(Toronto) Telecom industry watchers are hopeful that prices for phone and internet services in Canada will continue to fall, but point out that there is still a long way to go when it comes to affordability in this sector in the country .
Statistics Canada inflation data for the month of June shows consumers paid 14.7% less for cellular services compared to the same month last year, after following an 8, 2% observed in May.
The federal agency attributes the relief in phone bills to both lower prices for cellular data plans and promotional prices.
Gerry Wall, whose Wall Communications Company publishes an annual report comparing prices for cellular and internet services in Canada with those in other countries, says the data is consistent with trends showing that the costs of telecommunications services in Canada have decreased in recent years.
He attributes the decline to technological improvements, which have made networks more efficient, and he believes that more competition – notably with the entry of Videotron, owned by Quebecor, into the national market through its acquisition of Freedom Mobile – could accelerate these declines.
The latest Wall Communications report, released in February and prepared for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, found that Canada still had some of the highest prices in the world for cellphone and broadband services in 2022.
