Time to think about paring communication expense

Posted By Jim Mosher

Posted 7 months ago

We pay too much to be 'connected', to 'communicate'. What we are forced to pay is crippling many households, already overburdened by a rising mountain of debt.

In Manitoba, we can thank Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS), in part. MTS has become a very profitable national company that has departed considerably from its patent of service to the people of Manitoba when it was a Crown corporation known as the Manitoba Telephone System. The new MTS, made possible when then-premier Gary Filmon sold the farm to corporate Canada in 1996, is a mean machine.

Okay. It is, at some level, personal. MTS cut off my high-speed Internet because I was a few shekels shy. That decision was made the speedier because I quit my telephone land-line, another onerously expensive service, though it's no longer considered a core service, in any case, by the muckety-mucks of megalithic telecoms like MTS.

The sheer size of the new MTS takes it away from its grassroots, where once service was the driving force. Getting telephone service to every Manitoban, no matter where they lived, was the goal. That goal was accomplished precisely because that telephone company of old was a Crown utility.

Filmon, now a man of great note, for whatever reason, kowtowed to his cronies at the board table. He didn't much like the idea of serving everyone equally in any case. Rather, the new MTS ethos is that service should only go to those who can pay for it.

Ever seen that TV ad MTS has for a new in-home service? I don't pay much attention to the details — because, did I mention, I hate MTS — but the end of the commercial shows a couple of country bumpkins (or what MTS thinks are country bumpkins) with the voice-over saying these folks won't be able to get the new service.

MTS, after all, is not in the business of losing money serving everyone, as people who still can't get high-speed will speedily attest.

So there — after having engaged in the longest, self-serving preamble of my career, let's get back to the point, which is only tangentially about the evil MTS.

We pay dearly to communicate, and we are at the mercy of our providers.

Here's a brief list of what I was paying. MTS phone: $30/month, not including long distance; Primus, a relatively cheap long-distance provider: $40/month; Star Choice (now Shaw) satellite: $65/month; MTS high-speed Internet: $50/month; cellphone: $60/month. For a grand total of $245/month. In my case, that's more than 10 per cent of my monthly take-home pay.

What to do?

Surprise, I tossed MTS phone and Internet; never to return. That represents a saving of $80 (minimum) a month.

I discontinued Star Choice, though now they're hounding me again. Saving: $65. (I have farmer vision, which is fine with me.)

I stopped the cellphone, but got an iPhone. Net saving minus-$15 — but a far better service with Rogers. But when I add that I also eliminated Primus ($40), I'm actually ahead of the game $25.

Total savings? At $170 or about 70 per cent, it's significant.

Okay, just one man's savings.

What am I missing?

Not much. I am no longer spending too much for services the prices of which are inflated and pretty much beyond anyone's control.

I still get Internet at work, about the only place I use it anyway. (There is a disadvantage. In the days I used MTS, I could get up early and do the production of this newspaper in my PJs. Now I have to be up at 5 a.m. production-Thursdays, then drive the 12 minutes to my office in Gimli. I would have to be there anyway, so it's not a great personal or financial sacrifice.)

As competition tightens in the iPhone market, providers will reduce their prices, so I can only save on my iPhone service. (That's certainly not the case with our homegrown MTS.)

I may be myopic. My vision may be impaired by my, some would say, dislike of, did I mention, MTS.

The province's telecom giant would complain that my criticisms are gratuitous and personal. They're personal, yes — at some level. But 'gratuitous'? I think not.

It's time for all of us to reexamine how we spend our telecommunication dollar.

Believe me, while CBC TV's signal is terrible in Winnipeg Beach, Global comes through crystal clear. And, hey, Global's a Manitoba company, though unlike, er, did I mention?