A Canadian Cell Phone User Gets A $85,000 Bill
Monday December 17, 2007
Telecommunication companies have a tendency to play with words and one of their favorite tricks is to sell "unlimited" data packages. But the fine print is that, yes, it is unlimited in time, but no, it is not unlimited in data. You are actually charged a per-kilobyte fee.
A Canadian Bell Mobility subscriber just learned this the hard way after hooking up his laptop to his cell phone and going on an Internet navigation spree! The bill? $85,000, which Bell is willing to lower to $3,243, "as a measure of goodwill."
Goodwill? Ha ha ha. Bell has a good sense of humor, especially considering that its U.S. counterparts, Sprint and Verizon, offer true unlimited data for under $100 per month, nothing more.
For more on wireless data plans, see my wireless data section.
Comments
I find many of the news commentaries on the cellular industry fascinatingly void of real facts. Keep in mind these are my own opinions and findings, I am not using any information that is not available to the general public. First of all lets do an apple to apple comparison:
MAJOR IMPORTANT FACT # 1
POPULATION: Everyone knows that the more people who buy any product creates a lower price.
Canada’s population (Jul 2007): 33,390,141
U.S.A.’s population to whom we are often compared to (Jul 2007): 301,139,947
State of California alone: 36,457,549 HIGHER THAN ALL OF CANADA
Other countries/continents or colonies we are often compared to:
Japan’s population (Jul 2007): 127,433,494
China’s population (Jul 2007) : 1,321,851,888
or Europen countries like -
France’s population (Jul 2007) : 63,713,926
With this information alone, there are 10 times the amount of people in the United States (the most equal country for comparison… I will make this point later) making it very easy for any company to sell a service much cheaper and still earn a great return.
MAJOR IMPORTANT FACT # 2
LAND MASS (Size of Country): Land mass is also of great importance. Most of the countries that are used in comparisons in regards to cellular rates are far smaller than Canada with far more people. Obviously (with cellular networks) this is of great importance as it relates to how many multi-thousand dollar or million dollar cell sites they will have to put up to provide cellular coverage to the masses. Population centralization is also important. In a large city you can cover way more customers with one cell site than in a rural area. Again, Canada’s population is spread far thinner than ANY country we are compared to in relation to cellular rates. In other words, with 10 times less customers (compared to the United States) and a population that is spread much thinner, we are somehow expected to compete.
Canada is approx.: 9,984,670 sq km
The United States is approx.: 9,826,630 sq km
Other countries/continents or colonies we are often compared to:
Japan is approx.: 377,835 sq km
China is approx.: 9,596,960 sq km
or Europen countries like -
France is approx.: 643,427 sq km
Again, the concentration of people and the size of the country go hand in hand as it pertains to costs etc. for the cellular companies to provide the infrastructure to cover their customers.
MAJOR IMPORTANT FACT # 3
Economy Factors: The economy has a drastic effect on this as well. The average rate of pay of the people who purchase these products would have a great deal to do with what they are able to afford for the service. If I make $10/hour on average in one country, but only 50cents/hour on average in another this would drastically effect the amount I could invest in this technology. Although I could put a lot of data here, I do not want to sound like I am putting down other countries, so I will not elaborate on this point. Although again this is a major fact, it is the minor of the three listed.
All I am trying to get at is, we live in Canada. Not the U.S., not Europe, not China and I could go on and on. We have unique factors surrounding both the make up and diversity of our great country. When it comes to comparisons it is simple, there isn’t any. Not because we are better, but just like all of the others, we are unique. Putting common sense into practice, you can easily see that our desire to see rates like the U.S. is not only an unfair expectation, but unreasonable. We are not the United States. I am not advocating for any cellular network in particular, but for all. I think Bell, Rogers and Telus have all spent millions upon millions of dollars creating their networks. I know they all have problem areas, I have sold for all three of them at one time or another. I just want people to think a little deeper about these issues then just thinking about their pocket book and wanting things in an unreasonable way. (Example, we pay more for a car than in many other countries, but we don’t rant and rave at the car dealers to lower the prices.) We pay sometimes double or triple for other items without giving it a second thought, yet for some reason we believe a cellular service should be different. As the technology is around longer, like any other country, it becomes cheaper.
Just my thoughts, what are yours?
tmobile has unlimted data for 19.99 month