@shaker
Telus used to be the leader in terms of deployed technology. Biggest, fastest, bestest. But that was years ago.
Bell pulled ahead in recent years and hasn't relinquished that lead.
And Rogers is the single largest entity of the Big Three by almost any metric. Now also the first (and only) carrier with some 5G, plus the most standalone coverage.
Although Telus and Bell (and SaskTel, etc) have a network sharing agreement. In effect they pool their hardware and can each focus on quality of service (along with profit) in a "portion" of Canada while also advertising "Canada's Largest" "Nation-wide" "Coast-to-Coast" coverage - their combined coverage exceeds what Rogers can offer. From a consumer perspective they're basically very much the same phone network and same phone service with different flavours of billing. And these days they maintain close parity with the way they structure their plans and prices ... in the end they're almost interchangeable unless one or the other happens to sell a desirable device or commodity feature the others happen to lack.
Public Mobile's "gimmick" is generally low pricing across the board. Without any hidden surcharges and annoyance fees. And a Rewards system which pays off better than any other in the long run. Sometimes they surprise us with free gifts and other motivations, maybe not stuff everyone can use and maybe not enough stuff for those who will use it, yet still far more than I've seen any of the other carriers ever do for their customers.
But Public Mobile is also not the clever, agile, aggressive leader it once was. It's generally become content to simply follow the lead of the other third-tier carriers, match their promos, and avoid rocking the boat.
Telus owns Koodo and Public. Bell owns Virgin and Lucky. Rogers owns Fido and Chatr. Shaw owns Freedom. There's really not as many options as you think, just the Big Three (with their prime-tier, second-tier, and third-tier offerings) and Freedom (if you live in a Freedom Zone) and "little" carriers like SaskTel or Ice Wireless (which basically operate in provinces/territories where the Big Three are locked out).
It's an oligopoly, it's not a free market. And it jealously guards its territory from disruptive competition or foreign incursions. A little weird but the logic, expectations and rules of "normal" economics don't really apply to this business in Canada.
