Current trends - methodology

Definitions

Brands

• Flanker brands are brands introduced into the wireless market by an entity that already has a well-established main brand. In the Canadian market, these include brands such as Virgin Mobile and Lucky Mobile (Bell), Fido and Chatr (Rogers), Koodo and Public Mobile (TELUS), and Fizz (Vidéotron).
• Main brands are flagship brands that are most recognizable by consumers and are directly associated to the parent companies that own and operate the facilities to provide services. Such brands include Bell Mobility, Rogers, TELUS, and Vidéotron.

Reported prices

Reported Price refers to the monthly prices that are publicly available to consumers as of December 1 for the collection year. Entities report these prices to the CRTC via the CRTC’s Data Collection System. Entities must submit the lowest price that meets the minimum service requirements as defined in the Annual Pricing Survey. These requirements are outlined in the Communications services section below.

• Minimum service requirements: Service providers identify and report the price of the service, including those of their flanker brands that best matches the minimum service requirements identified in the survey.
• Exclusions: Extra charges are excluded. These can include charges such as activation fees, device subsidies and roaming charges. Discounts are also excluded, such as customer retention discounts and bundling discounts.

In reporting, the highest and lowest prices include the highest and lowest reported prices by primary brand (including their respective flankers) by urban centre and rural community.

Communication services

Mobile service plans

Mobile facilities-based providers in Canada were identified using CRTC data sources. All providers that also offer services in the geographic areas surveyed were included in the Annual Communications Pricing Survey.

Each provider was asked to submit monthly mobile service plan prices for their primary (main) brand. In addition, certain large providers were asked to report prices for their flanker brands separately.

For each of the service baskets listed in the table below, providers were instructed to report, for bring-your-own-device (BYOD) plans only:

• the actual amount of data (in GB) included in the plan (e.g., if a plan included 15 GB of data, it should be reported under the 10–19 GB basket);
• the maximum available speed (e.g., if the plan throttles to 3G but the provider offers LTE, the reported speed should be LTE); and
• the lowest available price as of December 1.

Additionally, for each basket, providers were required to identify the least expensive, non-promotional package offered by the reporting brand. For each Exchange or Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), they were asked to report:

• the amount of unthrottled data (in GB) included in the plan (e.g., “25” for 25 GB);
• the fastest speed available with the plan in that CMA or exchange; and
• the lowest, non-promotional price as of December 1 of the reporting year.

Excluded Plan Types:

• Specialty, age-restricted, student, promotional, or retention plans;
• Mobile broadband sticks, IoT (Internet of Things) devices, smartwatches, or machine-to-machine services (e.g., smart meters).

Included in Reported Prices:

• BYOD base rate;
• Voicemail;
• Caller identification;
• 9-1-1 service charges;
• Universal service fees; and
• Other regulatory fees or surcharges.

Excluded from Reported Prices:

• Taxes;
• One-time charges (e.g., activation fees);
• Roaming charges; and
• Handset charges.

Internet service plans

Facilities-based Internet service providers in Canada were identified using CRTC data sources. All providers that also offer services in the geographic areas surveyed were included in the Annual Communications Pricing Survey.

Each provider was asked to submit publicly advertised monthly prices for high-speed Internet plans offered under their primary (main) brand.

The survey includes several service baskets, each defined by specific minimum thresholds for download speed, upload speed, and data usage – see the table below for the full list. For each basket, providers were instructed to report the lowest, non-promotional price offered in each Exchange or Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) as of December 1 of the reporting year, along with the data usage limit associated with the plan.

The Internet plan must meet or exceed the minimum download speed, upload speed, and data usage limit specified in the basket. Providers were asked to report:

• the amount of unthrottled data included in the plan, in gigabytes (e.g., “100” for 100 GB);
• for unlimited data usage plans; and
• the lowest, non-promotional monthly price available as of December 1 of the reporting year.

Included Plan Types:

• Standalone residential high-speed Internet access plans.

Excluded Plan Types:

• Specialty, senior, student, seasonal, or promotional plans;
• Seasonal, introductory, bundling, or retention discounts;
• Pay-per-use plans; and
• Mobile Internet plans.

Included in Reported Prices:

• Monthly base rate for the plan; and
• Other regulatory fees or surcharges.

Excluded from Reported Prices:

• Taxes;
• One-time charges (e.g., installation or activation fees);
• Terminal equipment charges (e.g., modem/router sales or rentals, antennas, Wi-Fi extenders);
• Internet application charges (e.g., email, web hosting, home security, data centre services); and
• Overage charges.

Process for calculating averages

We calculate averages by service, basket, and entity (regardless of flanker) using the minimum reported prices. Each entity must report the lowest non-promotional price meeting the minimum requirements for the basket.

1. To begin, we calculate an average for each province and territory by summing the prices reported in each rural community in the respective province/territory, and dividing this sum by the number of communities reported in that province/territory (communities with no prices are excluded).

   ${\displaystyle \mathrm{Provincial\; Rural\; Average}=\frac{\sum _{i=1}^n\mathrm{price\; for\; each\; rural\; community\; in\; the\; province}}{n}}$

2. We calculate the rural average for the North by dividing the sum of the territorial averages by three (the number of territories):

   ${\displaystyle \mathrm{Northern\; Rural\; Average}=\frac{\sum \mathrm{Territorial\; Rural\; Averages}}{3}}$

3. We then add this value to the sum of the provincial rural averages and divide by 11 (10 provinces and the northern rural average) to generate the national rural average:

   ${\displaystyle \mathrm{National\; Rural\; Average}=\frac{\sum \mathrm{Provincial\; Rural\; Averages}+\mathrm{Northern\; Rural\; Average}}{\mathrm{11}}}$

4. We repeat the above three calculations for urban centres.

5. Finally, we calculate the national average by dividing the sum of the urban and rural averages by two:

   ${\displaystyle \mathrm{Average}=\frac{\mathrm{Urban\; Average}+\mathrm{Rural\; Average}}{2}}$

We repeat the above process for every service, basket and year of reported prices. In previous years, if the rural average was not available, the urban average was used in its place – this is no longer part of the calculation.

List of national regions

• The North: Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut
• Prairies: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba
• Central Canada: Ontario and Quebec
• Atlantic Provinces: Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia

Surveyed exchanges and census metropolitan areas: list of rural communities and urban centres

The CRTC selected 55 rural communities and 24 urban centres to represent the provinces and territories.

We selected rural communities based on the following criteria:

• The community was not part of one of the census metropolitan areas of the 24 urban centres listed below.
• The community had a population density of fewer than 400 people per square kilometre, or its population centres had fewer than 1,000 people per centre.
• The number of communities selected in each province or territory reflected that province’s or territory’s proportion of the total population of Canada.
• The communities were not geographically clustered.

Exchange: An exchange refers to a geographic area served by a specific telephone exchange or central office. In the context of the survey, it typically represents a smaller, localized service area within a province or territory where telecommunications services are offered.

Census Metropolitan Area (CMA): A CMA is a geographic area defined by Statistics Canada. It consists of one or more neighboring municipalities centered around a population core of at least 100,000. CMAs are used to analyze and compare urban markets across Canada. Major centre boundaries are defined using Statistics Canada’s census metropolitan area and census agglomeration definitions.