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Government driven Price Plan Calculator squashed due to “technical limitations”
It’s well know that us Canadians pay a great deal of hard earned money to have a cellphone, not only for the actual device but to carry a monthly plan. We rank in the top 3 for the highest monthly costs. Wouldn’t it be nice to see if you’re getting the best value every month, perhaps a tool that can help you choose which carrier has the best plan?
Apparently the Office of Consumer Affairs (OCA), which is part of Industry Canada, developed an online tool to accomplish such a task. They called this project “Which Cell Plan? A Calculator” and it literally was an online calculator designed and tested to help wireless customers select the best plan. Tens of thousands of tax-payers dollars were invested and Decima Research conducted focus groups in Halifax, Vancouver and Montreal took place (price tag of $60,000) but Industry Minister Tony Clement dropped the much needed tool due “technical limitations”.
Even though the focus groups responded in a positive manner to the online rate plan calculator, the real reason according to Government records are that our wireless companies were not pleased with the idea. They believed it would promote lower-cost plans. The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), Bell Canada and TELUS met with Clement’s office in April and voiced their concerns… soon after, the project was scrapped.
Who is really running the show when it comes to wireless in Canada? Is it our government, or the carriers? Is this rate calculator something you would want?
More here at TheStar
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9 comments for “Government driven Price Plan Calculator squashed due to “technical limitations””
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What a stupid idea to begin with. The government has no business spending tax dollars on cell phone price calculators. There are already privately funded parties doing the same thing.
It would be much cheaper for the government to simply mandate certain changes (eg no additional SAF or 911 fees).
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Wow such a surprise huh? Once again companies trump the voting public.
My…what…a…surprise…Clement sided with buisness???? WOW! HOW FRESH!
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Telus never stops cring.They first,cried about the fact that goverment charged up to 2 billion dollars too much in an auction.( auction means you the bidder chooses the price YOU want to play). Second, they forced the crtc to revise globalive’s foreign investment structure, after the federal goverment already did. Now this. WTF telus, shut up already.
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“They believed it would promote lower-cost plans.” … and this is a bad thing for us how?
f*** you Clement
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Hi Rob.
Interesting story. I wasn’t aware of it.
We’ve been providing plan comparisons in Canada over at Cellphones.ca for 8 years now but I’ll be the first to admit that our application leaves a lot to be desired.
The good news is that we’re getting very close to rolling out what we think is very nice follow-up. Non-governmental help is on the way.
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Unreal…..WHY DO WE PUT UP WITH THIS NONSENSE? And how does this man sleep at night knowing he sold out the citizens of his country to a group of lazy corporations?
Total BS!
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TNSF Reply:
August 31st, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Non-sense would be the permanent cost of funding a government office to update a price calculator for cell phones. Think about it. Tax dollars paying people to maintain a website about cell phone rate plans?? Does that sound at all like a proper use of tax dollars?? Lets take away money from healthcare, education, EI, foreign aid, etc so that we can try and save a few dollars per month on our cell phones. Thats insane.
Besides, the tool would never be accurate. There are too many carriers with too many plans that have too many variations. I doubt a government office could ever keep up. Even a well run for-profit organization would have trouble keeping up with all the moving parts.
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Is this rate calculator something you would want?? HELL YEAH! A simple calculator device to help me find a simple solution to the labyrinth of cellular companies and their idiotic pricing schemes that even make a rocket scientist dizzy? I’d think that’s a no brainer! No wonder it got cancelled!
Of course the companies don’t want to reduce prices. If they did, the next thing consumers would want is to remove 3 year contracts from cell phones and only have 2 year contracts like every other country in the world. No I bet the companies think we like to be different and unique in the world with our very own special 3 year contracts, just so they can screw us even more than Americans.. Especially when our cell phones are meticulously crafted to break in 12-18 months. How perfect is that?
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It will never happen. Look people verizon have more wireless clients than canada has people and they still arent budging even though $40 ultd plan exist in the us. Who is clement fooling entertaining this notion. Be prepared to grab your ankles, pratice yoga and take deep breaths.
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