The state of Canadian cellular
I read an article not long ago which basically vilified Canadian's for complaining about cell costs in Canada and it went on to argue 2 things; the quality of the cell networks and infamous infrastructure problem.
The first point is misleading, especially as it relates to the second and it misses a number of other points.
The argument is simple; from my experience, Canada, effectively has no infrastructure problems. Where they may exist, the carriers aren't doing much. And none of this resolves the lack of lower cost and more selective options.
On the infrastructure front, the argument is often framed by pointing out that Canada has a tenth the population in a larger landmass than the US. The tenth the population is correct. Technically speaking, we are a larger land mass. But, when you look at it... oops! Not effectively a larger country is it? Contrast that with a US map. And then consider that the US has great cover even in many of those much darker areas. Where the Canadian map is dark, there is virtually no one living in those regions and you'd MAYBE get a 2G signal, if anything in the southern part of the maps and satellite based phone in anything northerly.
So, I'd like to make 3 more points. Firstly, there is a good chance that if you ignore the uninhabited areas and northerly areas which likely don't get cell tower service at all that Canada is actually more population dense than the US. The population density is also largely contiguous and 3 basic regions easily service over 95% of all Canadian's and that population is all very close to well serviced US regions. In other words, there is no "infrastructure problem" in Canada. Servicing the OVERWHELMING majority of Canadians should, from an infrastructure perspective, actually be EASIER than the US.
As for quality of the networks? Well, given what I just said, you'd be amazed to learn that I disagree with this. It SHOULD be easy for carriers to service virtually all Canadians with top notch cell service. But, that isn't what I experienced. I recently travelled from Ottawa, ON to Middleton, NS along the Trans Canadian Highway. Basically, looking at this image, that would be that MASSIVE contiguous landmass of the densest population in Canada spanning 4 provinces along the south west. That band probably represents more than 60% of the Canadian population. And there isn't a dark spot in the whole damn map there.
I only got LTE in and around the densest of those areas. In many others I didn't even get HSPDA. I was getting a 2G network signal. It is literally a continuous stream of densely inhabited land. And I can't even get LTE. FROM ANYONE. I use Freedom Mobile, which doesn't operate out there, so I was roaming freely the whole time. If someone serviced those areas with LTE, I'd have been connected to it. But, probably 80% of the time... I wasn't.
And, US and other countries are beginning to roll out 5G networks. So, the LTE we get isn't even top of the line.
The quality isn't the top. And the availability of the best of what we got... isn't all that accessible. And the infrastructure argument is BS.
But, if you ignore all of that and agree blindly. It still doesn't solve the real problem. We have neither the price points nor even the options to get there that are available elsewhere. MVNOs don't really exist in abundance because 3 companies have a shared monopoly. The bargain carriers are mostly owned by the major carriers and the prices just creep northwards regularly.
So, the state of affairs is simple. It sucks. And people are feeding you BS answers as to why it sucks.
The first point is misleading, especially as it relates to the second and it misses a number of other points.
The argument is simple; from my experience, Canada, effectively has no infrastructure problems. Where they may exist, the carriers aren't doing much. And none of this resolves the lack of lower cost and more selective options.
On the infrastructure front, the argument is often framed by pointing out that Canada has a tenth the population in a larger landmass than the US. The tenth the population is correct. Technically speaking, we are a larger land mass. But, when you look at it... oops! Not effectively a larger country is it? Contrast that with a US map. And then consider that the US has great cover even in many of those much darker areas. Where the Canadian map is dark, there is virtually no one living in those regions and you'd MAYBE get a 2G signal, if anything in the southern part of the maps and satellite based phone in anything northerly.
So, I'd like to make 3 more points. Firstly, there is a good chance that if you ignore the uninhabited areas and northerly areas which likely don't get cell tower service at all that Canada is actually more population dense than the US. The population density is also largely contiguous and 3 basic regions easily service over 95% of all Canadian's and that population is all very close to well serviced US regions. In other words, there is no "infrastructure problem" in Canada. Servicing the OVERWHELMING majority of Canadians should, from an infrastructure perspective, actually be EASIER than the US.
As for quality of the networks? Well, given what I just said, you'd be amazed to learn that I disagree with this. It SHOULD be easy for carriers to service virtually all Canadians with top notch cell service. But, that isn't what I experienced. I recently travelled from Ottawa, ON to Middleton, NS along the Trans Canadian Highway. Basically, looking at this image, that would be that MASSIVE contiguous landmass of the densest population in Canada spanning 4 provinces along the south west. That band probably represents more than 60% of the Canadian population. And there isn't a dark spot in the whole damn map there.
I only got LTE in and around the densest of those areas. In many others I didn't even get HSPDA. I was getting a 2G network signal. It is literally a continuous stream of densely inhabited land. And I can't even get LTE. FROM ANYONE. I use Freedom Mobile, which doesn't operate out there, so I was roaming freely the whole time. If someone serviced those areas with LTE, I'd have been connected to it. But, probably 80% of the time... I wasn't.
And, US and other countries are beginning to roll out 5G networks. So, the LTE we get isn't even top of the line.
The quality isn't the top. And the availability of the best of what we got... isn't all that accessible. And the infrastructure argument is BS.
But, if you ignore all of that and agree blindly. It still doesn't solve the real problem. We have neither the price points nor even the options to get there that are available elsewhere. MVNOs don't really exist in abundance because 3 companies have a shared monopoly. The bargain carriers are mostly owned by the major carriers and the prices just creep northwards regularly.
So, the state of affairs is simple. It sucks. And people are feeding you BS answers as to why it sucks.
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