TORONTO – Manitoba consumers are concerned that BCE’s proposed merger with MTS will result in higher wireless and internet service rates as well as the implementation of expensive data caps, according to a new poll.
The Environics poll was released Tuesday by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (Ottawa), on behalf of the Consumers’ Association of Canada, and the Public Interest Law Centre (Manitoba), on behalf of the Manitoba branch of the Consumers’ Association of Canada. It was conducted via an Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) telephone survey of 1,048 residents of Manitoba age 18 and over on May 31 and June 1, 2016.
The majority of respondents said that they believe their overall communications bill would rise (51% expect a price rise, 10% expect a drop and 37% thought it would stay the same). In addition, 59% disagreed that BCE’s takeover of MTS would lead to accelerated high-speed Internet rollout in rural Manitoba.
If the deal goes through, 53% of current MTS customers thought prices for Internet access would rise (only 8% said they would drop); 54% thought wireless prices would rise (8% said drop) and 75% expect data caps will be introduced in home internet service. In addition, 74% said that they believe unlimited data plans will disappear for BCE-MTS wireless customers.
“Manitoba consumers think the BCE offer for MTS will hurt them where it matters most – in the wallet”, said PIAC executive director and general counsel John Lawford, in the poll’s news release. “They know the deal is bad news for Manitoba and they’ll lose the competitive market that’s delivered low prices and unlimited Internet.”
The poll’s data is available here.
