Bell, Rogers and Telus customers – get set for rate hikes.
The big 3 telecommunications companies have raised or plan to raise the prices of their wireless packages in January, and are warning of increases to home phone and internet prices in February.
Telus will be tacking on $5 to its Smartphone and Premium Smartphone tiers beginning Thursday.
The change affects new customers buying phones — including Apple and Android devices — through Telus.
Rogers increased the cost of its Share Everything plans with 5GB, 9GB or 15GB of data by $5 a month on Jan. 12.
Bell also announced price increases effective Jan. 12, an additional $5 for both Lite and Plus categories
Together, Rogers, Telus and Bell control 89 per cent of the wireless telecom market in Canada.
Blame the low dollar
Telus told CBC News the low Canadian dollar is pushing up the price of new equipment to build out its networks.
"The modest wireless rate plan increase reflects increasing costs for network components resulting from a weaker Canadian dollar, as well as the annual multibillion-dollar investments required to keep up with the growing demand for wireless data. The change applies only to new contracts and renewals, so existing customers won't notice a change to their monthly bills," said a Telus spokeswoman.
All three telcos also plan to weaken the attraction for bring-your-own-device plans by raising the price of base service.
According to MobileSyrup's Daniel Bader, the telcos are finding average revenue per user is dropping as people adopt more all-inclusive plans, including long distance and unlimited roaming, prompting price increases for some options.
Cost of internet, TV to rise
At the same time, the cost of residential service is rising.
Both Bell and Telus have announced price increases effective Feb. 1 on home phone, and internet and TV packages.
"Price adjustments support our continued investments in network, product and service enhancements," Bell said in a statement.
Rogers has already raised internet prices and plans to boost the cost of TV packages later in February.
In March, cable and satellite companies must introduce a $25 "basic" package and offer consumers either a choice of individual channels or small bundles of channels.
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