I readily admit I am simply echoing the chamber with this story, but it needs to be seen by as many people as possible. Mobile data service in Canada is horribly expensive. As Boris said, “this pricing structure is stifling mobile innovation in Canada.”
Here’s a graph that Thomas Purves made (click for the photo page):
The motto of the CRTC, Canada’s telcom regulator is “Communications in the Public Interest”. Right. If you live in Canada, write to your MP. The CRTC, as an institution, needs to be taken out and shot.
I would like to say that Canada is a 3rd world country when it comes to Mobile ICT, except you can clearly see from this chart that even *Rwanda* has orders of magnitude better Mobile Data service than Canada.
This is just sad. Certainly the CRTC is at fault, but the companies themselves deserve some of the blame as well. Write to your MP, but also write to your service provider.
Read: Thomas Purves
MasterMaq's Blog 
I was going to write about this also.
The prices are horrific. The same pattern occurs with data transfer costs at data centres too.
Rogers only offers unlimited data plans as promotions. I think HSDPA (currently in the ‘golden horse sh**’ area will either be a goldmine, or cause people to avoid mobile data considering how quickly they could burn money.
A Rogers store rep told me that HSDPA spread a little this fall or it may wait for a national rollout next year – the latter being really annoying.
The $1600 is $100pm for 200MB plus 300x$5 for the other 300MB, but I believe there are higher plans available that would make it $250pm or less. Today I note that rogers.com is calling data plans "email plans" now which is not at all helpful.
P.S. I wouldn’t bother writing to an MP, because I don’t believe it would make a difference, and MPs are regular people with no real knowledge or influence. Better to moan at the people that run the companies, once you get passed the call centers located in countries that don’t care.
A friend an I were discussing this just yesterday. I’m *naively* waiting to get an iPhone when they’re finally released in Canada, but that won’t be financially possible until the data rates improve.
How does the CRTC allow this kind of stuff to happen? Is this issue simply under the radar? If so, I definitely think some kind of organized initiative should be taken…
I’ve read that the "unlimited" data plans really aren’t unlimited, promotion or not. You’re right though Colin, it’s probably best to go after the companies themselves.
IMO Kyle, the people in charge here in Canada have no idea what they are supposed to be doing. We need people in charge that can take the initiative and allow innovation in Canada to happen.