Major Canadian wireless carriers have dropped the cost of mobile data
services over the past three to six months, in anticipation of the Apple iPhone
coming to Canada, according to a recent report by Seaboard Group, a
Torontobased telecom consultancy.
The muchanticipated iPhone device combines topoftheline wireless music
functionality with mobile voice and internet access. More than one million
iPhones have already been sold in the United States, and the handset is expected
to hit the Canadian market in early 2008.
Seaboard Group has been sharply criticized of Canada’s top wireless players –
Rogers Wireless, Telus Mobility, and Bell Mobility – claiming that their
wireless data plans cost far more than those of American counterparts. The firm
admits, however, that carriers have begun to clean up their act.
“Canadian service providers haven sharpened their pencils and rethought
their strategies,” Seaboard Group analysts conclude in their 10page report.
“The options available in November 2007 bear little resemblance to the options
available in May of the same year. And the trends are favourable to users —
Canadians are getting far more for much less.”
Canadians still pay around $100 per month for unlimited 3G data access,
however, something which all of the top U.S. carriers offer for under $75.