Trying to negotiate the world of mobile communications technology these days is like trying to kick a field goal when somebody's moving the goal posts all the time and changing the rules during the game. The combination of choosing the right handset and the right carrier plus keeping the monthly bill down to a king's ransom requires research. I like my monthly phone bills to be well under $100 and I don't like surprises. But many of my friends have regular bills well over $100 and of course with data packages and roaming charges incurred on a business trip, running up much bigger bills than a $100 is very easy.
I was a Rogers customer for 9 years then Telus and Koodo and now Wind Mobile. Recently, after a big and unexpected long distance bill from Koodo, I've been shopping for a new carrier. Also, as a discount carrier offering basic service and handsets Koodo doesn't offer much in the way of data packages or web surfing devices. Koodo doesn't permit tethering. In addition, the CDMA devices lack SIM cards so changing devices is difficult. But keeping the bill under $100 is easy.
There doesn't seem to be any unlimited data package available in Canada on 3g and 5gigs seems to be the limit across the board. That package will, after taxes of course, leave chump change, if any, from a $100 bill every month. Wind Mobile has its Infinite Laptop and in certain areas this may be useful to some.
I started looking for high speed, mobile web access with cutting edge handsets and what I found is that not only are Canadian carriers expensive and offer very limiting data packages and handsets...they offer technology that is dated by comparison to Asian, European, Scandinavian and US markets. Yes my constantly texting friend! Canada, known as a communications technology leader lags behind other areas of the world in mobile communications at the consumer level. The Federal government recently auctioned off a couple more licenses to try and free up the Canadian market because everyone knew that we were getting taken to the cleaners by Rogers and Telus. But it's been a couple of years since then and not much has changed. Services offered by the new and discount carriers like Wind and Koodo are spotty and gold plated packages offered by Telus and Rogers come at nearly solid gold prices.
Splashy ad campaigns try to convince consumers that cell phones are cheap and that service is great but this generally is not my experience. The companies are all just trying to charge top dollar for splintered voice plans and selling megabits like French truffles.
It stands to reason that developing reliable wireless communication systems using cutting edge technology costs big money, but the big phone companies certainly have lots of money. In fact it seems that they have so much money that they don't feel the need to invest it in up to date technology.....this is so Canadian...it reminds of the BCLDB trying to limit the selection of products in the stores because the bureaucrats think that the status quo is adequate. While adjacent markets like Alberta have thousands more products available.
One of the big complaints I have is the "not coming anytime soon 4g network." Rumours about Rogers launching it's 4g network in time for the Olympics proved to be just that... we're still not sure which Olympics....it certainly wasn't the 2010 Olympics. 4g web access is offered in 36 American cities but nowhere in Canada. It's up and running in Norway and Sweden, the UK and elsewhere but not one place in Canada has it. It's true that 4G is still centered in major urban areas but Canada has major urban areas doesn't it?
Having read the news about the fabulous speed offered by 4g I wanted to make sure my new handset is 4g ready so I began comparison shopping. Of course the latest iphone is 4g is ready isn't it? No! it isn't! the iphone4g refers to 4th generation of the handset. 4g ready iphones aren't predicted to become available until summer 2011. Oh, so which 4g ready handsets are available in Canada now? Answer....NONE! That's right my chatty Canadian friends....not only is 4g not available in Canada, there are no 4g ready phones either. Not the Samsung Epic nor the HTC Evo. I'm stunned by this. Nokia, the largest maker of mobile handsets in the world doesn't even have a store in Canada and will not ship to Canada via its online stores. The N900 is a year old already and Nokia has announced that this the last model in the line. The N900 is my current mobile device of choice....no iphone for me thankyou...I had to buy it on Ebay but I it is an unlocked quad band smart phone that runs Maemo 5, a Nokia version of Linux. NONE OF THESE DEVICES HAS EVER BEEN SOLD IN CANADA! I still get people asking me about my N800 with it's bluetooth folding keyboard all the time because hardly anyone in Canada has ever seen one to this day and it's borderline obsolete!
So what's the problem here? Do I have to just get a dated iphone like a good little Canadian and pay through the nose for it for years and then get slammed with a whack of stupid taxes as well while my neighbours to the south surf the web at a 100 mbps.
Hst, 911 fee and and the government regulatory recovery fee......I will do my level best to NEVER pay these taxes. All bureaucracies should be starved at least half to death.
And while this is going on giant, ridiculous, hippopotamus and bird ads are constantly telling me how fabulous Telus is. Can anyone tell me that I should be impressed?
I would never buy a laptop or a desktop that was locked to my ISP for three years so why should I buy a phone that is locked to a service provider for MANY MONTHS BEYOND THE AVERAGE WORKING LIFE OF THE DEVICE. We should be buying the UNLOCKED devices we want and then shopping for a provider that wants our business. I know we don't want to write $500 cheques for our phones but this is the best way to avoid getting locked to an expensive plan.
Here's what I want from my governments, the network providers and the hardware manufacturers. Open market competition between network providers stimulated by the CRTC's licensing arrangements, less money spent on flashy ad campaigns and more money spent on upgrading the networks...unlimited data packages....AND A FULL LINE OF CUTTING EDGE HANDSETS AVAILABLE TO THE CONSUMER. Oh and keep it under a $100 a month, please and thank you.... if you don't mind....and you're welcome.
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