5 ms·

By way of comparison, I'm living in Melbourne, Australia, and pay $55/month for the Nexus S w/ unlimited calls within Australia (including to other mobile phone

by jbarham 15y ago

By way of comparison, I'm living in Melbourne, Australia, and pay $55/month for the Nexus S w/ unlimited calls within Australia (including to other mobile phones), unlimited texts (IIRC) and 500 MB of data. That's for a one-year plan w/ Vodafone, and I didn't pay anything up-front for the phone. Needless to say I'm looking forward to upgrading to the Galaxy Nexus soon. :) My wife has the the same phone and same plan for two years and pays $45/month. The Australian mobile phone market is very competitive, and it has a number of foreign players (e.g., Optus, Vodafone, Virgin). Australian fixed-line telecommunications are much less competitive due to the legacy stranglehold of the former government monopoly, Telstra. IMO Canadians are far too complacent about government sanctioned monopolies or oligopolies (e.g., car insurance in BC, alcohol sales are provincial government monopolies, dairy product quotas, wheat board monopoly) that means they pay more for less choice, supposedly for their own good, when in reality it just enriches an old-boys network of politically well-connected players and condemns the protected industries to being being unable to compete internationally. FWIW I'm Canadian.

maximilianburke 15y ago
BC insurance, from my experience, isn't really a problem. Most quotes I've received in markets where there is a free(r) market for insurance often are considerably higher than what BC drivers pay through ICBC, especially if the driver is under 25. Case in point, I renewed my auto insurance today with ICBC and paid $1470 for 12 months of insurance for a 2007 Mazda 3. The policy includes $2,000,000 liability, collision and comprehensive coverage with $300 deductibles, plus rental car coverage. In the last five years I was rear-ended at a stop light and my car was vandalized once. The equivalent quote from Geico was $2385 which only included $500,000 of liability insurance.
- phillmv 15y ago
  Public insurance has a leg up: because the risk pool is greater it can hedge the risks more efficiently.
- refurb 15y ago
  The reason you are paying lower rates is because the gov't has stepped in and ensured it. Well that and the gov't pays out insurance claims, so it can often limit the huge payouts. The problem is is that when you benefit one group (young drivers), you're usually making someone else pay the difference (lower risk drivers). There is no free lunch.
  - maximilianburke 15y ago
    As it stands now I should be in a low(ish) risk category -- I'm 29, my driving record is clean, I've never been at fault in any accidents, and I drive a boring car. And yet, still, my insurance is considerably lower than if I was buying it in the US. If anyone else has moved from BC to someplace else and is paying less on insurance compared to ICBC for the same services I'd would honestly like to hear it because I haven't yet seen it. I've heard horror stories but I've never had any problems with them, rate-wise or service-wise.
    - woobar 15y ago
      my insurance is considerably lower than if I was buying it in the US How did you come up with this conclusion? In US I paid a little more than a half of what you paying (~$800/year) when I did not have any driving history. I am paying ~$800/year for two cars/two drivers now.
      - maximilianburke 15y ago
        Online quotes through Geico and Progressive, matching the same coverage and deductibles as my current policy for liability, comprehensive, collision, underinsured motorist, rental car coverage, etc.
        woobar 15y ago
        Hmm... I just tried Geico online quote and got some ridiculously high estimate (2x my current premiums). I guess old-fashioned phone call to the agent is still a way to go.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
gyardley 15y ago
The typical Canadian will irrationally defend any policy that differs from the equivalent policy in America, because the typical Canadian's sense of national identity is 10% hockey and 90% 'we're different from the Americans'. We're never going to deregulate and allow a little free-market competition to lower prices as long as these proposals can be criticized as 'Americanization' or 'the American way'. It's not complacency that ties Canadians to our goofy oligopolies, it's our own misguided nationalism.
- nerfhammer 15y ago
  You think American markets aren't oligopolistic, especially telecom?
  - gyardley 15y ago
    Of course they are, in absolute terms. That said, I was making a relative comparison to Canada.
- tomlin 15y ago
  People are driven to play one side of the fence or the other. As an example, many had fought to deregulate our banks. Now, after the recession, where are all these people? crickets Our banks in Canada were one of the only in the world to not suffer serious hardship coupled with millions of dollars lost in foreclosures, lost benefits and savings. This was, without question, due to regulation. Canada would not be in the position it is today had it deregulated the banks. This is a fact served by many, many examples throughout the world. Admittingly, not all regulation is good. Matters like these should be investigated on a individual basis with due process. It isn't a matter of deregulation vs. regulation. Or Canada vs. USA. These mindsets are dangerous as they rubberstamp behaviour without consideration to the influences these actions may or may not have. The CRTC needs good reform, but full deregulation is not my preference. The CRTC must encourage (require?) innovation for Canadians. That's the problem. We're unhappy because we don't have the innovations we should - and we pay top dollar for archaic services. Deregulated media only means Bell/Rogers/Shaw will eventually be in the hands of conglomerates. There are financial advantages to this, but a boat-load of disadvantages not seen immediately. Do you think Comcast or AT&T would continue to employ 50,000+ people in Canada to uphold their Canadian operations had they the opportunity to purchase our telcos? Doubtful. What about our programming? What about censorship in the media - would we eventually adopt the American model if it's less work for them to uphold our model with theirs? With SOPA, we'd essentially inherit American policies without force. Not something I'd consider an improvement.

by jbarham 15y ago

maximilianburke 15y ago

BC insurance, from my experience, isn't really a problem. Most quotes I've received in markets where there is a free(r) market for insurance often are considerably higher than what BC drivers pay through ICBC, especially if the driver is under 25. Case in point, I renewed my auto insurance today with ICBC and paid $1470 for 12 months of insurance for a 2007 Mazda 3. The policy includes $2,000,000 liability, collision and comprehensive coverage with $300 deductibles, plus rental car coverage. In the last five years I was rear-ended at a stop light and my car was vandalized once. The equivalent quote from Geico was $2385 which only included $500,000 of liability insurance.

phillmv 15y ago
Public insurance has a leg up: because the risk pool is greater it can hedge the risks more efficiently.
refurb 15y ago
The reason you are paying lower rates is because the gov't has stepped in and ensured it. Well that and the gov't pays out insurance claims, so it can often limit the huge payouts. The problem is is that when you benefit one group (young drivers), you're usually making someone else pay the difference (lower risk drivers). There is no free lunch.
- maximilianburke 15y ago
  As it stands now I should be in a low(ish) risk category -- I'm 29, my driving record is clean, I've never been at fault in any accidents, and I drive a boring car. And yet, still, my insurance is considerably lower than if I was buying it in the US. If anyone else has moved from BC to someplace else and is paying less on insurance compared to ICBC for the same services I'd would honestly like to hear it because I haven't yet seen it. I've heard horror stories but I've never had any problems with them, rate-wise or service-wise.
  - woobar 15y ago
    my insurance is considerably lower than if I was buying it in the US How did you come up with this conclusion? In US I paid a little more than a half of what you paying (~$800/year) when I did not have any driving history. I am paying ~$800/year for two cars/two drivers now.
    - maximilianburke 15y ago
      Online quotes through Geico and Progressive, matching the same coverage and deductibles as my current policy for liability, comprehensive, collision, underinsured motorist, rental car coverage, etc.
      - woobar 15y ago
        Hmm... I just tried Geico online quote and got some ridiculously high estimate (2x my current premiums). I guess old-fashioned phone call to the agent is still a way to go.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

gyardley 15y ago

The typical Canadian will irrationally defend any policy that differs from the equivalent policy in America, because the typical Canadian's sense of national identity is 10% hockey and 90% 'we're different from the Americans'. We're never going to deregulate and allow a little free-market competition to lower prices as long as these proposals can be criticized as 'Americanization' or 'the American way'. It's not complacency that ties Canadians to our goofy oligopolies, it's our own misguided nationalism.

nerfhammer 15y ago
You think American markets aren't oligopolistic, especially telecom?
- gyardley 15y ago
  Of course they are, in absolute terms. That said, I was making a relative comparison to Canada.
tomlin 15y ago
People are driven to play one side of the fence or the other. As an example, many had fought to deregulate our banks. Now, after the recession, where are all these people? crickets Our banks in Canada were one of the only in the world to not suffer serious hardship coupled with millions of dollars lost in foreclosures, lost benefits and savings. This was, without question, due to regulation. Canada would not be in the position it is today had it deregulated the banks. This is a fact served by many, many examples throughout the world. Admittingly, not all regulation is good. Matters like these should be investigated on a individual basis with due process. It isn't a matter of deregulation vs. regulation. Or Canada vs. USA. These mindsets are dangerous as they rubberstamp behaviour without consideration to the influences these actions may or may not have. The CRTC needs good reform, but full deregulation is not my preference. The CRTC must encourage (require?) innovation for Canadians. That's the problem. We're unhappy because we don't have the innovations we should - and we pay top dollar for archaic services. Deregulated media only means Bell/Rogers/Shaw will eventually be in the hands of conglomerates. There are financial advantages to this, but a boat-load of disadvantages not seen immediately. Do you think Comcast or AT&T would continue to employ 50,000+ people in Canada to uphold their Canadian operations had they the opportunity to purchase our telcos? Doubtful. What about our programming? What about censorship in the media - would we eventually adopt the American model if it's less work for them to uphold our model with theirs? With SOPA, we'd essentially inherit American policies without force. Not something I'd consider an improvement.