Roland Tanglao's Weblog

Yes, cellphone fees are a r*poff in Canada compared to both the USA and Europe and data fees even more of a ripoff. Go oligopoly go! NOT!

FROM globeandmail.com: High fees prompt Canadians to leave cellphones on hold (article will go behind paywall; Globe and Mail please change this misguided policy.)

QUOTE

The report breaks the market into three categories of users. The high-end business user, who uses 1,200 minutes of voice plus data monthly, pays 150 per cent more than a subscriber in the United States.

The average user, defined as someone using 500 minutes a month, pays a 33-per-cent premium. And the light user, someone who keeps the phone packed away most of the month and spurns add-on features such as voice mail and call display, actually comes out ahead, paying 27 per cent less.

However, Canadians pay more in all three categories when compared with Europeans, the report said.

“Canadians aren't tech laggards, as has been suggested in recent discussions on the country's state of wireless phone competition. Instead, they are rational economic beings. Canadians hesitate to buy cellphones or to hit the send button on a cellphone knowing full well the cost at the end of the month will be breathtaking,” it said.

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Great term, "Resentment-based Pricing"!

From Dean Bubley's Disruptive Wireless: Value-based pricing? No, I don't think so..:

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Resentment-based pricing - you know you're being ripped off hugely, but you "have" to pay as you have no immediate alternative. You grit your teeth, and (hopefully) expense it afterwards. You actively look for a way to avoid the cost, and minimise your usage. You complain to friends & colleagues. You develop "active customer disloyalty" and vow to switch suppliers, out of distaste for their show of customer disrespect, whenever you can. Examples: Hotel WiFi, cellular data roaming.

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I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I read stuff like this!

From Assuring Scarcity.:

QUOTE

SMS and MMS are broken versions of Internet protocols. They love SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) because it looks like a tradition Telco-protocol but users can create sessions directly without a third party SIP server and they can choose other ways to initiate sessions. They like SIP because they think they can maintain a stranglehold over telephone numbers by using their own DNS.

Why Not Abundance

Why not indeed? The report makes it very clear that they acknowledge there can be abundance. It's easy to understand that they fear it but the document seems to be as conspiracy to evade antitrust. There is a tradition of exempting telecommunications companies from such rules so I can't say they are violating the law but they are violating the principles by using their control of the transport to prevent the users from having real choice and opportunity. That might have once made sense when we didn't understand how digital systems worked. They will try to defend their control by shouting "Quality" but as we've seen with VoIP abundance is a far better path to quality both because it gives the user the opportunity to define quality as per their own needs and, more important, if you limit yourself to allotting a scarce resource you can't do better. If you dole out a 64kbps voice path the user can't opt for full multi-channel audio - something most people consider higher quality.

Today we have the Internet as a dramatic example of how to create abundance. And the document acknowledges this! They've done the hard work.

Maybe they are so locked into a narrow view that they are completely unaware of the damage they are doing.

There is no excuse for continuing to accept scarcity and its consequences.

It's the 21st century and we understand that we can have abundant connectivity. Why are we continuing to tolerate scarcity? How can we allow this to go on?

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[NOTE: Since I don't believe in whingeing :-), this will be my last post complaining about high mobile internet rates in Canada. My last post about this was: Wireless data in Canada is ridiculously expensive | Boris is right.]

I am very lucky to have my grandfathered unlimited mobile data plan from Fido of $50. Last month I used 252 MB of traffic (I am guessing about 75% was transmitting N70 cameraphone 2 megapixel photos via Shozu to flickr and 25% transmitting N70 cameraphone videos MPEG 4 of between 1-3MB each via Shozu to roland.blip.tv)

1. 500 KB plan: $5 + 251 * 30 = $7535
2. 5 MB plan: $25 + (252 - 5) * 10 = $2495
3. 25 MB plan: $50 + (252 - 25) * 30 = $6860
4. 50 MB plan: $75 + (252 - 75) * 30 = $5385
5. 100 MB plan: $100 + (252 - 100) * 30 = $4660

I guess the $50 that I pay is a lot cheaper than $2495 or even $7535 that others have to pay, eh :-) ?!?!

Not to mention the fact that you have to pay "4 ¢ per KB while roaming internationally" (which I guess includes the US). I don't have to pay this roaming fee in the US with my grandfathered plan.

Very interesting and very depressing for Canadians who actually want to create and share their mobile phone's photos and videos using the mobile internet i.e. without going through the "mobile phone to PC via Bluetooth or USB" chain of pain. Can somebody do the math for Rogers, Telus and Bell? Love to know if they are any cheaper! But somehow I doubt it!

From Options you can add.:

QUOTE

Mobile Internet options
Within Canada and the U.S.

Combine any of these options
with your monthly package. 		Monthly charge
500 KB 		$5
5 MB 		$25
25 MB 		$50
50 MB 		$75
100 MB 		$100
hiptop option - Unlimited data
hiptop device required 		$20

Note 
	

Data transmission charges of 4¢ per KB apply for downloads. Options also available without a monthly airtime package (except 500 KB option and hiptop option), in which case, a system access fee of $6.95 per month applies.


  $5 per month for 500 KB
Combine this option with your monthly package
500 KB of data transmission
Mobile Internet enabled handset or PC Card required
4 ¢ per KB while roaming internationally
Each additional MB costs $30

Taxes, international mobile Internet roaming charges, system access fee ($6.95), and other applicable charges not included.

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  $25 per month for 5 MB
Each additional MB costs only $10
Mobile Internet enabled handset or PC Card required
You can subscribe to the $25 package alone or you may, except in the case of a hiptop or world PC Card, add it to a monthly airtime package.
4 ¢ per KB while roaming internationally

Taxes, international mobile Internet roaming charges, system access fee ($6.95), and other applicable charges not included.

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  $50 per month for 25 MB
Mobile Internet enabled handset or PC Card required
You can subscribe to the $50 package alone or you may, except in the case of a PC Card, add it to a monthly airtime package.
4 ¢ per KB while roaming internationally
Each additional KB costs 3 ¢

Taxes, international mobile Internet roaming charges, system access fee ($6.95), and other applicable charges not included.

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  $75 per month for 50 MB
Mobile Internet enabled handset or PC Card required
You can subscribe to the $75 package alone or you may, except in the case of a PC Card, add it to a monthly airtime package.
4 ¢ per KB while roaming internationally
Each additional KB costs 3 ¢

Taxes, international mobile Internet roaming charges, system access fee ($6.95), and other applicable charges not included.

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  $100 per month for 100 MB
Mobile Internet enabled handset or PC Card required
You can subscribe to the $100 package alone or you may, except in the case of a PC Card, add it to a monthly airtime package.
4 ¢ per KB while roaming internationally
Each additional KB costs 3 ¢

Taxes, international mobile Internet roaming charges, system access fee ($6.95), and other applicable charges not included.

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  hiptop option - $20 per month
Unlimited data
To surf, chat, manage your e-mail, stay organized, take pictures and download.
hiptop device required

Available with the hiptop device only; must be combined with a monthly airtime package. The Unlimited data hiptop option does not include text messages and is subject to certain restrictions. Taxes, international GPRS roaming charges, system access fee ($6.95), and other applicable charges not included.

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UNQUOTE

Yup, real broadband to the home (and mobile too) is what's really needed to really make the net take off. And by real I mean 10 Mb/s bidirectional and up. Unfortunately I doubt we'll get it from the cableco and telco oligopoly here in Canada. More likely ths kind of bandwidth will come from something out of left field like Spanish upstart Fon.

From Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed: The Broadband Bandwidth Boondoggle.:

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Paul's Rule of New Technology: Unless you offer a ten-fold improvement in performance along some meaningful dimension, most users of your technology won't notice the performance increase. Rolling up from 1.5Mbps to 6Mbps fails that test, even if it does offer broadband providers an opportunity to charge you more.

Real world-changing differences in broadband will require (mostly) two things:

1. A 10x increase in bandwidth. In other words, jump me to 15 Mbps or 30Mbps from 1.5Mbps; don't take me to 6Mbps.
2. A symmetric pipe. Most of what's interesting, at least to me, requires far more than the current throttled-to-death outbound pipe. The idea that in some near broadband future I'm getting, say, 15Mbps in, but still dawdling along with 640kbps out, does diddly for me.

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