Cost of basic cell phone plan up: report
Posted July 14, 2014 4:32 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Using a basic cell phone continues to be particularly expensive for Canadians.
Banning long-term phone contracts was supposed to help us all save a few bucks, but a new report commissioned by government regulators says basic phone bills are slightly up since the Harper government announced it would cap contracts at two years.
“It really shows there’s still a long way to go before Canadians can get the greater choice and lower price that they deserve,” says David Christopher with consumer advocacy group Open Media. “Canadians are paying some of the highest prices in the industrialized world for wireless service.”
The report states a basic package with 150 minutes of air time now costs $36 a month, up from $31 last year.
According to the report, conducted by Ottawa-based consultancy Wall Communications, that hike is likely down to providers passing handset costs on to customers.
“Multi-year contract service plans typically include an implicit handset subsidy recovery component,” says the report. “The reduction of contract terms placed upward pressure on service plan prices given there is now a shorter period available to recover the handset subsidies.”
On the other end of the spectrum, premium plans are becoming more affordable.
For plans including 1,200 minutes of air time, 300 text messages and 1 GB of monthly data, the average price has dropped to an average of $80 from $94 last year.
