Once upon a time Canadians didn’t have much of an option when it came to Unlimited High Speed Internet, but as more choice has sprung up, more and more are fleeing The Big Three looking for a better deal, better service, less hassle, not contracts…

You know, like what we do here at Worldline.

Unfortunately the reality for mobile telecom in Canada is far more problematic. Pretty much the only real options available are The Big Three and they are doing everything they can to keep it that way. Witness the current coordinated marketing bombardment underway telling Canadians that the worst thing that could possibly happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime would be to have a fourth national mobile phone option in the Great White North.

The Vancouver Observer documents how they’ve invested some of their record profits into an expensive PR campaign, including misleading full page newspaper ads, in a clear effort to try to convince Canadians that cell phone service is not as bad as we know it is.

They report:

Big Telecom’s ads rely heavily on a recent report on cell phone prices from Wall Communications that was commissioned by the government and the CRTC. Other reports on cell phone prices differ, with the well-respected J.D. Power Report concluding that Canadian cell phone bills rose by 13% in the last year – that’s thirteen times the rate of inflation!

We all know how Big Telecom loves to cherry-pick information. Here’s what you need to know about the Wall Report:

• Telecoms expert Michael Geist responded to the report by pointing out that “Canada is described as being “on the high side” for virtually every key category, with only the U.S. faring consistently worse.”

• Why does the U.S. seemingly fare worse in the report? Expert Peter Nowak has the answer, explaining that “On the wireless side, the new Canadian entrants are included, yet down in the United States, only AT&T, Verizon and Sprint are counted.” – no wonder Canada seems to fare better, when cheaper U.S. providers were excluded from the comparison entirely. This is a bit like comparing the cost of a Ford or Toyota in Canada to the cost of a BMW or Mercedes in the U.S., and concluding that cars cost cheaper in Canada!

• There were similar issues with the comparisons to cell phone providers in the UK, with expensive providers like BT and Vodafone being included in the comparison, while much cheaper providers such as Tesco and GiffGaff were not.

• Nowak also points out that the Wall Report compares just six countries, three of which (Canada, Japan, and the U.S.) are among the most expensive in the world for wireless. Nowak explains that “When additional countries are included in comparison – the Wireless Matrix compares 50, including 19 developed nations – Canada’s standing isn’t so middle-of-the-pack.”

• Reddit user NowNowGuys makes a great point: “The ad is spinning the fact that on one or two tiers of service, the US is even worse than Canada. The report also compared only 6 countries, Australia, Canada, US, France, UK and Japan.”

• Why weren’t more countries included in the report? According to Peter Nowak, report author Gerry Wall says he “wishes he could include more countries in his comparison, but he simply isn’t given the budget to do so.” – no prizes for guessing why the government wouldn’t want to provide funding for a proper assessment of Canada’s high cell phone prices.

• Where there has been a price decrease, it’s because our more affordable, independent providers are finally making their presence felt.The report found that new independent providers such as Mobilicity, Public Mobile and Wind Mobile were between 14% and 39% less expensive than the Big Three depending on the level of service. (Wall Report, page ii). Data plans from independent providers are 39% cheaper than the Big Three. (Wall Report, page ii). These indie providers are are in a precarious position because while we have made some progress, the government has yet to undo regulatory protections for Big Telecom incumbents, and level the playing field.

Cherry-picking, slanted data, isolated stats. That’s how the spin is supposed to be forcing Canadians into believing something that isn’t in their best interests.

However, one has to suspect since the last debacle over capping Internet limits to screw the likes of NETFLIX, this isn’t going to work.

There’s a trust deficit with The Big Three that this current misinformation campaign is only making worse.

So much so that Canadians are actively hoping for an American behemoth to come north in the hopes of saving us from our mostly homegrown telecom companies.

And just how weird is that?