As we approach the inevitable end of summer we are learning of another inevitable reality; that Verizon after all that buzz may not be coming to Canada after all. Much of the summer we heard of the plans Verizon had by acquiring Wind and possibly Mobilicity, if we are to believe media reports.., of entering Canadian telecom space. The usual suspects; Rogers, Bell, and Telus started a campaign that accused the government of Canada of doing favors to a new potential giant entrant. Whether you see that as the anti-competitive attitude of an oligopoly is up to you; now we can agree on is that just the name of Verizon caused a cold sweat in the Canadian telecom industry.
But would consumers benefit from it after all? Do we the consumers want better services or better prices? Here is where the inflection point is. We want to change yet as consumers we don’t really seem to agree to change what. The reality is that big telecommunications companies, those often called incumbents, have grown out of touch to what the trends are. Often times incumbents are trying to impose irrelevant trends to consumers (‘most reliable network’ or ‘largest network’ or ‘fewest dropped calls’) Reality is as a consumer you do not care is the ‘largest network’ on LTE MAX square 2 or whatever other marketing wording they come-up. Nor if the network is ‘the fastest’ – fact is simple: we Canadians expect to have reliable networks and fast internet access; no matter who’s providing it. Yeah, we know we live in a large country so any network will have to be large and yes we understand the service coverage in rural areas may not be the same as in densely populated urban centers. Period.
We the consumers want to talk and text for as much as we want whether in Canada or abroad… we are feed up of being over-charged like we were in 1999 – memo to the incumbents “this is 2013!” Luckily for us battled Canadian consumers, there’s an alternative that an ever-increasing number of Canadians is using. We got VoIP! We have Smartphone apps like RingCredible, or Localphone or fully-fledged Home Phone with their very own app integration such as Phone Power that make very accessible, affordable to actually use your phone to… talk as much as you want, wherever you want to at any time you want to… in other words, freedom.. go figure! VoIP technology has been around close to 20 years now; though with the advance of broadband (high speed), internet access at homes and on smartphones in the past few years has gained popularity. Truly becoming an alternative to do what a phone was firstly designed to do, communicate by means of verbal expressions (i.e.: talking) It’s pretty neat you can use a phone to watch TV, or to take an HD picture and share it in Instagram seconds later… it’s all good, but ultimately I’d like to have a phone with a service that allows talking without taxing me, the poor consumer, for all the other functionalities. The truth is, VoIP allows you to do that and much more. Yes, it is true smartphone VoIP apps also have limitations such as not being able to connect 911 calls; but the reality is that any mobile phone that is on in Canada – with or without service – has the ability to make an Emergency Call (911). Also sometimes VoIP calls quality may be impacted by the network quality/coverage (but since we have the biggest and most reliable networks in Canada who’s concerned about that…. eh?)
The fact is we don’t need Verizon or some other behemoth telecom company; we as consumers already have all the alternatives at our fingertips with VoIP. It is just a matter of exercising our options. Would like to start? Why not have a look at our Long Distance Providers, all have smartphone apps or look at our Residential Providers to begin your transition to XXI century telecommunications service (pay-less & get more!)