Telecom Informer
by The Prophet
Hello, and greetings from the Central Office!
Summer starts earlier and earlier every year, and this year, it was 80 degrees before Memorial Day. Already, fires are raging in the interior of British Columbia, and a thick blanket of smoke has settled over Calgary.
I know where this is likely to end up, and I sure don't want to be here when it does. Fortunately, just in time to escape the madness, my employer began offering furloughs and early retirement packages!
I'm not ready to retire yet, but I'm certainly happy to take a furlough. I have months of vacation time built up anyway, and because we're so short staffed, it has been almost impossible to get approval. The "voluntary furlough program," as The Company put it, is exceptionally generous. I'll continue to be vested in my pension, I can use up my vacation time, I'll remain bonus eligible, and my employee benefits will be fully paid for the duration.
Naturally, during my 90 days of voluntary furlough, I plan to travel. For the summer, heading north to Canada seems like a safe bet (as long as I stick to the coasts, and away from the fires). The U.S. dollar is pretty strong right now, making Canada more affordable than usual. Also, for whatever reason, the requirement to have a passport means that it's a lot less crowded than most summer travel destinations in the U.S.
This, however, means that I'll need mobile phone service.
Now, you might think that roaming in Canada would be pretty cheap and easy. After all, it's right next door. Unfortunately, it is neither cheap nor easy. Verizon charges $10 per day. T-Mobile only allows roaming at normal speeds on their most expensive plans, and these only allow 15 GB of data usage in Canada before it's throttled. Google Fi would work, but they cut you off after 90 days of sustained international roaming, and they're pretty expensive as well. AT&T is similar: in theory, their plans are generous, but if you spend too much time outside the U.S., they'll quickly fire you as a customer. Every U.S. plan I looked at came with annoying limitations that would make traveling full time in Canada unattractive, so I decided to look for a local plan in Canada.
Canada has two nationwide mobile carriers: Bell and Telus. They have virtually identical coverage, because they share towers and spectrum. A third network, Rogers, is technically not nationwide, but has an extensive footprint covering the most populated areas of the country.
Unfortunately, signing up directly was a no-go. Under their own brands, these carriers offer postpaid services where a 24-month contract is standard. And none of them would give me an account without a Canadian Social Insurance Number and pulling a Canadian credit report. I don't have either of these, of course. When I admitted this, one of the salespeople I spoke to was so suspicious that I think she might have reported me to the CBSA as an illegal immigrant!
O.K., fine then. Prepaid services were the way to go, presenting me with a bewildering array of options. And let me tell you, this is absolutely exhausting.
There is a current business trend where companies will repackage the same product under multiple brand names. The pricing will be different, distribution channels may be different, but the product is essentially the same. We see this a lot in the travel industry.
Marriott limited service hotels, for example, come in Courtyard, SpringHill Suites, Fairfield Inn and Suites, AC Hotels, Aloft Hotels, Moxy Hotels, Protea Hotels, City Express Hotels, and Four Points Express by Sheraton flavors. It's all pretty much the same product sold under different brand names, pricing, and distribution strategies. And yes, just to make things more confusing, the last one on the list is literally a sub-brand of a sub-brand.
As in the U.S., prepaid services are either offered as sub-brands of the mobile carriers themselves, or through MVNO arrangements. However, unlike in the U.S., Canada requires mobile carriers to offer roaming services.
There is a quality difference between the national providers (Bell and Telus) and other providers, but it isn't always in favor of the national providers. When you're deciding which network to primarily use, you're deciding between a national footprint without roaming, or a regional footprint where roaming may be required. The size of that regional footprint can be small (for example, the province of Saskatchewan which is served by regional provider SaskTel) or large (Rogers, which serves ten Canadian provinces, but not the northern territories).
Between Telus and Bell (which you'll recall largely share the same network), there are four different prepaid brands, offering wildly different pricing and services. Public Mobile, for example, operates on the Telus side of the shared network. The brand offers both 4G and 5G plans.
100 GB at 5G speeds costs CAD $50 a month on the current promotion, eSIMs are available, roaming is available to the U.S. at no additional cost, and nationwide calling to the U.S. and Canada is included - except, curiously, the following: calls to 411; 511; Reedley, California (559-726-XXXX); Carroll, Iowa (712-775-XXXX); Lake Park, Iowa (712-432-XXXX); Charles City, Iowa (641-552-XXXX); Pine Ridge, South Dakota (605-562-XXXX); Redfield, South Dakota (605-475-XXXX); and Fort Thompsons, South Dakota (605-477-XXXX). (I'm guessing free conference calling services operating in these locations have absolutely nothing to do with this.)
In terms of contracts, Public Mobile is a monthly prepaid product, but no contract is required.
Meanwhile, Virgin Plus, which operates on the Bell side of the same network over the same cellular towers, offers both contract and prepaid plans. If you don't want to get locked into a contract, you are pretty much stuck with prepaid.
A 40 GB a month plan, supporting 4G speeds, is $85 per month (although if you sign up for their "autopay" service, which only works with Canadian credit and debit cards, you get an extra 10 GB a month). You can't roam in the U.S., but unlimited calls within the U.S. and Canada are included. Carroll, Iowa doesn't appear to be blocked by the Terms and Conditions, however. eSIM service is only offered for iPhones, and all other phones need to use a physical SIM card.
Not to be upstaged in the brand fragmentation contest, the mobile carriers offer MVNO arrangements as well. They sell their services to wholesalers, who operate as a platform. They can then resell the service under different brands. The grocery chain Loblaws operates as an MVNO, reselling Bell Mobility service under two brand names: PC Mobile and No Name (the No Name brand offers a virtually identical service, but it's less expensive, is operated as a sub-brand of PC Mobile, and is only distributed at No Frills stores).
A wholesale platform, Ztar Mobile, resells Rogers Wireless and is used by 7-Eleven's Speak Out Wireless brand and Good2Go Mobility (primarily sold at Petro-Canada). And an MVNO is the arrangement used by my mobile carrier of choice, CTExcel.
CTExcel's website is only in Chinese. That's a good sign: when the menu at a restaurant in China is only in Chinese, the prices are usually lower than if you see any English. CTExcel offers prepaid service at competitive pricing, and with a fairly unique feature: you get both a Canadian and a Chinese phone number. Calls to your Chinese phone number will ring your Canadian phone, and there's no additional charge to receive these calls.
Now, this is a huge benefit to me. I don't like getting calls while I'm on vacation (or furlough, as the case may be), and China is currently a Level 3 country on the State Department's advisory list. This means that no company business can be discussed while I'm traveling in China or reached using a Chinese telephone number. I'm required to leave a phone number with the Central Office so they can contact me in emergencies, and you can probably guess which contact phone number I will be providing!
I hope your summer is as relaxing as mine will be. Pay attention to fire reports and fire safety if you're exploring the great outdoors, and I'll see you again in the fall.
References
• FCC 21-68 - AT&T and Verizon were not amused with the shenanigans of FreeConferenceCall.com in Reedley, California.
• China Telecom Canada - Offering many fine mobile services in the Chinese language.
• List of Mobile Network Operators in Canada - Comprehensive list of mobile phone providers in Canada, including MVNOs.
• Ztar Mobile - You'd probably never guess what this company actually does based on their web page.