True Patriot Love - Why Canadians Pay Sky-High Cell Phone Rates

00:00:00.000 today on true patriot love i'm lucky enough to have jim lang with me and we're gonna talk about

00:00:10.200 cell phone rates so we heard uh the other day and uh through the marketplace the globe and mail did

00:00:18.600 a wonderful article on it jim that sell rates are about to go up again well perfect just what we

00:00:24.420 need the food's going up now great well you know it's interesting so we talk about you know we talk

00:00:31.120 about what we can do for affordability yes for canadians and here we go at the beginning of the

00:00:37.020 year actually at the end of 2025 we started to see increase in sell rates right so now when they say

00:00:44.380 increase in sell rates they show a 15 increase in data charges so data is becoming more expensive

00:00:51.520 so you know i i dug into it and i said okay i always thought sell rates to tell you the truth

00:00:57.380 have been going up constantly for the last five years 10 years i just it just felt like it it just

00:01:03.500 felt like it but it has been so and it's a very complicated for a formula but it slowly has been

00:01:10.240 creeping up they provide these discounts to make it optically look like you're getting a discount

00:01:15.400 but overall it has been going up and there's lots of research on this but i looked at turning what a

00:01:21.300 gigabyte a cost per gigabyte in other parts of the world and i i stayed uh through marketplace the

00:01:29.200 research they've done uh through a cost per gigabyte is seven times more expensive than australia

00:01:35.560 25 25 times more than ireland and france a thousand times more than finland

00:01:43.960 so i know i was in the barcelona subway they had an ad for the local cell phone company and we my

00:01:52.800 family we looked at it and we did the conversion from euro to canadian dollar and we couldn't believe

00:01:58.020 how little they paid for how much data they got yeah and it was like that in any country you travel

00:02:03.020 around europe it's shocking how little they pay yeah well now the interesting part when i dug into it

00:02:09.360 which was uh new to me i never realized and uh when you go through it the capital cost because

00:02:16.180 we're talking a lot about budgets it's budget times municipal yeah uh federal you know just went

00:02:21.120 through their budget so we also contribute highly to the infrastructure of cell in canada but we kind

00:02:28.280 of have to because it's so lacking what's so lacking and it's such a big country but so since

00:02:33.940 2015 the federal government has put in 7.6 billion dollars into cell infrastructure

00:02:40.680 so you know i i have it i have a big uh cell tower going up beside me now oh is that right in

00:02:47.540 mississauga okay yeah and all the all the people in the neighborhood wrote letters and we got this

00:02:52.680 wonderful letter back and it said sorry but uh you know uh trans uh crtc and the telecommunications

00:03:00.580 association we followed all our guidelines and you're getting a cell tower right beside you so

00:03:05.600 100 foot big tower with the light on top uh so we get to stare at every night when we're having our

00:03:10.440 coffee so i said really thank you so you know but that is 7.6 billion dollars we put into it through

00:03:17.840 uh since 2015. on the ontario side we've invested 4 billion and that's that whole quest for internet

00:03:25.940 around ontario it's a big problem still in the province yeah it is my well i have my wife some

00:03:31.940 of my wife's family are farmers and rural dairy farmers in fergus and the cows now have computer

00:03:38.320 chips on their collar and they monitor when they milk and how much they milk but it's all reliant

00:03:43.800 on data because you don't have wi-fi in the in the barn and so a lot of them have switched to starling

00:03:51.140 because they need to get the information to monitor their herds and the profitability of their farms

00:03:57.120 yeah yeah oh i know i've read about it and the interesting thing is we looked at scaven

00:04:01.500 scandinavian companies uh australia uh they have a similar situation but again they pay way less than

00:04:09.800 us and sell costs and and service and and gigabytes so but think about australia most of the population

00:04:15.920 is along the coast and it's a you know it's a big country australia yeah but you think melbourne

00:04:21.780 adelaide oh yeah the middle is nothing yeah i mean it's the outback right yeah yeah it's barren

00:04:27.240 it's like a desert yeah yet how come they're able to have in such a big geographical country

00:04:32.260 with a small population such cheaper sell rates well so yeah that's a that's a question a lot of

00:04:39.900 canadians struggle with well it is so last night i'm watching the hockey right so and and what a

00:04:45.760 hockey game the leafs beat the avalanche in overtime with nylander beauty yeah nylander

00:04:50.020 beautiful goal right and i'm watching i think broke a 17 game yes the avalanche being the first

00:04:56.880 place team in the nhl yeah least being well now they've won eight of the last 10 they're in a

00:05:02.080 position for the wild card so they're they're feeling it they're rolling but you know i started

00:05:07.280 kind of so i'm i'm you know sitting there reading the article and i'm uh prepping for the show and i got

00:05:13.020 the uh my younger guy has the leaf game you know streaming on the back and uh of me and i'm listening

00:05:21.000 to a little bit and i'm thinking to myself okay yeah damn rogers right sorry rogers you know i'm 0.59

00:05:27.560 gonna i'm gonna harp on you for a minute but you know bell rogers we only have a couple cell 0.90

00:05:32.360 providers right we had telecommunications we're very limited right so the question right sort of

00:05:39.520 jumps into my mind how much are we paying

00:05:43.860 to sponsor all these teams and so you know and i i know it's a jump and i'm not blaming so before we

00:05:52.680 get in because you and i had this discussion before i'm not blaming the professional teams they just

00:05:57.620 make what they make quite frankly if someone's willing to pay them good for them right why wouldn't

00:06:02.100 you take it yeah so you know if there's a bid and i can you know make more than i should get then

00:06:07.740 have at it right but me as a user doesn't want to pay

00:06:16.440 absorbent and sell rate so i'm i start wondering so then i look into it i said okay you know and

00:06:23.120 there's not uh tried to find the results of our our telecommunications companies it's very hard to find

00:06:28.520 quite frankly i'm sure if i would have dug a little harder i could have found the profitability

00:06:32.140 but i do i did find some interesting stats and quite frankly it looks like our uh telecommunications

00:06:38.520 company bell rogers basically have way better profitability than most of the companies around

00:06:46.460 the world well based on the rates that makes sense doesn't it we're in the higher portal as far

00:06:51.520 as profitability so ebitda for those companies is amazing yeah right you know and when asked

00:06:58.280 they just say well you know we have a very challenging environment here to provide service

00:07:05.260 therefore we need more infrastructure therefore the costs are higher so be it i mean mark carney

00:07:12.720 could fix that in a second all he has to do is say you know what it is time to have open competition

00:07:17.940 for telecommunications cell phone companies in canada vodafone verizon at&t welcome to canada

00:07:26.420 right welcome and see what service they can provide at what price point well there was a guy

00:07:31.600 remember the wind guy yes yeah i can't remember his name it's going to come to me but he he came in a

00:07:37.120 wonderful young guy and he had a lot of fire and he said i'm going to open wind and there were a couple

00:07:42.220 of them came in and they just got bought out disappeared yeah but the bell and rogers control 0.96

00:07:48.120 all the towers in canada they were had they had to rent space on the cell towers yes yes that's the

00:07:55.000 problem they control all the towers all of them but we we just talked about we just put 11.6 billion

00:08:01.840 into the infrastructure you know what if verizon gets a green light to come to canada a company like

00:08:09.840 that they go we'll just make our own infrastructure do you know who we are do you know how much money we

00:08:14.340 have and we'll set up big cell phone services vancouver toronto montreal calgary um the edmonton

00:08:21.060 corridor and some other cities and we'll we don't need your towers right they could do that keep your

00:08:26.320 towers keep your towers keep your own well but shouldn't we be sharing the towers that we've paid

00:08:31.540 for again the government we should be who cut that deal but i don't know think about all the prime

00:08:39.260 ministers and it's all different parties and all different premiers there's no one politician and

00:08:44.760 no one party guilty no no they're all guilty all they have to do is go to the crtc yes which exercises

00:08:50.960 great power over everything else and say you have to share the tower this has to be a public domain

00:08:57.220 for cell service if paul and jim cell phone decide they want to have a startup you have to let them

00:09:03.000 use that tower for their customers but the government won't stop them okay let's pie in the sky

00:09:11.740 for a minute let's dream for a minute the market opens up opens up okay what happens to sports

00:09:20.620 so this is interesting because then i started you know i'm you know this leaf game streaming behind me

00:09:26.420 and i'm uh listening to the game you know great end of the game i i don't know about wearing the

00:09:32.780 nordiques that kind of hurt did you love the nordiques uniform on the avalanche baby blue the

00:09:39.040 are you kidding oh so good no but it kind of it hurt me because they were gone oh yeah i just thought

00:09:45.840 it was beautiful yeah yeah them being in the u.s and not so we have seven nhl can we do that's right

00:09:52.140 uh you know we we suffer through that every playoffs so but 25 american teams yes so it's

00:10:03.400 interesting so the tv rights so for the content yes that roger ended up paying in the new deal

00:10:10.860 is absurd right it's insane right and they're locked in for 12 years 12 years for 7.7 million 7.7

00:10:20.960 billion u.s us so paul if anything does happen to an open market sell service no no they're locked

00:10:27.380 in they have to pay that no matter what because the contract's the contract yeah so 7 7.7 over 12

00:10:34.360 years so you know uh six seven seven hundred eight hundred yeah eight hundred right million a year

00:10:44.700 right yeah yeah so now the american contract is 4.4.5 billion uh and it was signed yeah we're seven

00:10:53.360 years it was signed in 2021 so seven years so six seven hundred million yeah so we pay more so for

00:11:01.560 seven teams right and you and i talked about that i know my head the pure math when i do the straight

00:11:06.400 math i go what that doesn't sound really practical so now our telecommunications companies right

00:11:13.280 compared to the u.s companies that bid on the same contract and tv stations and everyone else who

00:11:19.360 bids on warner brothers and all these people who build on all this content were able with uh 10 times

00:11:27.440 the population in the united states we were able to spend more money for tv rights for hockey now i get

00:11:36.320 hockey's popular just a real if i may yeah i'll tell you how popular yeah so not only do you have huge

00:11:42.700 ratings and interest in the stanley cup final yeah then you have the nhl draft a few weeks later

00:11:48.120 and while it's seen in a few markets in the states it's must watch tv you know streaming service content

00:11:56.280 in canada the week after that it's free agency all the big sports networks have free agency shows they

00:12:02.820 go for hours breaking down the deals that's people spend their canada day watching free agency then

00:12:09.780 they spend all their summer at the campground or the cottage looking at their phone to see oh paul

00:12:14.640 bacucci just signed a contract with the red wings yeah and then it gets to the training camp and then

00:12:19.380 it's another and then it's the olympics and then it's the trade deadline day that's the difference is

00:12:25.040 canadians will spend hours consuming not just the games but trades and signings and drafts and everything

00:12:33.600 that goes around it the the interest for hockey and the nhl canada is so great that's why they're

00:12:39.280 able to get that much money it is but the i'm with you but the majority of the revenue comes from

00:12:44.480 seats tickets right yeah 44 tickets and tv tickets and tv the rest is kind of yeah you know apples and

00:12:51.560 oranges it's it's the patches on the jerseys it's the merchandise it's the concessions all that stuff

00:12:57.080 yeah so but but okay i get it i then i say to myself okay the shift in demographics in canada

00:13:07.120 correct so now uh i did a small survey the other day as we were thinking about this show and i went

00:13:12.960 around you know the office area that we have here general people and the people i know in the general

00:13:19.320 area and us and i went around i said if you had a choice

00:13:23.080 higher cell service but you got your sports for free

00:13:31.200 the leafs the raptors you know you can watch it on tv or lower cell service and people had to buy their

00:13:40.820 sports i don't think it works that way paul it doesn't work that way they your cell service has

00:13:47.900 nothing to do with how much you're paying for the sports because it doesn't have to do with the

00:13:52.520 sports but it is the guarantee by having the monopoly that allows you to take the risk of

00:13:59.560 making that large bid to win the sports contract so it pushes the sports contract up

00:14:05.420 which then you can bid and win it so it allows you to and therefore that's the safety net jim

00:14:11.720 but that is the safety net that allows them to do it and and that's what kind of i'm fine with

00:14:17.660 it all i don't have a problem i love all the teams and i i don't i don't uh as i got older i

00:14:23.880 stopped watching a lot of it quite frankly i'm not that interested in sports anymore but uh i was 0.67

00:14:29.100 sorry jim i was as a younger man but you know what it i just wore out from all the bullshit but 0.85

00:14:35.920 but at the end of the day where i'm at now and i think where i'd have to say 0.68

00:14:41.740 maybe a half of canadians right now would want to see us to a point where people want to consume it

00:14:48.780 pay for it and then allow us to have some more competition in the telecommunication cell area

00:14:57.060 allow it and then let the market because right now with the way the market's formed it's not a true

00:15:03.080 market and that that that's nothing to do with the nhl or it's not their fault no it's not their

00:15:07.880 fault but what that would do is probably not allow an 11 billion dollar contract to be led again i got

00:15:14.960 news for you paul amazon canada amazon prime or netflix yes if they rogers or bell doesn't bid

00:15:21.540 they're pulling in so much money now they're taking over sports broadcasting around the world

00:15:26.840 so you won't have hockey night canada on cbc it'll be on netflix or amazon prime but that's good

00:15:32.820 but that's what i'm saying sure but that's what i'm we're making the same argument i'm saying

00:15:37.800 let it go now because if i want to consume it on one of those networks i can consume it on my own now

00:15:45.560 right right i can pay for that package i can pay for that so now i'm not look i look if i'd love to

00:15:53.680 pay lower cell service i've been trying to pay lower cell service since i got a cell phone

00:15:57.440 right but the government won't allow a true open competition but that that's where we're at now so

00:16:03.800 until the until the government and the crtc decide we will have true competition true open market

00:16:11.460 competition and see what what happens it's a moot point like i i mean paul i'm with you but until that

00:16:20.680 time happens bell and rogers will continue to charge what they charge make what they make and

00:16:26.260 they'll they've got all their powerful lobbyists in ottawa and throughout the prevent provinces and

00:16:32.580 don't kid yourself they have a very powerful lobby group oh and within the crtc yes and even though

00:16:38.240 they talk a good game they still get their way every year yeah when have they not got their way

00:16:43.860 when it comes to cell service when i agree i don't know i i agree i'm not the only time i can

00:16:52.200 think is the crtc ordered bell and rogers to actively advertise the basic basic cable because

00:17:00.380 it was there for your tv package but it was buried on their websites right but now you have to if you

00:17:06.380 called inquire they have to offer it to you that's only because they were ordered to by the crtc but

00:17:12.000 when it comes to cell service they have a myriad of different packages but at the end of the day

00:17:16.800 we as you say we're paying way more than other countries and the government allows it but but

00:17:21.900 pure tv rights okay let's talk about that for a minute okay so as we and you know you get your tv

00:17:27.520 package and you pay for your bundle right yeah your bundle costs more if it includes sports and

00:17:33.400 the course or whatever right i get that there's not that many people so that's kind of dwindling over

00:17:38.920 time i think we all agree the amount of people watching tv is decreasing like regular tv regular

00:17:44.980 tv it's it's almost the like basically one of the only things you're watching right now you'll watch

00:17:50.540 the olympics coming up in a few weeks in milano and cortina regular tv you'll watch well i guess the

00:17:57.940 blue jays are sports and i guess is that regular tv no not really that's a cable channel yep and i know

00:18:03.780 bell slash tsn ctv they put the super bowl in ctv right so that's going to be like there's only a

00:18:11.020 handful of things now in the calendar year where you watch quote unquote mainstream tv and it's not

00:18:16.560 not a streaming type situation right which is great so let's go full bore right okay and then bring in

00:18:26.280 some what i'm saying is now that i think the crt has a good opportunity to open up the market now i think

00:18:32.900 there was a i think there probably was at some point to get the infrastructure built a good reason

00:18:38.500 to do that right it was a more complicated market a smaller market and that's where i got you know

00:18:43.660 i think the reason it was formed and and why they did that was because given the size of our country

00:18:49.760 and the infrastructure so i do agree that with that argument 20 years ago so not anymore 20 years ago

00:18:56.940 no no not anymore but now i think we're at that point where we can say let's bring in some

00:19:02.420 competition let's open up create some more jobs create some more infrastructure uh different

00:19:08.780 infrastructure in the country and you think about cell service in the united states because you live

00:19:12.960 there yeah in the west coast they have a predominant uh server yeah predominant cell phone service in the

00:19:18.880 northeast and the east coast so you could have conceivably the new york boston uh cell phone company

00:19:25.140 extend to the maritimes in the midwest up into ontario and the california one go up into bc that

00:19:31.160 that could easily do that exactly which would open up the market yeah reduce the reduce our costs

00:19:36.580 for communication let sports go off on its own now let sports and then quite frankly they can figure out

00:19:44.160 their own packages and we're not kind of we're not co-mingling them anymore sports is on their own

00:19:52.680 though paul like you have to understand but think about your tv package of bell and rogers you don't

00:19:56.620 you don't want it is to it expects you're not paying for it is to a point right but it's easier

00:20:03.700 for me to bid on something if i know i have a safety net of something else so you know it's an entrepreneur

00:20:09.380 takes a risk he goes into business he puts his own capital he puts his own security in and he goes

00:20:16.260 if i have such a great contract in a monopoly position i can take the risk to do things which then i can

00:20:22.120 bid on contracts at a higher level right if you open up the market you allow that telecommunications

00:20:30.300 industry to level off on its own so we won't see increases sports can go off on its own i think at

00:20:36.720 this point sports sports we can say good luck you know let everyone bid it whether it's netflix or

00:20:42.480 whoever comes in or another uh streaming service whoever comes in and wants to take a run at it

00:20:49.140 and you know good for them because they're on their own right i mean we have they've created

00:20:53.520 their own mark that's something where they haven't been propped up we haven't propped up those networks

00:20:58.560 right where those streaming service we haven't we haven't given them the monopoly of streaming services

00:21:03.520 again that goes back to the government again so i'm edward rogers and i'm rogers i spent hundreds

00:21:10.820 of millions of dollars renovating rogers center to turn it into a beautiful baseball only stadium right i mean

00:21:16.940 that was out of their pockets yeah they decided to take a big gamble and bid on that nhl deal and pay

00:21:24.740 more than the previous deal to secure the rights so yeah we may pay more fees for our cell phone than

00:21:30.940 other countries but we'll have to give a little credit to edward rogers and rogers management for

00:21:36.420 having the guts to go all in on this no no and listen i i don't want to get hurt quite frankly i want

00:21:42.440 everyone to do okay but i think there's a point of disconnect i think there's a point of we we did

00:21:49.000 all that built the stadiums bought the teams did the tv contracts okay fine there's a point where we

00:21:55.500 kind of detach well the market will decide from now on well the yeah the blue jays fans tune in to record

00:22:04.240 numbers for the blue jays playoff run which is good for them that's how they make money and if toronto or

00:22:10.440 edmonton go on a deep playoff run and they have big ratings to the playoffs well then that's the

00:22:14.640 country consuming the product and they're making the profits and if they want to go on rogers or

00:22:19.020 whatever streaming service it's on who's bid for it and watch it on there and love it i'm all for it

00:22:25.160 i'm all for it i think it's it it's on its own at that point and then and and i think now that the

00:22:32.320 infrastructure is built the infrastructure we've paid for the so you know part of it is as a community

00:22:37.540 we've paid for the infrastructure of our own cell service but at the same time you're saying that

00:22:42.780 i own a company and i have five different businesses yes and one is more profitable than

00:22:48.860 the other and i take some of the profit from that one company to bid on the something else from the

00:22:53.440 other company that's done all the time and that's what rogers did with the money for their tv contract

00:22:58.080 and i'm okay with it if they want to do that down the road once we open up the market and we allow

00:23:03.940 other cell providers and i'm okay with it the deal's locked in paul so so i mean no right now

00:23:10.320 they gotta pay that money till the end of the deal the tv deal's locked in but maybe there is a

00:23:15.540 transition point here that's what i'm saying okay like if we get to the next of the end of the contract

00:23:20.120 the end of the contract say we get to the end of the 12 years by the end of the 12 years paul

00:23:24.180 the the world will change the media world will be will be so different i'm raising young adults

00:23:30.320 who watch everything streaming who don't watch regular tv the other thing is most younger you

00:23:39.260 know let's say people uh 20 years younger than us or 40 40 years younger than us right they're not

00:23:45.700 watching full games anymore like my like my son doesn't watch my son watches highlights off his

00:23:51.860 phone uh you know as he's studying they'll watch the the women's gold medal olympic hockey game

00:23:58.220 they'll watch you know that they'll pick the highlights they'll watch a super bowl at a super

00:24:04.300 bowl party they'll get together yeah in a backyard for a backyard uh someone's got their screen set up

00:24:10.520 for a stanley cup game and they have the viewing parties it's it's more of a selective event i think

00:24:17.400 that it was where you just habitually came home had dinner sat down and put the tv on yeah every

00:24:23.480 wednesday and saturday night right we were in front we watched the leaf game right and we loved it and

00:24:28.220 we we enjoyed it we you know when the blue jays played we watched the blue jays exactly i get it

00:24:32.700 but it's not consumed that way anymore no quite frankly so i i think we can i i think it's a good

00:24:38.820 time to start the conversation that's the show today now that it's not trying to harm it's not

00:24:43.520 trying to harm anyone i'm not trying to say stop tomorrow what i'm trying to say is okay we realize

00:24:48.580 it now we have enough runway for this contract to move its way through so and when we get through

00:24:55.200 the transition i'm not i'm not particularly happy to pay more for cell service i'd be truthful with

00:25:01.180 it because uh having spent a lot of time living in the u.s uh i was shocked when i came back to

00:25:07.660 you know it always always put me on my arse well if you travel to europe anywhere right like when i

00:25:13.280 came back but but i understand i understand the infrastructure i understand all the reasons yeah 0.73

00:25:18.240 yeah yeah but now i'm like okay the reasons have been used over and over and over again it's now time

00:25:25.080 to put a trans let's call it an off-boarding program let's call it an off-boarding program 1.00

00:25:29.760 where we detach right so the you know there's no when others enter the market you we won't be harmed

00:25:39.080 because they have done i agree you know ted rogers and and you know bell and all these they've done a

00:25:45.220 terrific job on supporting the telecommunications network huge huge but it's time now to start to

00:25:52.600 let some other people into the market to get our it's we're no longer because we're so dependent on it

00:25:58.840 before you know we still had the the line the landline and we had the ability to communicate

00:26:04.500 differently now we're solely on our phones so it's time to look paul i meant drop off i know that'll

00:26:13.960 change sports it will okay but you know what they'll adapt they'll adapt they'll find another way to

00:26:19.640 create revenue to keep they'll adapt they'll be fine yeah but until the government stops creating

00:26:25.480 excuses because there's always a reason why we're gonna it's what's that the corporate speak

00:26:30.940 we're looking into this we're investigating this we're something we're tabling at a future

00:26:35.720 and then someone else has voted in as prime minister and then it gets put in the back burner

00:26:41.280 and there's something else that comes up it's covid it's wacko donald trump it's 51st state it's

00:26:47.160 invading venezuela there's always something to distract from what the goal is and until a government

00:26:52.880 leader stands up and says we are going to open up cell service to competition and say even if it's two

00:26:59.520 more companies limited that's two more companies than we have now then maybe that changes the fee

00:27:04.600 yeah well and i definitely think it has to happen now but it is a it is a plan that transitions us to

00:27:11.900 it well here's another question for you with the feelings that canadians have about america with the

00:27:18.220 fact that travel continues to plummet month after month how many canadians i'm being honest yeah would

00:27:24.640 say i'm with an american cell phone company i don't think it can be an american cell phone company

00:27:30.920 right and to your point of one coming through california yeah yeah i get that that's a good

00:27:36.420 point but i don't think it can so it's so say vodafone it wasn't uh the gentleman who came sorry

00:27:41.340 i'm having a uh memory lapse but the one gentleman who came and tried to open a company it wasn't wind

00:27:46.820 it was the other company um he was from egypt yeah okay middle east yeah and he came and he

00:27:54.100 tried to start up and he got bought out quickly right yeah and it was kind of i think his um his

00:27:59.800 exiting comments was this was a kind of a worthless endeavor because i never had a shot anyways so they

00:28:04.780 they bought him out they stroked a check for i think 30 something million he left kind of covered

00:28:09.340 his costs and a little bit of money and went to buy so if the government opens it up and gives

00:28:13.800 whomever comes in a legitimate reason to compete and a level playing field so it's fair to them

00:28:21.540 yeah and they're not an american-based company because right now let's be honest uh and with

00:28:27.140 everything going on with ice with venezuela with the talk about greenland i i don't know many

00:28:31.960 canadians will they'll say i'd rather pay extra bell and rogers because it's canadian no no i'm with

00:28:37.600 you i i agree i don't think it can be an american company so then we'd have to open it up to some

00:28:42.440 european company but european companies you know to your point uh soccer and uh telecommunications

00:28:48.520 companies huge is huge massive they know how so they can come in yeah and they can figure out a

00:28:53.860 network and they can figure out how to support our our we can achieve both i agree we can't achieve

00:28:59.680 both tomorrow but we can achieve both with some runway that doesn't harm anyone and leave us uh

00:29:05.580 leave existing companies at risk and at the end of the day the average canadian pays less for cell

00:29:10.680 service and all our favorite sports teams continue to exist but but then okay so now

00:29:16.400 infrastructure let's talk about that for a minute so this is an interesting thing in the budget and

00:29:21.420 everywhere we look then we have to stop because if the market's going to open up and people are going

00:29:28.460 to come in and there's going to be competition for cell service then the infrastructure has to be

00:29:32.580 covered exclusively by those companies so that has to be built into the costing of the

00:29:39.920 so you have to share the existing infrastructure that the you know as we talked about the 11.6

00:29:47.580 billion dollars we have to share what we have in place and then quite frankly we have to figure out

00:29:52.700 how to um offload out of the government coffers further infrastructure into telecommunications

00:30:00.060 i think infrastructure in any sense is good for the country and the more telecommunication we have

00:30:06.760 especially in small town rural canada from coast to coast is a necessity for the country there there are so

00:30:14.060 many times people are driving in this country and they see on their their their dashboard they have no

00:30:20.020 cell service but that'll be the so that's the great thing about competition it'll spur those to

00:30:25.680 find those populations to get them on their network and fill up the gaps and find ways uh through

00:30:31.500 technology to serve them so i think that's the benefit of bringing people in and having them look

00:30:37.200 at it differently so that'll be satiated by bringing more people into the market so they get

00:30:43.080 offloaded government budgets basically reduce our cell service numbers go down and quite frankly

00:30:49.720 those who want to consume sports they go off and consume sports and whatever fashion manner they

00:30:55.060 want most people they're buying the sports app they are they're doing it now they're doing it now they're

00:30:59.340 just they're they'll do it out of whatever new price model right gets adjusted out of the change

00:31:05.440 yeah but now's the time to do it and i i don't know why quite frankly you know when i saw the article

00:31:11.640 the other day and i'm reading through it you know shout out to the globe mail guys it was a great

00:31:15.640 article um you know i i'm thinking to myself why are we still having this conversation right this

00:31:22.260 conversation to me is like um you know 20 years old clean water and uh first nations prop you know

00:31:29.260 lands way up north i'm like why are we still having this conversation like we have to now transition

00:31:34.900 and figure out a plan to get there so and if mark carney his whole world tour is on right now

00:31:41.220 is to double what he said double investment from other countries other than america isn't that a

00:31:47.420 perfect way to get the ball rolling oh yeah and they'd love to come in right great experience well

00:31:53.940 and we have the experience canadians we're in the we're in the market there's thousands of people in

00:31:59.360 the telecommunications good marriage of the two right yeah we have experience here already people can

00:32:04.760 come in with their networks and off we go yeah and right now all the stats are showing canadians

00:32:10.040 when it comes to travel or avoiding the u.s like the plague where are they traveling most to the

00:32:15.000 warm areas in the caribbean or europe yeah they're already traveling in europe in bigger numbers than

00:32:20.280 we've seen in recent years and it will change it's going to change more and more as time goes on

00:32:25.260 because that relationship is going to stay that way at least for the next three years so is it ever

00:32:31.100 yeah good talk thanks jim go leafs go yeah go leafs go so stay tuned we're going to do more shows on

00:32:37.060 of course telecommunications as we move forward and uh subscribe watch and like and get the app

00:32:44.000 get the app the new app

True Patriot Love - January 20, 2026

Why Canadians Pay Sky-High Cell Phone Rates

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