This should come as no surprise: Canadians are pretty much near or at the top of the list when it comes to their telecom expenses.

According to a report issued Monday by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), an Ottawa-based consumer advocacy group, Canadians are spending between $100 and $212 a month per household on communications services.

What do those numbers mean exactly? It means Canadian Internet and Phone providers, compared to other country’s providers, are taking advantage of their customers. What’s worse, as Canadians increasingly consider their communications services not just a luxury, but rather a necessity, the poorest are taking the biggest hit.

Low-income households account for between 8 and 15 per cent of the population and an average of 7.6 per cent of their total annual expenditures is going to communications.

That exceeds what they are spending on other necessities like clothing, health-care and education. As a result, they are making cuts in other areas, such as food.

“They are making cuts in other areas, such as food”

This is upsetting to say the least. It’s also frustrating because most of these people don’t know that have an opportunity to save a serious amount on their telecom expenses, simply by changing providers.

Big Telco have a near monopoly on the marketplace due to their aggressive marketing campaigns. They are everywhere, and as a result of this carpet-bombing strategy their captive marketplace is repeatedly told, “you have no place else to go.”

Fortunately, due an improved educated consumer class, increasingly this messaging is falling on deaf ears as smaller ISP’s, like Worldline, are encroaching on their market share.

John Stix, the president of Fibernetics, Worldline’s parent company said,

“There is a clear market trend that we have noticed over the past two years. Our customer base has dramatically increased and that is a simple result of letting more Canadians know, when it comes to Big Telco, they don’t have to take it anymore.”

“Providing a fairly priced, high-quality service is all that Canadians are asking for. Ours is a simple business model: Be nice, be fair, be open and honest and new customers will come. Then, once they are onboard provide awesome customer care to ensure they stay with us forever.”

PIAC suggests that the government and regulatory decision-makers should get involved, and they lay out a five point regulatory program that would change the course of Canadian telecom. Interesting suggestions, however they would take years to implement.

In the interim there is a more market-driven solution, and that is allowing Worldline and other companies like it into more markets and to allow them to let even more Canadians know just how much they can save, simply by changing providers.

Read the whole report here, however if you are looking for a quicker solution to your high telecom bills, give Worldline a call at 1-855-299-0025, or check out what Worldline services you qualify for and see just how much you can save.

There are options out there and it’s great more Canadians than ever are finding them, but clearly more need to be aware that they can switch and save.

Since John Stix introduced the “I’m in!” culture initiative to Worldline less than a year ago, we’ve seen the company completely change, and for the better. It’s impossible to understate just how dramatic the difference in us from then to now.

Every facet of the business, the level of service, sales and the overall feeling of a shared mission, has put Worldline on a great path. One where we are focused on providing the best service from a Canadian telecom to our customers, period.

It all comes from these core values that we try to live up to every day:

Innovation – disrupting and challenging the status quo while having an entrepreneurial spirit by taking risks and dreaming big.

Accountability – taking responsibility for our own actions while understanding the impact on the organization.

Just do it and find the solution – taking initiative with a game plan for solutions.

Trust – building trust through transparency and open, honest communications.

Teamwork – working well with others while respecting values and differences.

Happiness – honouring satisfaction and well-being 🙂

It’s a simple formula to transform a company, and it’s working awesomely. John has been taking his corporate culture philosophy on the road ever since and this week he’s in Fredericton at the East Coast Startup Week, sharing his experience as an entrepreneur and as a C-level executive who changed his company’s course mid-stream and for the better.

This event is over. We will be posting the complete video as soon as possible.

Ookla provides a great service with their Speedtest. A free and easy to use web or mobile app, it allows people to check out their WiFi speeds quickly and accurately. Yet that speed test isn’t telling the entire story. Take this test for example. I was at home this afternoon and I thought I’d check out my data speed using my desktop computer. I have an iMac connected to the Internet via WiFi and have an Apple Airport Extreme router (Mac fan boy, what can I say?) connected to my Worldline cable modem. I have Worldline’s 60/10 Mbps Unlimited Cable Internet service and here’s the results from my desktop (with bonus Worldline advertisement goodness): 57 down and 9 up. Pretty awesome for wireless really. Just out of curiosity (actually not, more on this in a bit), I tested my wireless speed on my iPhone 6 Plus, making sure I was the same distance from the router and the results were, well, surprising: Ouch. 23 down and 10 up. Same WiFi, same router, even the same manufacturer, but the difference? Even with the iPhone 6 Plus being the latest and greatest (and biggest) mobile from Apple, it was only getting half the speed as my iMac. The reason I did this test was we see these same Ookla screen captures from our customers posted on our Facebook page complaining about their wireless speeds. Of course we immediately check out to see if there is anything up with their service, but more often than not, the issue is with their devices, not with us. So, here’s some (hopefully) helpful tips to make sure you are getting the best speeds possible on all of your wireless devices from our award winning tech team in our Cambridge head office:

Worldline’s Tech Support Team Tech Tips

All of that said, if you are getting consistently slow speeds from Worldline, please don’t hesitate to call and we’ll see what we can do to help.