Mobile Rates Going Up Due to 2 Year Plan Changes

[edslunch]

While it seems now that Verizon may not have been that serious, where are the other US carriers in this? Why wouldn't they at least be kicking the tires?

[Jude]

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by edslunch

While it seems now that Verizon may not have been that serious, where are the other US carriers in this? Why wouldn't they at least be kicking the tires?

AT&T is supposedly interested in buying out one of the big European telecoms, Sprint just got bought by Softbank and is years behind Canada in network speed; never mind Verizon, and T-Mobile is a struggling #4 that's just now reversing years of decline.

[rd_aaron]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

Which is exactly what we don't want. If you want Wind to build a national network with the 700 block you'd want them to get two blocks and not just one. Verizon would definitely have had the capital to do that, I'm not sure Wind will. If they don't get enough spectrum Wind will get stuck as a third rate provider or stuck with fairly limited bandwidth with high network congestion.

Will Wind be able to go LTE with the new 700 MHz block?

[Azure]

That is the point of the whole auction. All the carriers will be doing LTE over 700mhz.

[OldDutch]

Bell US Roaming packages chopped in half.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bell...y-50-1.1855781

Not to be a cynic, but kind of funny this is happening right after the Big 3 angered the gov't with their woe is me ads, and in turn the gov't is investigating them for obscene roaming rates in the US. Possibly a strategic move to preempt another gov't smack down?

Oh, but you heard consumers loud and clear didn't you Bell.

[Azure]

An obvious response to the government investigating roaming rates.

[Jimmy Stang]

And those roaming rates are still pretty bad. 1.6 megabytes per day? 1:40 of airtime per day? All for the "bargain" of $25!

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

And those roaming rates are still pretty bad. 1.6 megabytes per day? 1:40 of airtime per day? All for the "bargain" of $25!

Ya, it makes no sense to buy this package if you are in the US more than a few days.

I think ATT is $40/month and you get 200MB, heck even $60 gets you 2GB.

So for $25 you get 50Mb, and for another $20 you get a 100MB top up. So for a total of $45 you get 50Mb less and have to spend $5 more.

And that is with one of the most expensive carriers in the US. If you use T-mobile you would save a bunch more.

Even at 50% off it still is not worth it.

[ken0042]

I think what is really telling is now that Bell will be offering 100 MB for $20; that means they are still able to turn a profit re-selling US data for 20¢ per MB. So when they open their books to the CRTC, it will show that the regular $6 per MB they were charging will be almost criminal.

I actually think the Big 3 have been shooting themselves in the foot with what they charge. If they were to charge something like 50¢ per MB on a pay-per-use basis; I likely would have left data roaming on during any of my 1-3 day trips to the US. That means they would have made $5-10 per trip from me; instead of zero.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by ken0042

I actually think the Big 3 have been shooting themselves in the foot with what they charge. If they were to charge something like 50¢ per MB on a pay-per-use basis; I likely would have left data roaming on during any of my 1-3 day trips to the US. That means they would have made $5-10 per trip from me; instead of zero.

This is bang on. If the price were reasonable, more people would be inclined to use it, and they'd actually make some money off of travelers. Instead, people have been conditioned to avoid roaming all together because of the absurd prices, leaving money on the table. Make roaming useful and affordable to the average traveler and people would actually use it.

Of course, they'd rather make $5000 off of some kid streaming Netflix on his Dad's phone while on vacation in Mexico than $10 off of 500 people. Just shows how out of touch with their customers the big three really are.

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

More news on the regulatory front. CRTC is now investigating Robellus roaming rates and agreements. Hopefully prices continue to drop.
http://mobilesyrup.com/2013/08/31/cr...nd-agreements/

Followup. After the CRTC announced intentions to investigate roaming rates and demanded Robellus produce all revenues generated via roaming and details of all roaming agreements from 2007 to 2012, the big three seems to have started sweating bullets. Bell is the first carrier to cave and have dropped their roaming rates an astounding 50% overnight.

It's amazing that they can drop their rates so quickly and is just another clear example of how badly Canadians are getting raped on their mobile service charges. I'm hoping the CRTC starts launching more investigations and the upcoming auction is won by Wind.
http://mobilesyrup.com/2013/09/16/be...y-50-tomorrow/

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

Followup. After the CRTC announced intentions to investigate roaming rates and demanded Robellus produce all revenues generated via roaming and details of all roaming agreements from 2007 to 2012, the big three seems to have started sweating bullets. Bell is the first carrier to cave and have dropped their roaming rates an astounding 50% overnight.

It's amazing that they can drop their rates so quickly and is just another clear example of how badly Canadians are getting raped on their mobile service charges. I'm hoping the CRTC starts launching more investigations and the upcoming auction is won by Wind.
http://mobilesyrup.com/2013/09/16/be...y-50-tomorrow/

It's not that they just dropped the rates so quickly but quickly dropped them a whopping 50% which goes to show how much profit they were actually making before and the probability they are still makine money hand over fist after cutting prices in half. Pretty sad state of affairs but expected when you have collusion between the providers.