I moved from the UK to Canada and the one thing I've noticed is that Canada loves protecting its monopolies. I'm used to my cell phones being usable anywhere. H

I moved from the UK to Canada and the one thing I've noticed is that Canada loves protecting its monopolies. I'm used to my cell phones being usable anywhere. Here's the list: France, Holland, Spain (and multiple Spanish islands), Turkey and the US. However, when I arrive in Canada I'm sent a nice message saying I can send and receive SMS messages, but I can't make calls. This is apparently considered nice as my phone connected to Rogers, from what I've heard they're the only company with deals to out of country companies. Needless to say I'm happy that the Canadian government is considering legislation to open up the cellular market to outside owners. However, when I go to buy a book I have a nice choice between Indigo, Chapters and Coles. Incidentally, they're owned by the same company. They're the only bookstore I've seen in my whole time here and they're one in the same. Amazon is restricted to hell in what it can do, it apparently can't own warehouses inside of Canada so they struck a deal with CanadaPost that allows them to use the entirety of one of their warehouses in (IIRC) Mississauga as their Canadian distribution center, and apparently Indigo/Chapters/Coles wanted Amazon kicked out of the country, their one and only competition. The monopolies in the country are insane. All big companies are completely protected from outside competition and because of this they exploit it to hell. Bell Canada actually sent out modems to people who aren't their customers and then said if they don't return them they'll charge them $200. Not too long after they'd stopped doing that they started sending us Cancellation of Service notices demanding we pay a late ~$40 off the bill due (IIRC the first one was) July 11th by July 2nd. We were supposed to pay between July 11th and August 11th, they wanted a late payment for that month by July 2nd before they accept payment. After multiple months of that crap we're now switching to Cogeco, only because we've got a friend who works there. I'd like to go with Rogers as lots of people have said good things about their customer service, but no shit I can't get internet where I live! I'd have to go with their rural service and I live in a city.