Government’s wireless price drop promise should be altered: Bibic

GATINEAU, Que. — The Liberal government’s promise to lower mobile service bills by 25 per cent should be measured from 2018 or when “unlimited” plans were introduced, rather than, as the government is planning, from December 2019, BCE Inc. CEO Mirko Bibic said. Speaking to reporters after appearing at the CRTC’s wireless review hearing Wednesday, Bibic said that starting point is preferable because the launch of no overage wireless plans had “flagged a massive shift in pricing downwards in Canada.” “We have a number of shared goals, Bell, public policy makers, I think industry-wide; pricing continuing to trend down, we gotta figure out how we calculate that -- cost per gig basis, absolute bill -- continued investment, particularly in 5G, coverage in every part of the country,” Bibic said. “We have shared goals, so we need to work collaboratively to achieve those goals. On pricing, we’ll get there.” During the election, the Liberals said the first step toward lowering prices would be to ask industry to do so of its own volition. Responding to a question about whether the government had asked Bell to voluntarily lower prices and what the company’s response had been, Bibic said he would not comment on his discussions with the government but said Bell had “heard the message loud and clear”. Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains confirmed last month that the starting point of the promised 25 per cent price drop would be December 2019. The government has yet to release its annual report on wireless market pricing, which could be used to benchmark prices. Bains told reporters on Jan. 23 that the government would soon provide more detail about its price reduction promise. “We’ll be rolling out a plan to clearly demonstrate how we’re gonna achieve that target, and how we’re gonna fulfill and honour that commitment,” he said during a phone press conference last month. Telus Corp. this month boasted it had already met and exceeded the Liberal Party’s reduced wireless pricing promise, despite the government being yet to stipulate benchmark prices, from which the promised reduction would be measured. A financial analyst covering the telecom sector, who spoke to The Wire Report on the condition of anonymity, said there was uncertainty in the industry about what the government was seeking with the price drop promise and that it was a “non starter” to expect the cost of unlimited plans to decrease by a further 25 per cent given recent price reductions.

Government’s wireless price drop promise should be altered: Bibic

Brief | February 19, 2020

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Government’s wireless price drop promise should be altered: Bibic

Brief | February 19, 2020

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