canada

In Canada, a beer costs $2.  What is that, like a billion dollars American?  I can't count how many times I've heard things like that the other way around.  It delights me that the Canadian dollar has achieved parity with the American dollar this week; for the first time in 31 years mind you, which spans my entire lifetime.  What does it all mean you ask?  It means the border lineups of Canadians going to the USA to pilfer consumer goods, often costing 30% less, will go way up.  It means that the Canadian tourism industry will suffer because less Americans will be coming up here.  It means that the "Brain Drain" is definitely over.  Most importantly, it means I will be making fun of every American I come across the same way they've made fun of me my entire life.  Here's hoping the days of $0.62 are permanently behind us!

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

A class-action suit against the long-running practice of Canadian mobile operators to charge unadvertised additional fees has just been certified by a judge in Saskatchewan.

Any Canadians that would like to join the class action can do so here. (Roland, that means you!)

Here is Michael Geist (Canada's answer to Lawrence Lessig) on System Access Fees:

"Emboldened by limited competition, [Canadian] providers have not hesitated to pad their prices by adding the deceptive "system access fee." Contrary to popular belief, the fee, which adds nearly $100 per year to every wireless phone bill (MTS Mobility in Manitoba just increased its system access fee to $107.40 per year), is not a government-mandated charge but rather a slick method of camouflaging higher prices."

Jeff

Canada ranks 29th out of 30 OECD countries for rate of cell-phone uptake according to a story on the Canadian mobile access market in Vancouver's major daily.

Canada has a very strong wireless technology sector - but the mobile access market needs a big shakeup.

Canadians just got the ability to port mobile numbers between carriers last week - great news but very late to the mobile number portability party:

Kudos to John Boxall and Igor Faletski quoted in the article for raising the profile on our mobile competition issue in Canada.

For those who don't know John and Igor, they are the organizers of the SFU Mobile Monday group here in Vancouver - bright guys and a couple of good Canadian hosers.

Jeff