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Report Finds Canadian Wireless Firms Tops on Profit, Low on Penetration

The CBC reports on a new study from Bank of America Merrill Lynch has an eye-opening rankings for Canada’s major wireless providers.  The report finds that the Big 3 of Bell, Rogers, and Telus control 95% of the market, have the highest profit margin in the developed world and the lowest penetration.  Canadian carriers lead all 50 nations in highest average revenue per user despite below average data usage.

6 Comments

  1. Andrew Butash says:

    No surprise there
    Ha, I didn’t need this study to tell me that. This comes as no surprise to me whatsoever. One of my random daydreams is actually verbally berating cell phone sales people if they approach me on the street trying to sell me a contract. Unfortunately, it seems I’d actually have to brave one of their stores to act out this particular fantasy, and I have no desire to do so.

  2. Gary Walsh says:

    Price comparison
    After reading this, I decided to look at what European subscribers are paying for data. Fido will sell me 500MB for $25/mo while Vodafone in the UK offers their subscribers 500MB for £5, about $8 Canadian. Quite a difference!

  3. Darryl Moore says:

    Price comparison – Hell yeah
    I just surfed to http://shop.vodafone.co.uk to do a little comparison too.

    I got a Samsung Galaxy S phone (Top of the line which Bell will offer in the fall) with a great plan

    35GBP (55 CDN$)
    2 year contract
    free phone
    900 minutes
    1GB data
    unlimited text
    per second billing
    caller id

    For the same price here rogers, telus and bell all have the same package for:

    $50/month
    3 year contract
    $80-$150 for similar quality phone (definately not free!)
    100 minutes
    500 MB data
    no free text
    per minute billing
    no caller id

    An equivalent plan here from Telus would cost $140
    $65 base voice and data plan (200min + 1GB data)
    $30 extra 300 minutes
    $30 extra another $300 minutes giving a total of 800 minutes (close enough??)
    $15 for unlimited text and caller id

    That is almost 3 times the cost!!!!!! OUCH!

  4. Price comparison
    @Gary Walsh

    If you saw what kind of rates are available in Africa, you would cry. e.g., in Kenya you can buy a new phone for $20 to $40 CDN and 1000 minutes airtime for $12 CDN.

    We are truly being fleeced. Appropriate for us sheep I suppose.

  5. Well…
    …this is what happens when you set up a oligopoly. The big players can do whatever the hell they want.

  6. Steve Ball says:

    This isn’t news