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.
This is why I switched to Freedom Mobile after Public Mobile killed their old rewards system.
What an incredible kick in the head.
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.
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.
Canadians need to hold these greedy companies accountable by switching to Freedom, Fizz, Sasktel, Lum Mobile and Cooptel.
How is https://www.eastlink.ca/ ? I’m looking for an option in New Brunswick.
I’m not so sure about the eastern market.
I’ve got family in Newfoundland that have been with them for years. I’ve never heard any complaints, but none of them are tech people and none of them spend much time online at all so it’s not the best sample group. When I visit I don’t have any connection issues and speeds are generally pretty good, for what it’s worth.
ooo I thought Freedom was owned by the monopoly, but it was bought by Quebecor in 2022.
Thanks for the list!
these guys are not better lol, québecor runs quebec’s big right wing news network (JdeM, JdeQ, TVA, LCN and many others), they’re the murdoch/bolloré of quebec
in telecom, they also own fizz, vidéotron and vmedia. honestly i consider them part of the oligopoly with the others.
Of course.
I think I should just not use a phone, and just get a small tablet and communicate with signal and email all the time.
Happy to help!
I forgot to mention Sogetel, they are a smaller mobile telecom company based in Quebec.
100% otherwise you’ll end up with Verizon. If the US can contribute anything to the conversation it’s to serve as a cautionary tale.
Are any of those in Nova Scotia? If so, I can’t.
I can technically do Eastlink… and there’s one other I can’t talk about yet that I know is coming soon.
Are any of those in Nova Scotia? If so, I can’t.
There is freedom coverage there.
On a sidenote I always see you being cynical about switching to smaller alternatives.
I got in on the 250gb worldwide plan for $40 with freedom, gone well so far and they have similar value deals pop up all the time.
Now home Internet is the problem, only have shaw and telus as options.
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The Bell and Rogers fees are obviously bogus; they were never needed before and nothing has changed other than their decision to charge the fee.
The Telus one is intriguing, as most phones sold today don’t actually need a SIM card. If they offer eSIM service as part of the activation and separately charge if you want a physical SIM card for some reason, that actually makes sense as it costs them more.
Telus’s SIM fee includes eSIMs:
For example, an argument could be made that with the proliferation of eSIM technology, physical SIM cards could be an optional purchase, as most phones no longer need a physical card. However, that would leave people with older devices in a lurch — and that’s not even getting into the fact that Telus charges $15 for both physical SIMs and eSIMs.
I believe Public Mobile charges $5 every time you change phones with your e-sim registration.
So we’re back to CDMA ESN times?
It was only a matter of time before eSIM turned back into bogus fees for the providers.
The only benefit I see to eSIM is a thief can’t take it out easily. Everything else seems like dealing with ESNs again.
This is the one I’m currently with, but I guess if I have to update my phone, I may need to see what Eastlink offers in my area, or the newer one I know of that’s supposed to be coming soon…
