I have long known that the Canadian Mobile phone industry is gouging its customers – even before I owned a cell phone. Until I moved overseas I never had a need for a mobile phone, and I worked with the fantastic long distance plan offered by Sprint Canada (now defunct after being purchased by Rogers).
When I moved to Singapore last January, it was impossible to operate socially without mobile phone (AKA a Handphone in Singapore), and I immediately bought a used, and basic, mobile phone capable of sending/receiving text messages and phone calls.
The phone was 50 dollars Canadian, and still had 8 months of warranty left. Here it is worth noting that the rate of cell-phone replacement for the demographic of roughly 14-28 is a new phone every 10 months.
I bought a SIM card for the phone for 18 Singapore dollars, which came with 18 dollars of credit, and topped it up roughly every two weeks for another 18 dollars (at the time, 1 singapore dollar was roughly 70 Canadian Cents). My monthly bills in Singapore were about 30 dollars Canadian – cheap by Canadian standards.
What was fantastic in Singapore though, was that *ANY* incoming call was free, no matter where it originated from. Additionally, any incoming SMS was also free. Imagine how happy my family was when I said "call anytime, it’s free for me." (in fact, all carriers I know of in Asia and Australasia did not charge for incoming anything, regardless of the time of day).
After living in Singapore my travels to China saw me buy a new SIM card for about 100 Yuan, or 15 Canadian Dollars, which I used in case of emergencies, and was perfect for me.
Moving to Australia my plan was a 50 dollar ‘cap’ from Vodaphone, which gave me 240 dollars of credit I had to use in a month (note: 1 Australian dollar was about 90 Canadian cents). For 50 dollars I actually received 240 dollars of credit – that is unheard of in Canada. Where is the bonus for your customers?
