[NewsPoster]

More details have emerged on the Canadian Competition Bureau's investigation into Apple's carrier deals, Reuters reports. Most important may be the Bureau's specific goals, which are to learn if Apple has been discouraging carriers from offering discounts or other incentives for competing phones, or even offering those phones at all. "The contractual obligations [with the carriers] may therefore increase the price Canadian consumers have paid, are paying or will pay for handset devices and wireless services," reads an affidavit from Vincent Millette, the head of the Bureau's probe.

Also revealed is that both Apple and the carriers have been asked to turn over documents stretching as far back as the launch of the iPhone 3G in the country, in July 2008. Apple has so far only delivered "some" documents, while the carriers have handed over more than 2,500. The Bureau actually made its first requests to Apple in April of this year, and the carriers between June and August.

There are three major iPhone carriers in Canada: Bell, Telus, and Rogers. The country's cellphone options are often considered some of the most expensive in the world, with the country only having moved to two-year contracts in the past year; Apple's iPhone deals may, therefore, have had an outsized impact.

[FireWire]

I don't know where they got that impression since there are a lot of discount and promotion for android phones and almost none for iPhones.. "buy a samsung, get a free gear!" "get android we double your data" etc.. Canada had good prices for the past years, but this year it'a a real rip-off! back in 2008 I bargained 6 GB of data, caller ID and voicemail for 60$, now the best I can get is 75$ for 2 GB + standard options... they really jacked the prices since our scumbag government limited contracts to 2 years instead of 3!

[shawnde]

Indeed .... as usual, they're looking in the wrong place. They should be investigating those carriers who have artificially RAISED prices of plans across the board. Canada IS the most expensive nation for cell phone SERVICE. In fact, given the exchange rate, it might be cheaper to buy the iPhone in Canada than the USA. However, we're all getting ripped off on the plans. But of course Bell, Rogers and Telus OWN our government, so they'll make sure that part never gets investigated.

[macnscott]

Please forgive me ignorance, but doesn't the higher prices in Canada coincide the incredibly low density of population per square mile overall?

I mean, with there being so much sparsely populated areas throughout Canada, there still needs to be cell phone towers and physical connection to each tower that the carrier's have to acquire to be able to provide reliable service every so many miles. That is a lot of infrastructure cost with ongoing maintenance and upgrade costs.

It seems other countries with lower or much lower cell phone costs significantly smaller land mass and significantly higher population density per square mile. Isn't at least part of the higher cost in Canada and even in the USA a result of this physical reality?

I personally am in the center of the US and while I wish cell phone service for my family was less expensive, especially with regards to data, I guess I give them a partial pass due to the population density being lower than countries in other lower cost areas like western Europe and East Asia. I know friends of mine in Europe, while having lower cell phone service costs, really envy the US's overall lower cost of technology products and other goods...even groceries and especially fuel prices.

Please share your thoughts on my post.