Another indicator appear to show that Canadian telecom services are affordable, further contradicting the oft-repeated misrepresentations of some critics.

Just last week, a World Bank study showed that Canada’s mobile services ranks among the world’s most affordable, measured as a percentage of income.

Now, the Pew Research Center released a report that shows Canadian adults are among the world’s most connected, with 90% of Canadians affirmatively answering the question “Do you use the internet, at least occasionally?” Only Australia, marginally higher with 92%, had a higher percentage of its adult population reporting online access.

The detailed survey has data from a similar 2007 study allowing a comparison of changes between countries. In 2007, 75% of Canadians had answered the occasional use question “yes”; 78% of Americans said yes in 2007, compared to 87% in the most recent study. Unfortunately, no comparable 2007 data is available for Australia.

Canada and Australia were also among the top countries responding “several times a day” to the question “Overall, how often do you use the internet — several times a day, once a day, at least once a week or less often?”.

Together with last week’s World Bank study, Pew Research provides further ammunition to challenge those critics who repeat tired slogans about the state of Canada’s communications services. Will these studies help inform the CRTC’s upcoming “Review of basic telecommunications services“?

Last week, I met with my accountant – it’s that time of year, again. After we went through the paperwork for my taxes, he asked me what can be done to stop the scams.

He was referring to two types of scams that are troubling his clients. One type is email phishing; the other is a a telephone shakedown.

I have received both types over the years. The phishing fraud is getting better, meaning that authentic looking emails are getting through spam systems and clicking on the links takes unwitting consumers to websites that mirror the actual websites. At quick glance, the links are even passable, such as this one:
http: //acces . verific . cibc . cn . com/confirmation4878/m/CIBC/i/.

The telephone shakedown is even tougher to decode. The caller identification shows as being from Canada Revenue Agency, with an authentic toll free number; caller says that you have ignored repeated letters seeking payment of hundreds (or thousands) of dollars in unpaid taxes and now enforcement is coming to place you under arrest. Of course, the Agency is prepared to settle now if you want to put it on your credit card.

Both scams are fraud. No telemarketing or anti-spam regulations can stop the perpetrators. The CRTC has a web page “How to Protect Yourself from Scammers“. Its page on Call Fraud is empty of meaningful content and is out of date.

In late November, the CRTC published “Summary of Options Currently Available to Canadians to Manage Unwanted Calls“. The database listing does not appear to me to be useful. It was produced from information gathered as part of Compliance and Enforcement Notice of Consultation CRTC 2015-333 “Empowering Canadians to protect themselves from unsolicited and illegitimate telemarketing calls”.

As I have said before, I think the only effective solution is to provide better consumer education and have Canadians lose some of our inherent polite nature. Canadians need to be more willing to just hang up or press the delete key.

Tech savvy kids, consumer groups, schools, banks and social services agencies – together with the telecom industry – need to help vulnerable people recognize the signs. Just hang up.

Can you recognize a phone or email scam? What are the tell-tale signs? How can you help teach others what to look for?

This Saturday, February 20, marks 10 years since I wrote my first blog post, “It’s a start“.

For 10 years, I have tried to provide you with current perspectives on communications technology and services, sharing some of my thoughts on issues, often from a different angle compared to what you might read in other fora.

Every one of the more than 2500 posts is available on-line (use the “My back pages” tab on the right side). As I glance through some of the posts from the early years, I see that my style has evolved through the years.

Prior to launching the blog in 2006, I wrote periodic updates for my clients. Between 1997 and 2005, some of these appeared on the “Reports & Updates” section of my website. Over the past few weeks, I have migrated them onto this blog platform so that there is now a single archive of nearly 20 years of observations on Canada’s communications scene. I apologize if some of the links are dead.

It is always interesting for me to see which issues attract the most views; over the past few years, I have highlighted the “Top 5” of the year at year end. I hope that at least some of my posts have been worthwhile sharing with colleagues.

Very few of my readers add comments, but I always appreciate the emails or calls or direct messages on Twitter that provide feedback, some of which is positive enough to encourage me to keep writing.

I’m not retiring yet.

I certainly can’t expect to live off the ad residuals and I’m not even sure the “Donate” button on the left side of the blog is functional given the paucity of contributions to the Goldberg Vacation Relief Fund. Please feel free to earmark your donations to my yacht and helicopter fund.

But, keep those cards and letters and tweets coming.

Thanks for stopping by this website over the past 10 years. I’ll keep trying to playing the hits for you.

Repeat the lie often enough and people start to believe it is true. However, a new analysis of open data by the World Bank should again call into question the tired, mistaken claims that “Canadians pay some of the highest rates in the world”, a statement that appeared over the weekend in a CBC News article (that was remarkably endorsed by the CRTC in a rare Saturday morning tweet).

The World Bank analysis looks at mobile service costs in 173 countries measured in US dollars; measured in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP); and, measured as a percentage of income.

Measured as a percentage of income, Canada’s mobile services ranks in the most affordable quintile – among the lowest 20%. The study shows Canadians spend just 0.68% of income to run mobile phones, ahead of the US (0.80%), Japan (0.87%), Belgium (0.88%), Netherlands (0.98%) and France (1.11%).

Measured in US dollars, Canadian monthly mobile prices aren’t even in the top 10 most expensive countries:

1. Netherlands
2. Ireland
3. France
4. Spain
5. Switzerland
6. United States
   …
15. Canada

In terms of PPP, Canada isn’t even in the top 30. The United States ranks 18th; France is 23rd; Japan is 31st; Canada is way down the list at 64th.

The open data analysis, by Tariq Khokhar (Data Scientist & Global Data Editor at The World Bank) points to a recently published World Bank report: Digital Dividends [pdf]. That report contains interesting data and analysis that may be informative for the CRTC’s upcoming review of basic services hearing.

Will this report put to rest the old canard that “Canadians pay some of the highest rates in the world” for wireless services? I doubt it. But, there is now an additional piece of ammunition with which to take aim at propagandists who continue to repeat the lie.

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Visit the conference website for more information: www.telecomsummit.com