier.

He has “Shaken Hands with the Devil” in the Rwanda genocide. Now he must feel he is shaking his fist at a new devil in the Bush/Cheney GITMO now too.