VANCOUVER – A new Angus Reid survey shows Canadians are pretty split when it comes to their opinions on their telecom service and the effects of recently announced deregulation of many local markets.
The survey, done between August 10 and 13th says 52% of Canadians think deregulation will drive cost of phone services up and 46% think deregulation will not mean improved local phone services.
Canadians are split over whether deregulation will ultimately benefit consumers in the end (41% agree it will, 42% disagree), says the company’s press release. Instead, half of respondents (50%) agree that it is best for consumers if the government regulates home telephone services. Canadians are also split over whether phone service should be deregulated in their communities – 39% say they want it, while 43% do not.
Canadians’ cautious attitude to phone deregulation may be due to high satisfaction with their current local phone services. Almost three-in-four Canadians (73%) say their local phone company provides quality service, though a much higher number from Manitoba and Saskatchewan (92%). But in Alberta, only 55% agree, which has to be of some concern to Telus.
In fact, says the Angus Reid results, over one-third (37%) from Alberta disagree that their phone company provides quality service, "by far the highest dissatisfaction reported in any region," it says.
Alberta and Ontario show the strongest opposition to deregulating phone services – "perhaps due to previous negative experience with electricity deregulation," speculates the report.
The highest proportion from these provinces agrees that deregulation will drive prices up and that it will not benefit the consumer in the end.
In contrast, Manitoba and Saskatchewan are particularly positive about phone deregulation – over half (53%) say it will mean improved local phone services, almost half (44%) think it will benefit consumers in the end, and 43% want phone services deregulated in their areas.
Canadians in households earning $100,000 or more are more likely to think that deregulation will not increase phone costs, and to want phone services deregulated in their communities, adds the release. Those in households earning less than $50,000 a year tend to disagree that deregulation will improve local phone services, and agree that government regulation of phone prices is best for consumers.
Last, those who will vote Conservative in the next election are much more in favour of phone deregulation than either NDP or Liberal voters. NDP voters are in fact vehemently against deregulation, with roughly two-in-three believing phone prices will increase and services will not necessarily improve if deregulation occurs.
For the full 10-page release, complete with charts and graphs, click here.
(From August 10 to 13, 2007, Angus Reid Strategies conducted an online survey among a randomly selected, representative sample of 1,075 adult Canadians. The margin of error for the total sample is
+/- 3 %, 19 times out of 20. The results have been statistically weighted according to the most current education, age, gender and region Census data to ensure a sample representative of the entire adult population of Canada. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.)
