7.22.2008

cellphone shakeup

cellphone carriers rogers, bell and telus dominate the canadian cellphone market. for years, the lack of competition has allowed the big three to do pretty much whatever they wanted. not only do you get higher fees, but you get poor customer service and ridiculous add-on service charges that seem to punish long time clients in favor of new users.

the federal government just had an auction for new bandwidth, setting aside 40% strictly for new carriers. the other 60% was pretty much bought up by the big three. the results come as a shock. now i ask you... how does this come as a shock? of course the big three will buy out most of the bandwidth. they have the money, and it is in their interest to stay dominant. the only thing preventing this new strategy to introduce new competition and lower prices from being yet another federal fuck up, was the setting aside of that 40% for new carriers. hopefully that will be enough. canadians are way too polite when it comes to crappy service and expensive fees. it's time something changed.