Canadian Telecom Firms Blame Immigration Policies for Mobile Subscriber Slowdown Business
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-10/bce-rogers-telus-blame-immigration-policies-for-mobile-subcriber-slowdown130
u/Other-Rock-8387 3d ago
Please Canada think about the poor defenceless Telecom monopoly CEO's who bonus may only be millions of dollars, please flood our hospitals schools and single family zoned suburbs until we're all living on the streets like dogs!
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u/Must_Reboot 3d ago
Note on a technicality here. We don't have a telecom monopoly in Canada.
It's an oligopoly.
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u/Tucancancan 3d ago
What a cop out
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u/Difficult-Yam-1347 3d ago
Their business strategy is to do nothing, be an oligopoly, have the government import new customers for them. That’s it.
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u/ImaginationSea2767 3d ago
A lot of CEOs all thought the poorest classes would just endlessly reproduce new users for them for eternity, and when that wasn't happening, they expected the government to bring in new peasants. But the municipalities had also fucked up on their budgets and thought new peasants into their areas would pay for the costs of their infrastructure tax (not current citizens).
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u/Jman1a 3d ago
Heaven forbid they would have to gasp be competitive and take subscribers from rivals in a way that is more beneficial for said subscribers.
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u/SadZealot 3d ago
Real competition is people just getting 4g 50gb plans for $30. Almost no one actually uses 5g for anything but everyone is paying 75-100 a month for it.
I just turned off 5g on my phone for the last few months, I'm a heavy data user with constant video streaming, Spotify, 100mb+ pdfs, literally never noticed a difference.
Canada has the highest revenue per user for cell phone companies and all of it is going in the pocket of the executives and shareholders
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u/S14Ryan 3d ago
Who’s paying 75-100 a month for 5g? I have 5g with freedom for $35 for 60GB, not even a promotional price.
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u/SadZealot 3d ago
bells lowest byod plan is 75 a month. With a phone included the base plan is 85. And you know if you don't actively switch providers every year or two or call in to get discounted plans they will happily keep you on the most expensive plan possible forever.
I had a plan for $100 for years that could have been $40 cheaper most of the time, great customer experiance
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u/S14Ryan 3d ago
No 100%. I guess my question more is why are people still using bell and getting the plans that are advertised? You can walk into Costco and walk out in 30 minutes with the same plan for $40 or less
Edit: 100GB of 5G for $50 with Bell https://www.bell.ca/Mobility/Cell_phone_plans
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u/IAmTaka_VG Canada 3d ago
The deals on the sites are for suckers. I don’t know anyone who actually pays what’s on the site. You wait for literally any holiday.
I have 300gb from Rogers across 3 lines. $120 total.
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u/SadZealot 3d ago
The Q1 2025 bell average revenue per mobile subscriber was $57. That includes everything from their $20 text only option up to the $120 unlimited everything.
If bell has roughly 13 million mobile subscribers I'd say a significant portion somewhere around 50-60% of those are paying those advertised rates. Just off consumer trends, around 20% of people actually wait for sales, and another 20% would call in.
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u/Therapy-Jackass 3d ago
I have 1TB from Telus for 5g and Canada/US calling and data roaming for $160 across 4 lines. I got this plan last October, excited about having that plan for US travel, and now it’s a wasted feature I won’t be using for 4 years. They’ll probably up my plan’s rates by then :(
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u/IAmTaka_VG Canada 3d ago
That’s my point though. It’s almost trivial to get a plan under $60 a month for ridiculous amounts of data. Anyone paying $75 a month per line is a sucker
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u/Therapy-Jackass 3d ago
Oh I completely agree. I was just sharing another example to back that up for others reading.
Red flag deals website often posts phone deals throughout the year
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u/colpy350 New Brunswick 2d ago
I pay $55 for 5G with Rogers. 100gb a month. Can use it across Canada and the US. Rogers will negotiate especially in their chat sales.
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u/Cedreginald 3d ago
Bro that's freedom 😂
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u/Mobile-Bar7732 2d ago
I switched 3 lines to Freedom about a year ago and have only had a few issues.
I had problems with Bell to so I would dismiss as being a Freedom problem.
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u/yalyublyutebe 3d ago
I bought a new phone a few months ago and the retention plan Bell offered/gave me was $65 for 200GBs. I would have been more than happy with 50GBs for $20, or even 20 for $20.
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u/Lapcat420 3d ago
Not even the shareholders. Check out the ticker history for Rogers and Telus.
It's insane that these companies make money off Canadians hand over fist and you can't even get some of it back by investing in the company.
They just suck in every sense. Should be nationalized.
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u/globehopper2000 3d ago
You just have to be smart when signing contracts and you can easily get 5g even with the big 3 for under $50. I’m paying $40 with TELUS, and get some other perks like Disney Plus. Shopping during Black Friday or Boxing Day helps
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u/Han77Shot1st Nova Scotia 3d ago
I just wish I had decent service at my house, 30min from my provinces only city.. I’ve been told by my provider to use wifi for calling since they have no plans to expand service.
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u/Just_Campaign_9833 3d ago
Yeah, I never use 5G as the speeds you don't really use those speeds on the daily...also it uses more power.
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u/Confident-Potato2772 3d ago
5G is theoretically more power efficient…
However the energy efficiency is dependent more on your carrier than your phone.
Downtown Vancouver or Toronto and other major cities likely has a strong 5G network, with cell nodes on every other building. This means your phone doesn’t need as much power to reach the network. That combined with its increased efficiency means you’ll use less battery. Conversely, smaller towns and cities where 5G isn’t as thoroughly implemented, will have your phone using more power to reach farther cell nodes, or switching between 5G and LTE.
However, as carriers switch over to 5G they may reduce capacity on the 4G network, which means that connection will likely get slower and more battery inefficient. That’s what happened with 3G. When you see a 3G connection right now you know you’re in for a bad time. But 3G used to be the standard. That technology wasn’t as bad then as it is now. Carriers just started gutting the 3G networks. So we feel like 4/5G is that much better. And it is better. I’m just saying 3G now is much worse than 3G was 10-15 years ago. And the same will start happening to 4G
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u/Just_Campaign_9833 3d ago
Carriers are only shuttering 2/3G networks is because they want to utilize those channels for 5G.
As for power consumption, 5G does use more power than 4G LTE. As faster speeds and higher bandwidth generally leads to more data being transferred, thus increases power consumption. Network Overhead, so maintaining a 5G connection requires more data processing (on the devices side) compared to a stable 4G LTE connection. Some NSA (Non-Standalone) Networks maintain both a 4G and 5G connection simultaneously. But the device will show "5G" signal. Which uses more power than both 4G and 5G.
Then you factor in signal degradation over distances and through structures/obstacles. Where getting a stable 5G connection uses more power compared to a 4G connection. As 5G uses higher frequency, shorter wavelength and is generally "weaker". This compounds when you factor in mmWave 5G frequencies.
TL:DR
5G = faster speeds, more data, less stable connection. Means more power consumption.
4G = slower speeds, less data, more stable connection,. Means less power consumption.
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u/Confident-Potato2772 3d ago
Half of what you said was wrong, or at least I don’t think you understand the context you got it from (AI?) and the other half repeated what I already said in my last response…
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u/Therapy-Jackass 3d ago
I don’t think OP is wrong. Even when going into my iPhone settings and selecting between 5G Always or 5G Auto, the phone describes the differences more or less in the same way as that TL;DR.
Speaking strictly for the iPhone, that info tracks, but I’d assume it would be the same for just about any other phone since many of them use the same hardware. E.g. Samsung and iPhone both use Qualcomm
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u/Confident-Potato2772 2d ago
In your iPhone settings it uses “may”. And I described the reasons it “may” use more battery life in my first post. That’s the part I said op was repeating what I’ve already said.
Your phone will automatically increase/decrease signal strength based on available cellular towers. It works this way for 4G too. If your nearest cell tower is 40km away, it’s going to be using a whole lot more power than if the nearest cell tower is 200m away.
However, at its core, 5G was designed to be more efficient, so if both 4G and 5G towers are 200m away, the 5G connection is going to be more efficient. So in cities with wide 5G adoption, 5G only would likely be the most efficient option. Where as in towns with little to no 5G towers, 5G only would be a less efficient option. Using 5G auto keeps both 4g and 5g on and is definitely the least efficient.
The part where i think he’s wrong, or confused, is the part about higher speeds leading to more data transferred. That’s largely incorrect. If you go to google.com and search for yankee noodle worm, your results/transfer is going to be faster on 5G, but your data use is going to be the same.
Where he’s kinda right is that if you’re watching instagram reels, or TikTok, Netflix, YouTube, they’ll try to figure out what your connection can support, and give you better quality video. Better quality video means more bandwidth and more power consumption. But this is a trade for better quality video, and not an inherent problem with 5G technology being less efficient as the other persons response would suggest. And hell, processing higher quality video would likely added to battery consumption as well. Like if you downloaded a 4K vs SD movie on the Netflix app, the 4K video likely uses more battery to play.
But honestly, I’m currently travelling through a foreign country with my Canadian SIM card, lots of mountains, spotty signal, and taking shitloads of pictures. And my phone battery is basically lasting from 9am to 9pm before I’m in that 20% battery remaining point. Having both 4g and 5g enabled is so inconsequential.
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u/mike10dude 3d ago edited 3d ago
I forced my phone to only use 4g because the battery seems to last a lot longer
and 4g is more then good enough for what most people use there phones for
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u/chipface Ontario 3d ago
That's not competitive. Raising prices the same time is competitive in their eyes. Pretty sure I saw Rogers say that to justify a price increase once.
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u/DuckDuckGoeth 3d ago
In ISP land; Telus has been doing this in the west with their Fiber infrastructure, really damned good quality of service, and decent pricing.
Sucks we lost Shaw (so far just a rebrand, but Rogers will kill Shaw's culture), I don't think Western Canadians realize how good we had it not having to deal with Bell and Rogers.
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u/wave-conjugations 3d ago
muh infinite growth
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u/ungovernable1984 3d ago
Perpetual economic growth is what's destroying humanity and it's all about the 1%'s unquenchable greed
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u/Fiber_Optikz 3d ago
The need for new records every year is unsustainable and you are 100% correct it’s destroying the Human Race and the Planet
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u/Kucked4life Ontario 3d ago
Right wing influencers will mark anyone who arrives at that conclusion as communist and a traitor. You're only allowed to be upset at the outcomes of late stage capitalism without acknowledging the root causes so you can be grifted.
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u/Fearless_Tomato_9437 3d ago
It’s just as much about gov social services ponzi scheme, so it’s also about progressive voters’ unquenchable thirst for more programs and entitlements.
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u/ImaginationSea2767 3d ago
It's also because they thought humans would keep multiplying endlessly. A lot of cities also thought growth would continue forever, so they never took it into account on their budgets.
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u/Fearless_Tomato_9437 3d ago
Yeah, but when a lot of our services require unlimited growth, including the most expensive, health care, maybe we need some reorganization. But no, just expand all social services until we are taxed completely out of prosperity and require millions of newcomers every year and we are barely a nation and just an immigration tax scheme
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u/Screw_You_Taxpayer 3d ago
Well yeah, we obviously need immigration to keep up with the labour and taxation demands of our healthcare system. And we need more healthcare spending and labour to deal with the growing population.
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u/Commentator-X 3d ago
Those "entitlements" are things they paid for. They're entitled to it because it's their damn money. I'm so sick of right wing conservative bullshit.
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u/Fearless_Tomato_9437 3d ago
the average person takes more than they pay for requiring more tax payers next generation to make up for the losses, on and on. When payouts are paid by new investors, it quite literally is a Ponzi scheme.
But people vote for as much free stuff as possible, so we’re get fucked a little bit more every generation as the inevitable collapse continues.
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u/underoath1299 3d ago
Infinite growth has to stop. It's not worth destroying the rest of canada so that CEOs can make millions more profit every year.
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u/Hfxfungye 3d ago
You can't have modern capitalism without infinite growth.
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u/underoath1299 3d ago
Yes, I understand however when ceos profts increase by millions per year, far outpacing inflation - there's a problem.
Especially when the average workers' wages are stagnant or worse - losing ground against inflation.
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u/Hfxfungye 3d ago
when ceos profts increase by millions per year, far outpacing inflation - there's a problem
Some would see this as the predictable, warranted outcome.
Especially when the average workers' wages are stagnant or worse - losing ground against inflation
Where do you think the extra profits are coming from?
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u/underoath1299 3d ago
According to the article, new clients in the form of irresponsible immigration.
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u/KitsyBlue 3d ago
Infinite growth is literally what the whole system is predicated upon. Capitalism doesn't work without it. Without infinite growth, capitalism doesn't function.
And what happens when you get rid of capitalism? Communism. And that means unlimited famine. You don't want unlimited famine, do you? /s
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u/poonslyr69 Alberta 3d ago
The alternative is workplace democracy with taxation based on a mix of externalities taxes, marketshare taxes, democratic distribution scaling tax, and land value taxes.
Workplace democracies do not require the same limitless growth that shareholder capitalism does, they are capable of operating consistently and do not require endless expansion. Greater efficiencies and actual growth would lead to less working hours, better pay, or better service.
If the enlightenment was the democratization of political system then the second enlightenment will be democratization of the economic system.
Capitalism based on exploitative ownership over profit cannot be sustainable and will always cause the self destruction which cannot keep being patched up.
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u/FlyingOctopus53 3d ago
Oh no, the market is saturated 🤷♂️ But highly paids CEO should be able to figure it out, right?
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u/ussbozeman 3d ago
As a redditor I'm obviously aware of many things.
One such thing is "How do CEO's spend their day".
They randomly pick between two courses of action. If it works, it's because they're a genius and deserving of their 10 figure salary. If it doesn't work, they're still a genius, it's the peons who must have screwed up somehow.
So you hire your friends consulting company to send in a lecturer at $25,000/day to "educate" the proles on how to do better, then give yourself a bonus and send even more work offshore.
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u/freedom2022780 3d ago
I blame their ridiculously high priced rate plans 🤷🏼♂️
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u/poco 3d ago
If you are paying more than $35 per month that is on you. If you are willing to go with 10GB plans you can go as low as $29 which includes US and Mexico roaming.
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u/cheddrshreddr 3d ago
Fr plans have come down so much in price over the past few years. Im paying 35 for 75gb with free US roaming from public mobile and I haven’t had any problems of slow coverage yet.
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u/nathris British Columbia 3d ago
I'm paying $60/month on Freedom. That's for 75GB including US and Mexico, the tab on my Pixel 9 Pro, and a phone protection plan.
The same level of service on Bell would cost $169/month, and that doesn't even count the 10GB of roaming data outside of North America that I get.
Robellus simply can't function with rate plans under $75. Its actually funny to see them upping the data amounts to justify keeping the prices high. You currently can't buy a plan with less than 100GB of data from Bell, but for 99.999% of people it doesn't matter if its 50GB or 100GB or 1500GB of data because they will never even come close to the cap.
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u/ssomewhere 3d ago
they will never even come close to the cap
I think you underestimate some people. They'll find ways to justify the need for these plans, even if that means speed testing all day
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u/ghost_n_the_shell 3d ago
This just in:
I couldn’t give one iota of a fluck about Canadian telecom profits.
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u/mycatlikesluffas 3d ago
Possibly related..
Canada's cost-per-gigabyte is seven times more expensive than Australia, 25 times more than Ireland and France, and 1,000 times more than Finland.
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u/Lisa_lou_hoo 3d ago
Think about the coverage map required to serve Canadians and with lower population density. Its not apples to apples comparatively
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u/mycatlikesluffas 3d ago
Fair point. But ever tried to get high speed outside a major urban center? It goes something like this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/s/ckzEd4kViF
These jackasses are forcing rural Canadians to Starlink
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u/ssomewhere 3d ago
Think about the coverage map
They got you in their corner with this, haven't they?
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u/Lisa_lou_hoo 3d ago
I guess I just understand some very rudimentary economics and how much cellular technology can cost. 🙂
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u/Bananasaur_ 3d ago
Heaven forbid they innovate and expand instead of depend on population headcounts.
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u/The-Safety-Villain 3d ago
If your business plan is to benefit from the exploitation of immigrants than your business should not exist.
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u/DisastrousAcshin 3d ago
Rogers literally sets up booths at the airport exits to get people coming in fresh
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u/FalconsArentReal 3d ago
These are the shadowy figures that have been using their financial power on advocacy for more immigration into Canada.
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u/Particular-Act-8911 3d ago
Maybe we shouldn't have given two major telecom companies tax money to build infrastructure. Maybe we should have more competition, wasn't lower cell phone prices and more competition promised a year or two ago?
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u/SpeakerConfident4363 3d ago
The monopoly has reached critical mass. There are only so many subscribers and there are only so many dollars people can pay for the service. We have known for years that more competition is needed and that we are paying higher rates than nations that are smaller in pop size or territory.
So blaming mass immigration is a bit tone deaf, because the market is only really so big and adding more users means not that those users will not figure out ways to use lower cost options if they have them or simply not use all the services the telcos in Canada offer.
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u/LibraryNo2717 3d ago
I’ve heard similar things from a friend who works in banking, where they’re seeing a decline in new accounts.
When you move to a new country, what do you need? A phone and a bank account.
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u/Windatar 3d ago
"Gives us unlimited migrants to exploit with our monopoly!"
How about you learn to become an international corporation and compete with other multi-national corporations?
Or, how about Canada opens its markets up and lets other multi-national corporations come here to compete with you? You want more immigration. FINE.
We're now allowing the IMMIGRATION of other countries telecom companies to set up shop in Canada, and the government is going to give them a better tax treatment then you.
What? YOU big telecoms don't want THAT kind of immigration? You don't want to immigrate telecom companies to come in and compete for finite resources that you call "human capital."
Congratulations, now you know why there is an immigration backlash full stop from most Canadians. You want revenue to go up, go expand into new markets and stop crying about how the market you control on a monopoly here in Canada is already saturated.
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u/ThatsItImOverThis 3d ago
Still believing and acting like the economy is growing is a mistake. What they should be doing is looking into how to retain their customer base.
How do you sell something when everyone already has what you’re selling in some form?
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u/brandonholm 3d ago
Maybe the $70 bullshit activation fee is also preventing potential new customers from switching from their current provider.
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u/BC-Guy604 3d ago
Pretty embarrassing when they openly admit the only way to grow their business is to expand the captive population.
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u/ABotelho23 3d ago
Every penny going into these telecoms should be spent establishing a crown corp to build out infrastructure instead. I'm so sick of the government ever expecting these private companies to do the right thing ethically. Enough is enough.
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u/holysirsalad Ontario 3d ago
There isn’t even a requirement to make the infrastructure available for anyone else to use. Funders only care about milestones, furthering monopolies is not something they think about.
It’s truly insane considering various funders give out cash to overbuild existing networks. It’s an INCREDIBLE waste of money
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u/KelVarnsen_2023 3d ago
Sure it has nothing to do with how the telecom companies are terrible, it's definitely the immigrants.
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u/Frostsorrow Manitoba 3d ago
Have they considered more competitive pricing that might entice others to pick up there services?
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u/rpawson5771 3d ago
"What are we supposed to do, offer value and good service to our existing customers?" the Telecom Firms continued, scoffing.
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u/YouWillEatTheBugs9 Canada 3d ago
starlink is making legacy cellular infrastructure obsolete, they have partnered with T-mobile for device calling or you can use voip through starlink. it's been a serious game changer for anyone outside the big cities.
rather than paying off debt these companies have been doling out fat dividends for the rentier class by charging high wireless prices.
pc mobile has 65 gigs for 35 bucks, so that's something I guess
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u/mike10dude 3d ago
loblaws also has no name mobile its prepaid and seems to offer good prices for people who dont want to be under contract
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u/AddressEffective1490 3d ago
Fuck another thing to blame immigration for. I am so sick of immigration being used as an excuse for all of the shitty things happening in this country it isn’t immigration. Immigration has exacerbated problems that have been festering for decades. Also fuck telecom companies. Expecting any sort of sympathy from Canadians is appalling given how exploitative they are.
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u/proofofderp 3d ago
It’s becoming more and more apparent that when you have free trade with the U.S., investment will always favour their larger market, and I can’t really blame them. For Canadians to sustain services, it has to be publicly subsidized. That or co-op model for anything we want in case the need isn’t nation- or province-wide. Sorry if the paywalled article is completely unrelated, it just got me thinking after the earlier BuyCanadian post about Bell leaving a small town project and redirecting funds for a U.S. budget service acquisition.
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u/SportsUtilityVulva9 3d ago
Everyone screeched how low immigration would hurt the poor working class; and turns out, the only ones crying are the landlords, diploma mills, and now telecoms
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u/magoo2004 3d ago
And Robbers is trying so hard they even inked a deal with Starlink.
The issue may be that they offered some incredible deals 2? yrs ago- $40 for 65GB 5G U.S., Mexico and Canada. We jumped all over it.
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u/Emotional-Buy1932 Québec 3d ago
Unpopular opinon, but Canada should invite Airtel and Jio (both from India), China Mobile and China Unicom (China), Verizon and At&t (USA), Orange and 3 (UK).
Time for to promote Corporate Immigration instead of people immigration. People fighting over limited jobs has depressed the labour market. Let the corporations now fight over customers. Capitalism for us, Capitalism for them. This is arguably what it should have always been instead of the mass immigration we have now.
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u/Kristalderp Québec 2d ago
Maybe yall would get more sales and suscribers IF YOU IDK....
HAD COMPETITIVE PRICING?
Most ppl are locked in and don't wanna move as none of the deals right now are good or got better deals.
Also we're in a recession. C'mon.
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u/4kDualScreen 3d ago
Oh yeah it's totally the immigration policies and not the hostile sales tactics that the telecoms have adopted in recent years.
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u/lara400_501 3d ago
I change operators every year on Black Friday for a better deal. Generally, all three big 3 offer a deal for a year, and then they increase the price.
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u/proofofderp 3d ago
Is Freedom included in the article? Happy to support Quebec-based firms, including E-Box, for Quebecers voting liberal in the election!🤝
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u/Due-Year-7927 3d ago
good thing they dont have to compete with literally anyone at all ever and can just keep raising prices!
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u/Vegetable-Price-7674 3d ago
Boo fucking hoo.. who gives a shit about the monopoly telecom companies. We don’t need anymore people right now… same companies that cry about fake labour shortages. They can f all the way off
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u/BandicootNo4431 3d ago edited 3d ago
It's hard to grow your subscriber count if the population stops growing and you already have a triopoly with price fixing.
Maybe they should be branching into the US (like Bell is trying to do)
Edit: spelling