Shaw Cable services most of Western Canada and they have been steadily escalating their prices each year. I only use them for cable internet services and subscribe to the high speed service.
The bill has had the following escalation curve, with sales taxes included (12%):
January 2008: $45.87
May 2009: $46.99 (+2.4% from previous)
September 2009: $49.23 (+4.8% from 4 months ago)
September 2010: $52.64 (+6.9% from 12 months ago)
Total since January 2008: +14.8%
While I have had few issues with my service, I do not believe that these price increases are “inflationary” in nature, and rather reflect economic elasticity – customers are likely not to go through the hassle of canceling and getting the alternative service (TELUS’ ADSL) to save a few dollars.
The standard corporate line is likely “We have to do this to make improvements to our network”, but the service itself has not changed since getting it – anecdotally, it feels slower, but this could just be because there is more garbage that gets sent through the internet these days.
The price increases are getting to the point where I am examining options. TELUS’ high speed internet service (without bundling) is $37/mo pre-tax, compared to Shaw’s new price of $47/mo pre-tax. Is one service better than the other? Is switching a seamless process (i.e. will I have loss of service)? It is these types of questions/risks that make me wonder whether it is worth $134/year to make a switch decision.
It is clear that the companies are only competing against each other for marginal customers, and will not engage in price competition for their existing customers.
In terms of publicly traded stocks, while it is clear that Shaw (TSX: SJR) and TELUS (TSX: T) will not double their equity valuations overnight, they do represent a store of value assuming that no other companies will be able to disrupt the wireline broadband marketplace. The same holds true for equivalent companies on the eastern side of the country (to name some: Bell, Videotron, Rogers). TELUS also has diversification in their wireless marketplace, but this is being chipped away by the deep-pocketed Orascom subsidiary, Wind Mobile.
I hope you’ll do a followup post if you do end up switching to Telus, with attendant post-switch review. I took a look into it a few months ago, after the steady march upward of Shaw fees got to me, but from websites that described their experience with the Telus service and from what I saw at a friend who had one of their packages, I wasn’t convinced enough to switch.
If consider swithching. You should really be looking at other ISP that use DSL or Cable (from Shaw and Telus). You should be able to get something for 8-10$ less per month than Telus.