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Industry Minister Paradis on Canadian Wireless Prices: We’re “Middle Average”

Industry Minister Christian Paradis appeared before the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology last week and was asked what he thought Canadians would say about wireless pricing. Paradis instead indicated what he would tell them:

I would tell them that when we compare with our peers, we are in the middle-average, we dropped down by almost 20% and this is a work in progress. We will continue. We are dedicated to have a fourth player and we will do whatever we can in terms of policy to achieve this. Frankly, so far time gave us reason.

If this is a work-in-progress, is the government prepared to do more?  Apparently it is, as Paradis also told the committee:

When you talk about the roaming and the tower sharing, we announced broader measures, and if we have to intervene more we will.  

9 Comments

  1. Crockett says:

    Middle average?!yst radiating
    That sounds like something polite you would say to someone when you don’t want to hurt their feelings …

  2. Nerd Fuzz says:

    Brought to you by…
    The Department of Redundancy Department.

  3. Ray Saintonge says:

    A “work in progress” is a convenient euphemism for no work in progress.

  4. Sounds familiar
    Hmm.. A member of Parliament asked what Canadians would think about something, and he responds with:

    “I would tell them…”

    Another member of Parliament not listening to Canadians.

  5. just passing through... says:

    Here we go again…
    So this comment tells us what; that our government officials are delusional or on the take?

  6. Honesty is important
    For example, Openmedia recently claimed you could get 4 phones in Portugal for the price of one in Canada. Unfortunately for them, over 36 months the total cost of ownership of a new Galaxy S4 is only 3.7% cheaper in Portugal than Canada for like packages. If you want to make headway in this debate, demanding honesty is as important as demanding choice.

    That means being honest about the actual cost of packages/phones/etc everywhere and what you’re getting for them.
    Middle average sounds about right for Canada on most things.

  7. @crossmr

    I couldn’t agree more. The folks at OpenMedia are very inexperienced lobbyists and continue to discredit themselves by using very old or incomplete data to support their positions. They are banking on the fact that most Canadians are too lazy to invest any time to verify their price comparison claims. Kudos to you for doing your homework instead of just propagating their rhetoric!

  8. It’s not just old or incomplete data. It’s blatantly misleading data. For example, their basis for the claim that you can get 4 phones for the price of one in Canada is ARPU. ARPU is a meaningless number, it represents nothing other than an average but makes no allowances for type of service, hardware, etc. It says nothing at all about the actual cost of like devices and services between companies/countries/etc
    Yet OpenMedia hangs their hat on it like it’s the cost of a phone.

    Michael Geist is someone I respect, but if he continues to promote OpenMedia, I can’t see that respect continuing.

  9. It looks like Minister Paradis is also backpeddling on the international price rankings. He can’t jepardize his credibility by making claims about pricing that aren’t supported by legitimate and current studies.

    On the other hand, OpenMedia has gone so far out on a limb with balatantly wrong pricing claims that they can’t back out – and now they have to live with the dubious reputation they have created for themselves. Sucks to be them …