Acknowledge that internet / phone service works much better as a utility and nationalize or highly regulate (i.e. fixed pricing schemes) the telecom companies.
Near the bottom it states that those companies are supposed to promote those plans. They didn't the last time I tried looking them up. Regulation is meaningless if there is a lack of enforcement.
(Note: I'm not saying that the pricing scheme is particularly good since it leaves the needs of many people unaddressed. On the other hand, it does address the needs of those who would have the most trouble affording phone service.)
Also consider the continual battle of third-party ISPs to provide affordable Internet access. The CRTC says the major providers have to lease out their lines and stipulate what those rates are. On the other hand, those third-party ISPs are constantly fighting to keep the rates low and are pretty much tied to providing service levels that match the major providers.
I thought I'd dive in and look for these plans, and as expected they're not at all easy to find.
For Telus, I had to go to four different plan/pricing pages before I found a link mentioning that cheaper plans are only available on Koodo (their lower priced brand). And then, the $35 plan is as lousy as they can make it and still comply with the CRTC - 3GB of data at 3G (only 2 generations ago, awesome) speeds, with overage costs of $13/100MB. Just absurdly bad. Or maybe you want something more reasonable, let's cut out that data access, you just want talk and text? That'll save you a whopping $3, at $32/month.
So that's the telecom situation in Canada; the first 3GB cost you $3, the next 3GB cost you $390.
