Federal budget offers measures to cut telecom costs, citing lack of competition

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/11/2025 (327 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA – The federal government says it plans to take measures aimed at increasing competition in Canada’s telecommunications sector and lowering consumers’ cellphone and internet costs.

Ottawa outlined parts of that strategy on Tuesday in the federal budget, which noted that a “lack of competition has led to far too high prices for Canadians.”

“Canadians are paying some of the highest phone and internet bills around the world,” said Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne in a news conference with reporters on Tuesday.

“Our budget will increase competition in the telecommunications sector and give Canadians more options and lower their costs.”

The federal government said it will release additional wireless spectrum — the electromagnetic frequencies that enable smartphone communications — and develop modernized spectrum licence transfer rules in late 2025-26.

Tuesday’s budget also said the government will reduce regulatory hurdles when deploying telecom infrastructure across the country, including by consulting on a streamlined tower-siting process later this year.

The Liberals described those steps as “some of the most ambitious, pro-competitive measures for Canada in a generation.”

Major players in the industry have previously fought back against the characterization that insufficient competition has led to overly high prices, pointing to inflation data that shows declining plan costs, along with increases in data allowances for some cellular services.

Statistics Canada’s latest inflation report showed the price of cellular service was flat in September compared with the same month a year earlier, after year-over-year decreases of 6.6 per cent and 1.2 per cent in July and August, respectively.

Cellular prices were down around 50 per cent between 2020 and 2024, according to StatCan inflation reports.

“Popular mobile plans in Canada are now comparable to, and in many cases cheaper than, those in the United States, while home internet prices are also lower than they were five years ago,” said Robert Ghiz, president and CEO of the Canadian Telecommunications Association, in an emailed statement.

“These outcomes demonstrate that when policy supports investment and facilities-based competition, Canadians benefit through lower prices, better service, and stronger networks.”

Still, Ghiz said the association welcomed the budget measures aimed at reducing red tape and accelerating the deployment of telecom infrastructure.

The budget also included a new “dig once” policy approach to the government’s planned “nation-building projects.”

That approach would encourage telecom companies to co-ordinate when installing fibre optic lines as part of the development of major projects.

“Policies such as ‘dig once’ and a streamlined tower-siting process rightly recognize that sustained private-sector investment is essential to expanding connectivity,” Ghiz said.

“In contrast, elements of the CRTC’s wholesale access policy risk undermining this progress by discouraging the very investment needed to build and upgrade networks, particularly in rural and remote communities where costs are highest.”

That contentious CRTC policy, which was recently upheld by the Liberal government, allows the Big 3 telecom companies to resell internet on each other’s existing fibre networks, in exchange for a fee — as long as they do so outside their core serving regions.

As a result of those regulations, which the commission designed in the hopes of boosting competition, Telus Corp. expanded its internet offerings to Ontario and Quebec, while Bell Canada is launching fibre internet service this month in Alberta and B.C.

The budget said the government would continue working with the CRTC to implement amendments to the Telecommunications Act announced in Budget 2024, aimed at allowing Canadians to more easily renew or switch internet and phone plans.

The regulator has launched numerous consultations since then focusing on how to give consumers more control over their internet and cellphone services.

Some of those studies have centred on potential changes around notifications, fees and self-serve options. The CRTC also held a hearing earlier this year on its proposed requirement for providers to convey relevant information about home internet plans — such as price and speed — through a standardized label.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2025.