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Rogers, Bell, Telus tell CRTC they'll keep charging new fees (mobilesyrup.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/canada@lemmy.ca
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[–] 23 points 4 months ago (7 children)

Reminder:

I used to work on pricing at one of Canada's Big 3 telecom companies.

Freedom Mobile was our biggest headache. They were the only player consistently forcing us to lower prices.

A lot of the "great deals" and winback offers people are seeing right now from Big3?
They exist because Freedom is pushing the market down.

If everyone jumps back to the Big 3 for short-term deals, competition weakens and prices will creep back up again. We've seen it happen before.

So yeah, take the deal if you want.
But if you care about long-term competition in Canada, sticking with Freedom actually matters.

Just some perspective from behind the curtain.

https://www.reddit.com/r/freedommobile/comments/1s627n7/i_worked_in_pricing_at_a_big_3_telecom_freedom/___

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  • [–] [S] 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    This is why I switched to Freedom Mobile after Public Mobile killed their old rewards system.

    What an incredible kick in the head.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago

    I switched to Freedom as well and I live in an area (SW Ontario right off the 401 between KW and London) where Freedom only has towers right near the highway which means I am on their "Nationwide" coverage frequently and constantly switching between Freedom, Nationwide on Bell/Telus (they share a network in this area), and Nationwide on Rogers when Bell/Telus is not available.

    The fact that Bell, Telus, and Rogers don't allow Freedom to offer 5G roaming yet is problematic since they have all refarmed spectrum to offer 5G and 5G+ meaning their LTE coverage has degraded. This means Nationwide is occasionally very poor quality for those who need it. That said, I'd rather be part of forcing their hand to be better and save money while at it than have perfect coverage on every country highway (Telus/Bell were far far far from perfect here too hahah - Rogers is the undisputed coverage leader in this neck of the woods but I won't give them my money)

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

    Freedom Mobile uses GoDaddy domain if that helps you decide their ethics at all.

    Something that bothers me about Eastlink, is when its owner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bragg_(businessman)

    who owns the biggest multinational blueberry company, Oxford Frozen Foods, was giving a $38 million loan by the NB Conservative Premier at the time, David Alward, instead of investing in the multiple existing blueberries farms already existing, and using Crown Land to do so.

    https://nbmediacoop.org/2014/03/22/private-blueberry-patch-on-public-land-irks-northern-new-brunswickers/

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  • [–] [S] 7 points 4 months ago

    Fido was originally founded back in 1996 as Microcell Solutions Inc. After just a few years of service, they garnered a positive reputation among Canadians. They were the first to introduce GSM technology to Canada. Before then, it was only ever used in Europe. On top of that, they also introduced a unique pricing approach. Their competitive prices, money-back guarantees and dedication to customer service stood out in the late 1990s. While the rest of the industry seemed expensive and serious, Fido stuck out as approachable and affordable. Of course, they also grew popular due to their creative advertisements. Their yellow doghouse logo and commercials featuring adorable dogs quickly became iconic. At this point, does Rogers own Fido? Not yet.

    Fido continued to grow in popularity and had acquired a million plus customers before getting Rogers’ attention in 2004. Rogers was their largest GSM competitor, and wanted a monopoly over the technology. So, they purchased Microcell for almost $1.5 billion. ‘Fido’ which was the brand under which Microcell operated in the market now became the name of the company and all their customers now “belonged” to Rogers.

    https://www.planhub.ca/blog/en/is-fido-owned-by-rogers/

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  • [–] [S] 7 points 4 months ago

    This is what I’m worried about when Costco reduces their corporate revenue share from the memberships by increasing their bulk buying power and private labels options. As it’s likely the factor that’s keeping the management in check, it’s kinda of cooperative where the members determine whether or not to reward the leadership running the company. But I suppose it’s inevitable since public companies always get ruined for the costumer eventually.

    We gotta have a Canadian warehouse wholesale competitor when the day comes.

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