GATINEAU – After many public complaints and a Commission letter which all but threatened wireless rate regulation, Telus, Rogers and Bell responded to the CRTC’s request for a better skinny wireless package by doubling the amount of data originally offered.
Earlier this year, in a multi-faceted wireless decision, the CRTC demanded each of Rogers, Bell and Telus come up with low-cost data-only wireless plans for the Canadian market. The plans can not be tied to customer income; must be made available on the latest network (4G), must be nationwide, and be available on post- and pre-paid plans. Those plans, said the CRTC, will fill a hole in the market which the Commission says is a serious problem for low income Canadians. (We dubbed it “skinny wireless” after the CRTC’s $25/month skinny basic TV, which was mandated in 2015).
In April, the companies came up with offerings all in about the same ballpark. Rogers offered a $25/month plan offering 400 MB from its Fido brand while each of Bell and Telus submitted a 500MB plan for $30/month (on Virgin and Koodo) with Telus adding then it was about to launch a 600MB, $30/mo. post-paid plan via its Public Mobile brand.
However, after some analysis, public outcry, and complaints by competitors (some of whom called the plans “a joke”), the Competition Bureau and others, the CRTC sent a letter to the wireless companies in July saying, essentially, ‘do better.’
“Whether a segment of the retail mobile wireless market, namely that of lower-cost data-only plans, is subject to sufficient competition to protect the interests of users and whether continued forbearance from price regulation of this segment would be likely to impair unduly the establishment or continuance of a competitive market for such services,” reads the CRTC’s July letter.
However, for it to start to regulate wireless rates, the CRTC would need to un-forebear that sector of the market. The letter could be read as the beginning of such a process since it asked a lot of detailed information to determine whether the Competition Bureau was right to determine the incumbents have market power in that sector.
The responses to the Commission letter were due Monday and while none have yet been posted to the CRTC web site, a portion of Telus’ response was sent to Cartt.ca Monday evening. (We have now updated this story with some of the details of the new Bell and Rogers proposals as well, below.)
In it, Telus is now proposing two new skinny wireless plans:
- a $30 postpaid data-only wireless offering through its Koodo brand that will provide 1GB of data at 4G speeds.
- $30 prepaid data-only wireless offering through its Public Mobile brand that will provide 1GB of data at 4G speeds.
Telus also pointed out it also offers other lower-cost plans, as low as $20/month, but for less data and on its slower 3G network.
Rogers has proposed five new LCDO plans, as follows:
- a $15/month pre-paid and post-paid 250 MB LTE plan from Fido with unlimited text and picture messaging
- a $25/mo pre-paid and post-paid 500 MB LTE plan from Fido with unlimited text and picture messaging
- a $30/mo pre-paid and post-paid 1 GB LTE plan from Fido with unlimited text and picture messaging
- a $15/mo prepaid 250MB at 3G speeds plan from chatr with 100 Canada-wide voice minutes, unlimited incoming calls and unlimited Canada-wide text and picture messaging
- a $25 prepaid 1 GB at 3G speeds plan from chatr with unlimited incoming calls and unlimited Canada-wide text and picture messaging
Bell's new plans in response to the Commission's letter are:
- a $28/mo. pre-paid or post-paid 1GB LTE plan from Virgin Mobile
- a $15/mo. pre-paid 500 MB on 3G plan from Lucky Mobile.
“The purpose of the current proceeding is to ensure ‘that lower-cost data-only plans are widely available to Canadians.’ The Commission seeks data-only plans that are intended to empower consumers ‘to use innovative applications, including voice and messaging applications, through a combination of Wi-Fi and cellular networks’,” reminds Telus in its response, quoting the Commission’s original notice. “The cellular data allotment of 1GB that Telus now proposes far exceeds what would reasonably be necessary as a complement to primary Wi-Fi use, and will enable customers to meaningfully participate in the digital economy.”
While many also complained about how the Big Three wireless companies attached these new low-cost data-only plans to its flanker brands and not the flagships – and the CRTC letter asked why that had to be the case – Telus did not back down from that, pointing out Public and Koodo customers all ride on the same, robust, national network.
“There are no differences in network coverage, throughput, quality, etc. as a result of a customer being on one Telus brand versus another,” it said.
Rogers said something similar in its filing, noting, it "intends to offer its lower-cost data-only plans under its Fido brand," and "there are no functional differences between the Rogers brand and the Fido brand with the exception of the types of customer each targets. Fido tends to attract value-oriented consumers, making it a natural fit for plans designed for first-time subscribers and Canadians with lower household incomes. Fido’s nation-wide distribution ensures all Canadians living in Rogers’ footprint will be able to access the lower-cost data-only plans through the widest possible variety of sales channels."
We’ll have more on these filings and the responses of the many other groups and companies in the coming days.
