Telecom CEOs defend wireless industry in front of MPs | Maqvi News

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OTTAWA – The heads of Canada’s major telecommunications companies told MPs that cellphone prices in this country are falling, and said they are reducing prices despite government policies that make things more expensive.

The CEOs of Rogers, Telus and Bell appeared before Parliament’s industry committee Monday to defend their industry amid concerns about high prices in Canada. All three companies argued that cellphone prices are coming down even as inflation drives up the prices for nearly everything else.

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Bell CEO Mirko Bibic said Canadians are seeing lower prices for cell phones due to competition in the industry.

“Canadians pay much lower prices for wireless internet today than they did just a short time ago,” he said. As prices have fallen, Bell has significantly increased how much data customers receive each month. For an average Canadian using between five and seven gigabytes of wireless data per month, prices have fallen nearly 30 per cent.”

MPs summoned the CEOs to committee after Rogers increased prices on select plans in January, by as much as $9 per month. When the federal government greenlit the company’s takeover of Shaw Communications, it was conditional on the company committing to lower prices. The company’s CEO Tony Staffieri said the January increases were for a small percentage of customers who were no longer covered under a contract with most paying much less than $9.

“Those changes were to a small percentage of our customer base. The average was $5, and most of those customers were at $4 or less,” he said.

He said Canada’s market is competitive with customers now having many options to switch.

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“This country has very robust and healthy competition. Our consumers have choice here. Last year alone. 4.9 million Canadians switched their provider.”

Staffieri said while prices are falling, Canadians are using their phones more than ever before which is why some people have seen their bills rise.

“I think what you’re seeing is a massive increase in data consumption. Canadians are amongst the highest data consumers in the world.

Telus CEO Darren Entwistle echoed his competitors on prices, but added that one of the factors that drives up costs in Canada is how the government divides up the market.

The federal government holds regular spectrum auctions to license the bandwidth that cell phone companies need for their services. Entwistle pointed to a 2021 auction for the spectrum used for 5G services which brought in nearly $9 billion for the government.

“In contrast, in Japan and South Korea, they gave away the spectrum. So that operators can concentrate their spend on deployment,” he said.

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Entwistle said the cost of spectrum gets passed along to consumers at a price he estimated at about $100 per year.

“That fee is across the board that fee reflects the fact that Canadian wireless operators have historically paid the highest prices for spectrum through successive spectrum auctions,” he said.

MPs also questioned Bibic, and Bell’s decision earlier this year to lay off workers despite posting significant profits.

“You also recently cut nearly 5000 Canadians from a job. So can you explain your record profits and your market share and also your commitment to your employees when you laid off 5000 Canadians,” NDP MP Brian Masse asked.

Bibic said Bell has to make changes to reflect more competition in the marketplace. He said they didn’t take the decision lightly.

“What worked three years ago, five years ago, or 10 years ago in Canada, no longer works, so we have to adjust,” he said.

Some of Bell’s recent layoffs were in the company’s news division CTV and the company ended several local newscasts and its investigative program W5 as part of the changes.

Bibic said news costs the company significantly and they’re still looking for ways to invest in it, but things have to change.

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“I’ve shared the next stat publicly many times. We incur more than $40 million in losses in news per year. Despite that, we continue to invest in news and we continue to invest in our media division,” he said.

National Post
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