SEO Blog

Important Update: Rogers Caves to Consumer Demand, July 9, 2008

You are an Olympian, at least for the purposes of the following paragraphs…

Imagine being expected to compete in the Olympics with substandard training and equipment. While you might qualify to stand at the starting line with the fastest and strongest representatives of other nations, you know your own chances are, at best, slim.

You’ve watched with fear-fed jealousy as other competitors trained in state-of-the-art facilities and with the best equipment their supporters and sponsors could acquire. Though you too could access these materials, they are priced far beyond your financial range. Having spent most of your life preparing to be tested against the best the world has to offer, you see your opportunity fade due to disinterest, neglect and social short-sightedness.

Such is the fate of many Olympic athletes. It is something we can all understand and commiserate with. While we love our best and brightest, we tend not to support them with sufficient infrastructure, financial backing or properly funded training. The result, athletes from other nations, many not as wealthy or advanced as Canada win the personal glory and national recognition we all wish would come to Canada and its athletes.

A similar set of circumstances is seen in Canada’s high-tech sector. While Canadians take a good measure of pride in being pioneers in modern telecommunications, our competitive stance in communications is being rapidly eroded. A critically important causal factor is the extremely high cost of data-packages offered by Canada’s Internet Service Providers and mobile telephone providers. This is an issue the business community can, should, and must address itself.

Canadian consumers and businesses are paying more money for less service than are our American, Asian and European cousins. Personal internet access is being throttled back in speed to allow Canadian ISPs to charge higher “business” rates for the same bandwidth personal users previously enjoyed. Though the dollar is basically at par with the US greenback, electronics are priced 10 – 25% higher in Canada than in the US. There are no real reasons for these cross-the-border price hikes, other than to assume they are remnants of the years when Canada’s dollar fell far below the value of the greenback.

One could thus logically extrapolate that new electronics products and support services should be rationally priced on both sides of the border. We have the same infrastructure which is already in place. We share virtually the same regulatory and industrial standards. We have a free trade agreement. Our transportation industry drives on the right-hand side of the road and rolls on the same gauge rails. Electricity flows under the same physical principles here as it does down there.

So pricing on newly introduced products should be somewhat rational right?

Wrong.

Why?

I don’t know.

What I do know is that another notable and debilitating discrepancy is going to be introduced to the market this coming Friday.

The iPhone3G comes to Canada on July 11 but far fewer of us will be buying one if Rogers regressive data plan prices the device out of range of most consumers. Rogers has the exclusive rights to the iPhone in Canada. Rogers can charge whatever it wants for the service and, in the absence of competition; they charge more money for less service than any other mobile ISP in the wired world. So much more that many Canadians will not be able to afford the devices. That brings a host of unfortunate outcomes for Canada’s web design, marketing and business communities.

Did you know there are more web designers, marketers and online business leaders per capita from Canada than any other nation in the world? Most people don’t realize that because our industry is so deeply integrated with the US. Many of the best technicians, designers, innovators and marketers are based or came from Canada.

The Internet is going mobile and Canada’s high tech sector will be left by the side of the road. The newest iPhone is thought to be the one that will popularize the use of mobile devices for the Internet. Due to the extremely high cost of Rogers’ rates, Canadian businesses reliant on the Internet or on understanding how consumers relate to the Internet will not be able to use the devices as they were designed to be used.

That means that Canadian designers, web marketers and innovators will not acquire the skills they need to compete in the venue the market is moving towards. Ultimately, that means a loss of jobs, talent and leadership in one of the strongest sectors of the Canadian economic picture. If we can’t work with the medium, we’re not going to gain critical insights into that medium. In other words, if we can’t afford to train in the same state-of-the-art facilities our competitors do, we’re certain to lose the race.

The vast majority of businesses in Canada considered high-tech are actually home based businesses. The next largest grouping would be small to medium sized businesses with less than 50 employees. Most can not afford to pay Rogers’ exorbitant data rates for critical employees and few if any will be able to pay for the extensive online research and development needed in the web design and search engine marketing sectors.

While tax dollars subsidize the roads truckers drive on, the rails trains roll on and the ports ships dock in, only private enterprise supports the Internet. For the most part that is a very good thing however when private enterprise becomes monopoly, government intervention might be welcome.

In this case, someone has to intervene. As most rational thinkers oppose governmental regulation of the Internet, the only groups that can intervene are businesses and consumers. Consumers have advocacy organizations, businesses have Chambers of Commerce.

It would be in the best interest of Canadian businesses if a number of local Chambers of Commerce spoke out against, or at least demanded explanation of, Rogers’ absurdly high data rates.

The bottom line is simple. As arbitrary costs of doing business in new media are increasing rapidly, the ability for home, small or medium sized businesses (the ones running the Canadian economy) to excel is diminishing.

There are two major differences between Canadian Olympic athletes and Canada’s high tech business sector.

The first is, when Canada’s Olympic athletes experience personal failure, it rarely threatens the economic stability of others. If Canada’s high tech sector fails, or even stumbles, every Canadian suffers.

The second is simpler. Athletes need public dollars. Canada’s high tech sector, for the most part, does not. We just need fair treatment and rational mobile rates. We have proven that we can easily take care of the rest.