Canadians criticize Rogers after Ontario blackout and wireless plan price hike

Canadians are unhappy with Rogers Communications’ recent announcement to raise prices on some of its plans and packages starting this month, which will result in customers paying more for their wireless packages in 2024.

Rogers Communications spokesman Cam Gordon said Yahoo News Canada An average price increase of $5 per month will apply to Rogers and Fido wireless customers who are not on contract, while others will not experience a change to their base monthly service rate for the duration of their contract.

The price change update came around the same time the telecommunications company faced service outage complaints from Ontario users on Thursday night, affecting about 55,000 people, according to Downdetector, and lasting less for an hour before returning to normal.

Disgruntled by the two contrasting events, Canadians took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to express their anger against the Toronto-based wireless service provider.

In response to frustration among Canadians over the service interruption, Gordon said Yahoo Canada While some customers in the Greater Toronto Area may have experienced a “brief degradation of their residential services” Thursday night due to a technical issue, there was “no impact to cell phones.”

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“We are committed to providing mobile and residential services with the highest standard of quality and reliability to provide our customers with the best network experience,” he added.

Canadians question Trudeau government’s promise to lower prices

In late March 2023, the federal government approved Rogers’ multi-billion-dollar acquisition of Shaw Communications, following which Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Rogers Communications CEO Tony Staffieri pledged to lower prices. prices for customers.

“If the parties fail to meet any of their commitments, our government will use every means at our disposal to enforce the terms on behalf of Canadians,” Champagne had said then, noting that Rogers Communications is subject to financial penalties of up to $1. . billion for non-compliance.

The recent price increase put the conditions of the merger, none of which included securing commitments from Rogers to stabilize or reduce the cost of its wireless plans, back into the spotlight, with the opposition accusing the Prime Minister’s government of Justin Trudeau to give Canadians a “slap in the face.”

“Minister @FP_Champagne, you promised that prices would stay low. You promised that the Rogers-Shaw deal would create a fourth player to reduce cell phone bills. A $9 a month increase by Rogers and Bell is a slap in the face to the Canadians and it is “Telephone hell in a nation that pays more,” said Pan-Canadian Shadow Trade and Competition Minister Ryan Williams. wrote in X.

The NDP’s Bhutila Karpoche also criticized the Liberal government, accusing it of “ripping off” Canadians.

“Canadians pay some of the highest phone plan costs in the world. After the federal government promised to reduce costs by 25 percent, Rogers is now raising costs this year for certain plans. It’s yet another way in that they are scamming Canadians.” Karpoche aware in X.

Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne criticized Rogers’ new plans to charge Canadians more for the airline’s services, but said progress had been made in lowering prices.

Canadian telecommunications associations and Rogers say prices are falling

In response to public criticism of price increases by Rogers Communications, Cam Gordon said Yahoo Canada The telecommunications giant introduced new plans in May, September and November of last year to bring more affordability to Canadians.

The Canadian Telecommunications Association, an organization that works with the government and other stakeholders, said Yahoo Canada “Wireless Internet access and mobile phone prices have been falling for several years despite significant overall increases in the inflation rate.”

The price index for Internet access services has decreased nearly 7 percent over the past five years, while prices for cellular services have decreased more than 47 percent during that same period, according to the Retail Price Index. Statistics Canada Consumer.

Internationally, operators in countries such as the United States and Australia have also recently increased prices for many of their services, including a 17 percent increase in the United Kingdom.

While the cost of data plans has been steadily decreasing, Canada continues to rank among the top 25 countries with the most expensive wireless plans in the world.

Add to that the frequent outages that, according to multiple accounts from Rogers Communications users, proved unreliable in September and October 2023, a year after the company’s massive system outage in 2022 that affected more than 12 million Canadians. . .

Yahoo Canada It also reached out to other key carriers in Canada, including Bell, Telus and Freedom Mobile, to confirm whether they too were raising prices by 2024, but did not receive a response before publication.