Why won’t Chatr & Lucky compete?

[Lonetreejim]

I have some family who live where there is no Telus/Bell tower close by (they tried but no service in the house) so they subscribe to Chatr.

Public Mobile has offered a lot of outstanding new, affordable plans this year in the $2x and $3x range.  Virgin and Fido each have a $3x plan that are using to pretend to compete.  Chatr and Lucky… crickets.

Based on the crash of the Koodo and PM websites during the Black Friday weekend I can’t help but think a lot of people abandoned Chatr and Lucky to move over.  Don’t the others care?

I realize Robelus only have these flanker brands because the Government threatened them into it but now that the infrastructure is in place you’d think they would want to maximize customer retention.  Maybe even get a few new ones.

i just don’t get it.

[Korth_]

lol "compete"

The Big Three are an oligopoly.

The only real "competition" happens when they're bidding on radio spectrum licenses. And even then, they typically each let their "competitors" keep the licenses for the same regions over and over again, it's understood that the less pick-up-and-move hassle they impose on their "competitors", the less they'll endure themselves.

The days of killer promos and price-matching with extra incentives and all that other stuff are gone. The CRTC sets prices, nobody charges less, nobody can succeed charging more. It's a stable status quo and nobody wants to rock the boat.

[Lonetreejim]

One of the things I admire about Public Mobile is the availability of the holiday plans to existing customers.  Notice that extra data bonus plans on Chatr and Lucky are for new customers only.

Since Chatr has no loyalty program I'm half tempted to have them port to a $15 PM plan for a month and then port back to a new Chatr plan the month after.

[DennyCrane]

Yeah I don't get it either. PM has gotten increasingly more competitive since about last May, and the other tier 3's don't even seem to be in the same league anymore. They offer some nicer plans on the low end, but that's about it. And I agree that a lot of this is due to Freedom.

[Grand_Total]

---

@dwh1 wrote:

---

And people are already realizing that 5G doesn't actually matter for the things most people do on their phones.   What's left to market except lower costs.

---

Indeed. It was, and still is, really about the potential for new data hungry mobile applications, not people on phones.

[JesseF]

I remember that hype train, myself. While I was initially excited for 5G, it didn't take me long to realize that for the average person, it wouldn't make much of a difference. Not everyone is streaming something 24/7... and if you are it might be worth trying to determine if you're addicted to your phone.

[dwh1]

---

@Grand_Total wrote:

---

@JesseF wrote:

Why *would* Rogers and Bell want to incentivize people to go with their offshoot brands?

Probably because they are in a mature and fairly saturated market, so given the vaguely tiered structure of their offerings they need to attract new (to them) customers to any tier that they can. 

It's not an enviable position to be in, they already give unlimited calls and SMS and the only thing they have left is increasing data allowances, but eventually most people will realise they don't consume 10GB a month let alone 50GB, 100GB or 200GB or even truly unlimited data. After that they are left with lower costs. Even the much vaunted 5G of a few years ago turned out to be smoke and mirrors effectively.

---

And people are already realizing that 5G doesn't actually matter for the things most people do on their phones.   What's left to market except lower costs.

Except that's NOT what Chatr and Lucky are doing to market, is it?  They're marketing "big bonus data" deals that go away and are still worse than what PM, second tier carriers, and Freedom all offer for the same price.

I struggle to explain it except as an attempt to take advantage of low-information buyers.

[Grand_Total]

---

@JesseF wrote:

Why *would* Rogers and Bell want to incentivize people to go with their offshoot brands?

Probably because they are in a mature and fairly saturated market, so given the vaguely tiered structure of their offerings they need to attract new (to them) customers to any tier that they can. 

It's not an enviable position to be in, they already give unlimited calls and SMS and the only thing they have left is increasing data allowances, but eventually most people will realise they don't consume 10GB a month let alone 50GB, 100GB or 200GB or even truly unlimited data. After that they are left with lower costs. Even the much vaunted 5G of a few years ago turned out to be smoke and mirrors effectively.

[JesseF]

That "bonus" tactic sounds to me, in all honesty, like an extremely underhanded tactic. Like luring in a fish. Except in this case, the lure is the extra data.

I think that's more planning for the short term, though, to make the brand look more enticing and/or viable than it actually is. But that could just be my perception of it.

[dwh1]

---

@JesseF wrote:

I am curious though. How do you figure the others are "pretending" to compete?

---

I'm not the OP - but I'd agree.  When PM was offering $34/40 during Black Friday and staying generally competitive with Fredom Mobile, Lucky and Chatr were offering (and I'm going from memory so this isn't going to be exact) plans with a few GB of data for the same price but with a 20/25GB bonus for two years, after which the buyer would be stuck with paying more than $30 for 2 or 3 GB.

I don't understand the strategy myself - it's hard to understand why they have the flanker brands when their second tier brands offer better value than the flankers.  If I wanted to be cynical about it, i might speculate that it's intentionally trying to market to low-information buyers who would assume that those carriers offer a good deal when they walk into a store, but who don't actually check.  I'm not actually that cynical, but I struggle to underhand the market positioning.  Yes, Chatr/Lucky shoppers might not know about PM since PM doesn't have a retail presence, but Koodo/Fido/Virgin are all in the same malls offering better deals than Chatr/Lucky.

E.g. Today: PM has $34/25GB for new clients.  Chatr has $35/1GB with an 11 GB bonus that lasts for 24 months.

As for "why" - most people don't know the ownership of the flanker brands, I'd bet.  They exist to serve market segments that the more "senior" brands don't market to.  No one is cross shopping Chatr against Rogers.

[JesseF]

Why *would* Rogers and Bell want to incentivize people to go with their offshoot brands?

As I understand it, and please correct me if I'm wrong, they only get a portion of the fees from them. Meanwhile, if you subscribe to Bell/Rogers, they get all the money and, because of the way things are at the moment, they are able to get away with charging more. That means more money for them overall.

I am curious though. How do you figure the others are "pretending" to compete?

[hairbag1]

@Lonetreejim 

see if Freedom will work...they have some attractive deals and incentives right now.

https://www.freedommobile.ca/en-CA

[Handy1]

@Lonetreejim  I think it’s freedom mobile that’s really shaking up the cell plan landscape . And they at it again today with a new 100GB plan for $50 and 60GB for $40 both CAN /US plans too