Canadian wireless pricing some of the highest in the developed world: report

Jul 23 2019, 4:56 pm

It’s no secret that Canadians pay far too much for wireless data.

It’s recently gotten so bad that a number of Canadian telecom giants have been going head to head trying to offer customers cheap(er) data plans and device financing options.

But how does Canada’s wireless pricing compare to the rest of the world?

new report from the Finnish-based mobile data consulting company, Rewheel, shows just how costly wireless data is for Canadians, and it’s not looking good.

According to the study, Canada’s pricing is ranked among the most expensive in the world.

Rewheel studied how many gigabytes of 4G wireless data mobile-users in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and EU-28 countries were able to get for 30 euros (or approximately $45 CAD).

The study showed that for $45 CAD, Canadians are only getting an average of 2 GB of data for their wireless plans.


Wireless customers in Denmark, Switzerland, Korea, United Kingdom, Finland, Bulgaria, Netherlands, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Slovak Republic, and Lithuania all receive unlimited data plans for the same amount.

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When it comes to country median gigabyte price in EU-28 countries and OECD nations, Canada has some of the highest pricing in the world versus other countries with multiple mobile network operators (MNOs).


Another breakdown shows gigabyte prices in Canada, Japan, and the US are “a universe apart” from prices in 4-MNO competitive European markets and the ultra-competitive Israeli 5-MNO markets.


This is not the first study to show that Canadians pay an astoundingly high amount for their wireless plans.

A previous report commissioned by Canada’s Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED), also showed that Canadians pay some of the highest wireless rates in the world.