Rogers Outage
- Details
- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
- Written by editor
A,
Canadians pay the highest cell phone bills and one of the most expensive home internet prices in the world – and it’s about to get a lot worse if we don’t speak out now.
The telecom industry is already ruled by the monopoly of Rogers, Bell, and Telus – and now Rogers and Shaw are proposing a $26-billion merger which will mean even higher prices and less options for Canadian consumers.
But we still have time to act – today, the Canadian competition tribunal will begin looking over the Roger / Shaw merger, and if we urgently flood the members with messages, we can show them that people across Canada are against the deal.
Tell the competition tribunal: Canadians say no Shaw/Rogers merger!
Original Email from this summer:
This summer, Rogers left millions of Canadians without cellphone service, internet, ability to use debit cards, and call 911.
The outage is a direct result of Rogers being one of three companies that have a monopoly over our telecommunications service.
And that’s not all – year after year, Canadians pay more for their wireless bill than every other country in the world. The cause: there... is no competition within the monopoly of Rogers, Bell, and Telus to drive the prices down for consumers.
This is why we need the Federal government to break up the Big 3 telecoms monopoly.
Rogers profits jumped 35% in the three months prior to the recent outage. Telus just saw its net income soar by 45 per cent. Yet we continue to pay outrageously high cell phone prices and face outages and poor service. It's clear that the premium we are paying on cell phone coverage is going straight to Rogers, Bell, and Telus' profit margins because there is no competition.
Like every Canadian, all the major federal political parties know cell phone affordability and reliable service is an issue in this country, and they all made it a campaign promise in recent elections. The Minister of Innovation after forcing a cell phone plan decrease last winter even said: “we won't stop there, because Canadians still pay too much for their Internet and cell phones. We'll continue to push aggressively to generate innovation, improve coverage and reduce the costs of telecommunications services using every tool we have.”
Last winter's one time reduction on cell phone cost is a band aid solution that barely made a difference in many people’s bills -- most people never even heard about the reduction. And in the aftermath of the Rogers outage, though CEOs of the major telecom companies promised changes, we all know that it will be business as usual in a few months, and they will continue with making record profits.
With the Rogers outage still fresh on people’s minds, now is the time to call action. That's why we've joined with our friends at OpenMedia and LeadNow to call on the Minister of Innovation to bust the monopoly.
Thanks for all that you do,
Angus and the team at SumOfUs
More information:
Rogers outage sheds light on need for competition in Canada’s telecom sector: expert.Global News. 2022 July 8th.
Canada's wireless costs 'continue to be the highest or among the highest in the world': Finnish report
National Post. 2021 October 21st.
Rogers profits jumped 35% in the three months prior to the recent outage
CBC. 2022 July 27th.
Telus' net income soars 45% in Q2 as it reports rise in mobile, internet customers
BNN Bloomberg. 2022 August 5.
Government of Canada delivers on commitment to reduce cell phone wireless plans by 25%
Yahoo News. 2022 January 28.
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