Wireless prices drop slightly as Ottawa pushes carriers to slash rates by 25 per cent

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Newly released data show that prices have come down slightly for some wireless plans amid a Liberal government push to get Canada’s national carriers to slash their rates by 25 per cent.

But consumer advocates say they are concerned that some of the plans offering smaller bundles of data have been discontinued, leading to less choice for consumers.

Ottawa is asking BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. to lower the prices of their unlimited talk-and-text plans offering two gigabytes, four gigabytes and six gigabytes of data within two years, or face regulatory actions.

On Thursday, Ottawa published its second quarterly report tracking those plans, which includes data from January to September of this year. The report – which tracks only the plans offered by the national carriers' three mid-tier, or “flanker” brands, Fido (Rogers), Koodo (Telus) and Virgin (Bell) – also included data on three- and five-gigabyte plans.

The report shows that prices for the two-, four- and six-gigabyte plans have fallen by 10 per cent, 9 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively, in all provinces except Quebec, where wireless prices are below the national average. (In that province, Fido, Koodo and Virgin have already exceeded Ottawa’s national target price of $37.50 for two-gigabyte plans, offering them for $35 back in January.)

However, some of the plans being tracked are no longer advertised by the carriers. Bell’s Virgin and Rogers’s Fido were not marketing four-gigabyte plans, for which Ottawa has set a target of $41.25, in September. (Telus’s Koodo continued to advertise one, for $50 a month – down from the January benchmark price of $55.)

Five-gigabyte plans, which were advertised by all three brands at the start of the year, have not been advertised on any of the carriers' websites since the summer.

“I think that’s really discouraging,” said Laura Tribe, executive director of OpenMedia, an organization advocating for widespread inexpensive internet access.

“We’re actually seeing plans disappear.”

John Lawford, executive director at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, a consumer-advocacy group, said such a move may be designed to encourage customers to upgrade to what are known as unlimited plans, which eliminate “overage” fees and instead throttle customers' speeds when they hit a data threshold.

“I suspect it’s to move people from the lower end of the market to try to make them spend more on cellphone [services] in general,” Mr. Lawford said.

Navdeep Bains, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, said the government is optimistic that the carriers will reach the desired 25-per-cent reduction. “We have begun to see progress in these efforts, and we expect these positive trends will continue," Mr. Bains said in a statement Thursday.

Telus spokesperson Richard Gilhooley said the company is pleased that the data “demonstrate that costs are declining for consumers and have been for some time.”

Marc Choma, a spokesperson for BCE’s Bell Canada, said the company offers a range of plans across its Bell, Virgin and Lucky Mobile brands, including a six-gigabyte plan for $45 that meets Ottawa’s target.

“The new report shows significant progress on the industry’s work toward meeting federal targets in a highly competitive marketplace,” Mr. Choma said.

Rogers also highlighted its discount brand, Chatr, which isn’t included in the government’s report but already meets the target, and said its Fido brand currently offers two-gigabyte, four-gigabyte and six-gigabyte plans for $5 below the January benchmarks, according to spokesperson Andrew Garas. He added that the company will “continue to evolve our services to deliver more affordability, value and choice to meet the needs of Canadians.”

However, a spokesperson for Mr. Bains said Ottawa’s benchmarks are based on 4G-LTE plans, rather than on the offerings from discount brands. “Offering two-to-six-GB plans on 3G technology, which is what the major providers' discount brands typically offer, is not comparable and therefore is not considered to have met the target,” John Power said in an e-mail.

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