Tech Blog

[#1]

The landscape of Canadian wireless providers is slowly but surely changing with the arrival of a few new competitors. The big three -- Rogers, Bell, and Telus -- now have to face the likes of Wind Mobile, Mobilicity, and Public Mobile. To address these changes, Bell is shifting its Solo Mobile brand focus a little further down market and Rogers has already launched the Chatr brand as a "cheap" unlimited alternative.

So, what is Telus doing? Are they going to shift Koodo Mobile a little further down the scale? Are they going to create a new sub-brand like how Rogers did. No. They don't want to go any cheaper. They're quite "satisfied right now with Telus's status quo," according to company CEO Darren Entwhistle. They're not going to be "expeditiously reactive" like the guys at Bell.

Telus isn't afraid to spend money. They sponsor ski festivals and can get quite aggressive with some of their marketing tactics, but they no longer want to compete on price... even though that's exactly what they did when they launched Koodo and did away with the System Access Fee. Remember the waves of change that followed that move? Now nobody charges the SAF (though Rogers has its GRRF instead).

Is this steadfastness the best move on the part of Telus? By refusing to compete on price, are they leaving money on the table or are they saving themselves the headache of trying to muster a couple bucks from the least "spendy" of consumers? Then again, Telus is the first to offer a $49 iPhone, albeit the older 8GB 3GS model. They'll make that money back with a three-year contract, I'm sure.

[#2]

My 3 year contract with Telus expired 2 weeks ago and since then I've been shopping around for some new services. Unfortunately Telus has been the least willing to give me a deal even though I'm a current customer. Rogers and Bell are offering better deals for a voice/data plan than Telus and I've been a long time customer with Telus. It's sad when a company you've been a long time customer with treats you worse than one you've never done business with. Telus needs to do better.

[#3]

All successful businesses have to balance their responsibility to their shareholders with their market-facing policies (pricing, customer service etc.)

Is there a human being in Canada that has a POSITIVE view of the major telecommunications companies in Canada? All the major telcos (and possibly the new smaller ones) are "sick": stricken with the "must.... show.... year over year... growth..." disease, and they do not care that their reputations with customers are terrible. Everyone HATES all the majors... so if you want to have a cell phone in Canada, you basically have to choose which vendor you have the least contempt for. There are all sorts of companies people like: you might love your car, and the car dealer, and the manufacturer, and say "I really like this company: they've been very proactive on service issues and had a fair price."

[#4]

In general, I can understand the infrastructure maintenance and upgrade costs that go into such an advanced CDMA system across a huge nation, but still... the US gets it so much better when it comes to plans and hardware.

[#5]

@lorax1284 - I haven't heard too many people that are ecstatic about their cell phone providers, but I am at least pleased that Fido/Rogers is willing to budge <em>a little</em> when it comes to offering a decent retention plan. Switching gears just slightly, I've heard nothing but glowing reviews of Novus in Vancouver for TV/Internet service. The telecoms can learn something there.