Author Archives: info@worldline.ca

Rogers Reveals: Broadband Internet Prices to Increase, Unlimited Plans “Short-Sighted”

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If you think that Rogers is going to cave in on their bandwidth caps, think again.

From Michael Geist:

On Wednesday’s quarterly call a Rogers company executives indicated that consumer broadband Internet prices – which the OECD recently reported were among the ten most expensive in the developed economy world – will continue to increase. Moreover, the company called unlimited bandwidth offers “short-sighted” and recent price increases just one step in the efforts to monetize broadband services.

Rob Bruce

Rob Bruce

Robert Bruce, President of the Communications Division, stated:

“The other important thing that I think we should say about Internet is, it is the key to the future of our business, hence, monetizing the increased bandwidth usage will rapidly become the future across all our businesses, whether it’s wireless or wireline. So there is — there are clearly some unlimited offers out there. We think they’re fairly short-sighted as Internet is the future of the business… “

“We have significantly enhanced the value of this product, and overtime, it is our plan to monetize it accordingly and the price increase that you would receive in the mail would’ve just been 1 step in that monetization that we think will continue as Internet becomes the backbone product in the home.”

The description of unlimited Internet plans as short-sighted are telling, since Rogers currently offers such a plan. Why is Rogers engaged in pricing its own executives describe as short-sighted? The Rogers offers was merely a response to a Bell offer. If the Bell offer disappears, so will the Rogers plan.

wl_save_internetWith limited competition, favourable pricing plans will come and go, with executives anxious to increase prices and implement usage caps. The only solution is sufficiently robust competition that all players are continually forced improve service and keep pricing in check in order to retain and attract customers.

Rogers recognizes how dependent the public has become on the Internet. While the company points to improvements in its services, the OECD data shows that most countries are continually improving their services, yet stronger competition dictates that prices do not necessarily follow. Canada already has some of the highest broadband prices in the world and, given the lack of competition, Rogers is telling the investor community it sees the potential for even higher prices and usage caps.

Big Telecom V.S. Canada — Who Will Win?

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Usually we like to write our own posts on this subject, but the following is a masterpiece.

Big Telecom V.S. Canada — Who Will Win?

From the Huffingtonpost.ca
David ChristopherDavid Christopher Communications Coordinator for Openmedia.ca

BigThreeBig Telecom is at it again – Telus is now actually threatening the government with legal action if they follow through on their commitment to stop the Big Three cell phone giants from taking over public spectrum assets that were set aside for new affordable telecom options for Canadians.

Telus reps are throwing a tantrum because they are afraid of losing the regulatory protections they’ve received in the past. We’ll see if the government gives in, but if they do it will be a complete about-face — the Conservative website currently boasts “We will not allow the big telecommunications companies to shut down competition by buying up undue amounts of wireless spectrum.”

Let’s not forget that this latest affront from Big Telecom on Canadians comes after we’ve just seen Telus and Bell introduce new two-year contracts with substantially higher monthly rates than before. It now looks like Rogers are following suit and increasing their monthly rates too.

These price-gouging hikes come despite the fact that Big Telecom is making huge profits off the backs of Canadians who already pay some of the highest prices in the industrialized world — as confirmed by a recent 320-page independent report — for some of the worst service.

The price hikes are further evidence that Big Telecom have embarked on a systematic campaign to undermine our widely welcomed new cell phone rules — rules that were shaped by thousands of Canadians who took part in CRTC consultations. Big Telecom’s multi-pronged campaign against Canadians includes:

  • Going to federal court to undermine and delay new cell phone contract rules.
  • Increasing their already sky-high monthly cellphone rates and using the new CRTC rules as an excuse.
  • Unleashing an expensive and misleading PR campaign, including full-page ads in newspapers across the country.

Why these higher monthly rates? Big Telecom’s flimsy excuse is that this huge jump in monthly fees is because of our long overdue move to two-year contracts. What do the experts have to say about Big Telecom’s claims? Here’s what you need to know:

    • Telecom expert Professor Michael Geist examines Big Telecom’s argument in detail in this well-researched piece on his blog. Professor Geist concludes that “Without new competitors, the incumbent carriers will use this opportunity to increase monthly costs.” In other words, our higher monthly fees are the product not of shorter contracts, but of lack of independent choice in the marketplace — over 93% of the market is currently dominated by just three large, unaccountable conglomerates.
    • Professor Geist also highlights that many other countries have 2-year contracts with cheaper rates than here in Canada. Spain for example has a highly competitive wireless market with much lower prices than here in Canada. Fancy a new iPhone 5 on a 2-year contract for under $35 a month, including 1GB of data? You’ll have to move to Spain for that. That same deal from Telus will cost you $85 a month under their new pricing structure.
    • Expert analyst Peter Nowak points out that even Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) users will see their fees increase under Telus’ new fee structure — despite the fact that BYOD customers aren’t tied to a two or three year contract term. Big Telecom clearly doesn’t need any excuse to price-gouge Canadians — that’s why Canadian carriers make more money off of cell phone users than almost anywhere else in the industrialized world (fourth highest in the entire 34-country OECD).

Big Telecom also likes to use the excuse that our sky-high prices are the result of Canada’s large size. Our own Catherine Hart thoroughly debunks that argument, crunching the numbers to show that most Canadians live in a handful of cities – that’s why, according to Big Telecom’s own lobby group, Canada has just a quarter the number of wireless towers that the U.K. has – despite our being 40 times the size of the U.K.

Our high cell phone prices are acting as a real dead weight on our economy, stifling innovation and hampering job creation. Canada cannot afford to keep falling further and further behind our counterparts in the rest of the industrialized world.

It looks like it’s Big Telecom against price-gouged Canadians, innovators, entrepreneurs and business, legal experts; and the list goes on. It’s Big Telecom against Canada – and I for one am betting on Canada to win like we have in the past.

The way ahead is clear – we need bold action to lower prices by opening up our networks to all Canadians and new service providers. This idea has worked successfully in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand. Canadians have laid out a clear road map forward – send this road map to your M.P. and demand action – tell your M.P. that Canadians have put up with Big Telecom’s price-gouging and disrespectful customer service for long enough.

P.S. If you haven’t already, don’t forget to tell Canada’s new Industry Minister James Moore you expect him to rein in Big Telecom at: DemandChoice.ca

For the full article, go here…

Taking on giants By Richard Branson

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By  – Jul 25, 2013

What does an upstart need to take on a giant and win? Nothing but bravery, good people and a great idea. If you have a brilliant team around you, are determined to make it work and develop a concept that will genuinely have a positive impact upon people’s lives, then nothing can stop you.

I loved Luke Johnson’s recent FT article about cutting titans down to size. He contested a Wall Street Journal piece suggesting that new entrepreneurs don’t have the animal spirit to succeed: “Ingenuity and ambition are all that the pioneer needs to take on established businesses.” He also questioned the assumption that large corporations make it tough for new companies to get a foothold.

Big, stale industries that are set in their ways are ripe for disruption. The well-known players will have got used to succeeding without reinventing or innovation. A superb new idea with superior customer service, marketed in a refreshing way, will be able to cut through the competition. As Luke puts it: “The tendency towards consolidation creates opportunities for innovative newcomers.”

 

Whatever the sector, there are opportunities just waiting to be seized. The established giants can’t stop you – in fact, the only one who can hold you back is yourself.

By . Founder of Virgin Group

A Worldline Review

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tumblr_mpkyxirvXG1qd2pfmo1_500How do you combat a bad, or worse, an illegitimate, review?

We here at Worldline are relatively new to this whole “social thing,” and having spent years with our heads down, working hard at keeping our existing customers happy while acquiring new ones, there is plenty that we’ve missed online.

Plenty.

Search engines like Google and Bing or review sites like Yelp or Redflagdeals provide prime Internet real-estate for folks to rant about how bad they think a company is – all with essentially zero accountability.

When we read these, the first thing we do (now), is figure out if they are our customer, and if they are, we get in touch and fix the problem. If you go to our Facebook page, you’ll see plenty of cases where we’ve resolved an issue, and in the end we’re both happy. Problem solved.

However, there are these other “reviews” from mystery posters. People who sound like they are just making stuff up. Who are they exactly? What is their agenda? Who do they work for? Those are the questions that pop to the front of our minds – because in most cased they are talking about us in a way that doesn’t sound a lot, or even a little, like us.

They’re complaining about our overcharging them (when our prices have never been anything like what they are saying), or us forcing them into signing a contract, (which we don’t have), or us charging a cancellation fee, (which we don’t do) or my favourite, us charging too much for Cable TV (a service we don’t, as yet, have).

There have long been reports and rumours of businesses posting negative reviews of their competitors’ products or companies, but according to the LA Times, new research shows that now, more than ever, people are writing extremely negative reviews about products they never purchased.

Duncan Simester, a marketing professor at MIT, and Eric Anderson of Northwestern University did a study based on reviews posted on the website of a major private-label apparel company that generates hundreds of thousands of reviews.

The duo found that about 5% of the product reviews were written by customers with no record of actually purchasing the item. Those reviews were “significantly more negative” than the remaining reviews.

Digital Home PhoneFor Worldline, whose reputation is everything, this is a problem because studies show that 72% of consumers say they believe the reviews posted online. We also know that people looking for Unlimited High Speed Internet and Digital Home Phone services are searching online.

In just a few minutes a new one of these reviews, truthful or not, can hurt the excellent reputation that we have spent years developing and frankly, earning.

It’s a problem we are now confronting head on, challenging those that are, simple put, nonsense, and dealing with those who do have a legitimate point on a case by case basis.

We guess the bottom line is, when you’re online doing research, never believe everything you read.*

* except for here of course.

They tried, but failed. Canadians speed up “cutting the cable”

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Cutting the CableEarlier this year, in what was certainly a shocker to the TV programming supplying folks, a report came out saying that in 2012 a full 8 percent of Canadians dropped their TV service and instead relied entirely on broadband Internet to get their video fun.

Today those TV people must be looking for the defib paddles.

In a new survey commissioned by Google, it turns out that 8 percent number was a wee bit low. Try twice that, as in 16 percent!

That’s despite the aggressive tactics The Big Three rolled out over the past year by instituting low bandwidth caps on their loyal unsuspecting customers to try to stop them from watching Netflix and Youtube.

According to the recent comScore survey, an additional 35 percent watch both traditional TV and online video  and an additional 35 percent only watch traditional TV, reports the Canadian Press.

Canadians watched 2.9 billion YouTube videos a month, which equals an average of 127 videos per user and five videos per visit.

Some of the biggest Canadian ISPs restrict their users to as little as 20 GB per month on some plans, with overages of up to $4 per additional GB, which has forced companies like Netflix to lower their default video quality for Canadian viewers.

Critics have long argued that ISPs use these pricing schemes to restrict online competition and keep viewers glued to their own TV offerings. comScore’s numbers seem to suggest that these efforts have clearly failed.

wl_save_internetAll of The Big Three have subsequently come out with Unlimited High Speed Internet plans to battle the bad press, (although all of their plans are just about double what we at Worldline charge), but the harm was already done.

Canadians have begun to realize they simply don’t have to take it any more.

Good for them.

(and good for us)