Critics question Liberals’ falling cellphone price claims, budget promises
As the federal government touts measures meant to curb the cost of Canadians’ cellphone bills, some say there is a disconnect between what consumers are paying and the rhetoric surrounding price declines.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau drew the ire of social media users when he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “we’ve cut the cost of cellphone plans in half since 2019 - in part by increasing competition.”
“Next, we’re going after the junk fees on your phone bill, so you can do things like cancel your plan or switch to a cheaper one with no added charges,” Trudeau said.
But the post raised questions, including from consumers saying they don’t feel as though they are paying less on their cellphone bills than they were five years ago.
“A show of hands please? Has your phone plan cut itself in half? Mine hasn’t,” said X user Ryan Lindley.
“My kingdom for a single person whose cellphone bill has been cut in half since 2019,” tweeted Steve Boots.
Trudeau was promoting a plan in last week’s federal budget, which said the government would amend the Telecommunications Act to help Canadians switch internet and phone providers. The budget cited Statistics Canada data from December 2023 that showed cellphone plan costs declined by 50 per cent since the same month in 2018.
Industry watchers are somewhat divided on how much stock to put into that StatCan data, which is reported each month as part of its regular consumer price index releases.
Some say it’s clear evidence of competition in the marketplace and that consumers are getting more bang for their buck through new offers, such as bigger data packages, international roaming perks, or voice-to-text voicemail services.
“Just because you’re paying the same amount of money each month doesn’t mean that represents no price decrease,” said telecommunications consultant Mark Goldberg, comparing it to “getting a Lamborghini for the price of a Honda Civic from five years ago.”
Others argue that while customers are paying less per gigabyte of data, those deals might be influencing people to purchase bigger data buckets than necessary. Cellular services are also often bundled with TV or internet, meaning savings could come at the expense of purchasing more things.
Dwayne Winseck, a professor at Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication, said it reflects telecoms’ ability “to package something up as a benefit when in fact it’s not.”
“If you look at it per gigabyte of data, prices are absolutely going down, there’s no doubt about it,” he said.
“But people are getting data that they may, in many cases, not even need and they’re having to pay for that whether they need it or not. Ultimately at the end of the day, while per gigabyte, data may be cheaper, who’s that good for?”
Winseck cited another metric that tells a different story - the average revenue per user reported by cellphone companies.
According to the t telecoms averaged $67.26 in mobile phone revenues per user during the second quarter of 2023, up from $64.33 in the same quarter of 2016.