Hmm. I am fed up with people in Canada being tricked into paying so much for wireless service. You may think it costs very much to operate the network, and that is why you pay so much for so little. But in fact you have been brainwashed by the monopoly of the Canadian wireless industry.

To show you what I mean, here is a comparison. Sprint is a large network in the United States. They operate on CDMA, the same network type as Telus. Here is a plan for people that are referred by Sprint Employees.

Employee Referral Offer

Included:

• Unlimited Nights & Weekends starting at 7pm
• Unlimited Nationwide Long Distance
• I assume you use regular minutes for long distance calls in the United States
  
• Unlimited Mobile to Mobile
• Probably means you get unlimited calling to other Sprint customers. Other networks I don't know
• Unlimited Web/Data Access
• Unlimited Picture Mail
• 500 Anytime Minutes
  
• Voicemail
• Call Waiting
• Caller ID
  

Now how much do you expect this to cost? $50? $100? No. In fact, it is the amazing price of $30. There is no "System Access Fee," no e911 fees, nothing. What you see is what you pay. "But you can't use it with a smartphone!" Wrong again. The plan is for several smartphones, including the Sprint Mogul, (The HTC P4000) Palm Treo 680, and several more. The plan may be intended for people referred by employees, but the thing here is that they still make money. For the price of the extra fees and voicemail and caller ID in Canada, you can get this entire plan. Lesson learned: Talk is cheap, even in wireless.

You've seen what our American neighbors get, now it is time to come closer to home and see what the neighbor next door gets on Telus with the same phone, an HTC P4000.

Talk & Email 60

Included:

• 350 Minutes
• Unlimited local nights and weekends starting at 9pm
  
• Unlimited local incoming minutes
• 4MB of data
• Call Waiting
• Conference Calling
  

"Wow, there's not much included, it must be cheap!" Yet again, you are sadly wrong. You may notice the '60' in the Talk & Email 60. That means it costs $60. ....But this is Canada where wireless is full of strings, all attached. There's the "System Access Fee," which is $6.95, and the e911 fee, which tacks on another $0.75. In total, $67.70 plus tax. Think that's bad? Let's see what happens when we try to match the SERO plan.

• Talk & Email 60: $67.70
• 350 Minutes
• Unlimited local nights and weekends starting at 9pm
  
• Unlimited local incoming minutes
• 4MB of data
• Call Waiting
• Conference Calling
• 6pm Early Nights and Weekends: $7
• Call Canada 30: $30
  
• Uses regular minutes for long distance
• In Network National Calling: $15
• Unlimited calling between Telus customers

Now it seems that there is no caller ID or voice mail that can be added on, nor any text or video messages, so we will borrow from other plans.

• SPARK 15 Bundle: $15
  
• Call Display
• Voice Mail 10
• Unlimited text, picture or video messages
• Unlimited Web browsing to over 100 selected sites (You can't use this on smartphones)
• Unlimited email with MyEmail (Also not for smartphones)
• Unlimited instant messaging and chat (Not for smartphones if I recall)

Phew, now we have everything that the SERO plan has, except one crucial thing: Unlimited Data. That's right, there is no such thing as unlimited data in Canada. Bell has just put it on their wireless internet for computers, but nothing for just a cell phone. There is no unlimited data because the major carriers, Rogers, Fido, (Which is owned by Rogers) Telus, and Bell, (Telus and Bell share cell towers in some places) have tricked Canada into thinking it's okay to pay so much for this service. If your customers are okay with paying more and more every year, why be generous and give them a plan that won't be in the triple digits? Sorry kids, no data for you.

Here's a summary of the Sprint SERO plan and the Telus plan with as much similar as possible.

Sprint SERO: $30 per month

Telus Talk & Email + Extras: $134.70 plus tax without unlimited data

So next time you go to get a cell phone, remember what a good deal you can get in America.