Poor Little Rich Guy

The past week I have been irritated by a radio advertisement that cries woe is me, the big, bad American cell company is coming up to swallow up the little guy’s profit.  The little guys being Telus and Rogers.  You know, the guys who currently have a monopoly on robbing Canadians with the cell phone fees.  The ones who currently have the highest fees IN THE WORLD.  Yep, those poor guys are going to get beat up by “the big bad American”.  Gee, I feel so sorry for them.

       So here’s one of the questions that I have.  When the advertisement talks about all the infrastructure that has been built over the last 25 years I want to ask them “but who actually paid for the infrastructure?  Was it Telus and Rogers or was it the taxpayers?”  Another thing I would like to ask, not so sure about the rest of the country, but I do know that originally Telus was owned by the Alberta Government under the name AGT and that was paid for by tax payers.  I never did understand how our sainted Ralph was able to sell that off without first having a referendum.  Before Telus took over the phone company my bill was less than $25 a month, now it costs around $45 (bare bones).  With the $25 I had long distance, call display, and voicemail included.

       As I simply have the $10 pay as you go from Rogers my cellphone bill is minimal but I know that most folks are paying close to $100 for the packaged service.  I also have heard that it is really hard to get out of their contract.  I’ve also heard about roaming charges and other queer fees that can bankrupt the user.  Having friends with experience of European cellphones, I know that they do not have the same difficulties.  Even expensive countries like Norway or Denmark do not have the same exorbitant fees that we have here in Canada.

       So I am very sorry Telus and Rogers, I do not feel sorry for you AT ALL.  I am a loyal Canadian, I buy a lot of Canadian products, pay all of my taxes, pay my bills on time and generally am not thrilled with foreign ownership, outsourcing, insourcing, and a whole lot of other foreign crap.  But honestly, your advertisement only makes me gag.