Ottawa unveils 18-point telecom competition roadmap

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly on Wednesday launched Canada’s first Telecom Competition Roadmap, a plan with 18 actions for 2026 and 2027 that the federal government says will bring more choice, lower prices and better networks.

“By improving competition, empowering consumers and supporting the expansion of networks and services, this roadmap truly puts Canadians first,” Joly said, according to a government release as reported by iPhone in Canada and MobileSyrup.

The plan aims to help smaller providers compete with Rogers, Bell and Telus across regional borders. It builds on an August 2025 decision that required the big carriers to open their fibre lines to rivals, and the CRTC set final wholesale rates for most fibre-to-the-home connections in April. Smaller internet providers have said some of those rates remain too high.

On wireless, the roadmap leans on rules that let smaller brands, known as mobile virtual network operators, rent capacity on the big networks. Ottawa said the rates they pay have fallen about 75 per cent in recent years, and the CRTC plans to publish profitability benchmarks to guide rate talks.

The government also pointed to progress already made. The CRTC barred extra fees to activate, change or cancel a plan as of June 12, which one government estimate puts at about $100 million a year in savings for consumers. Ottawa said wireless prices are down 49 per cent compared with 2019, and that a 60-gigabyte plan that averaged $105 in 2022 now often sells for $40 to $50.

Next steps include a “dig once” approach so fibre can be laid alongside major road, rail and energy projects, and a review of tower siting rules that would cut the municipal concurrence window from 120 days to 45 and move paperwork online. The government also plans to release millimetre-wave spectrum over the next three years, which it said could multiply the airwaves available for wireless services five-fold. In May, a decision capped how much of the fastest 5G spectrum the big three can buy.

Ottawa wants the CRTC to merge its Wireless Code and Internet Code into one clearer consumer code, to highlight the lowest-cost plans and to raise awareness of the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services. Internet plan transparency rules are set for March 2027.

Telus has already pushed back on parts of that consumer code. In a summer filing, it asked the CRTC to make the new code the only consumer rules that count, overriding provincial laws in places such as British Columbia and Quebec, and to keep trial periods at 15 days instead of the 30 days in the draft. It also argued the complaints commission has no legal authority to enforce the code, a position a law professor has opposed.

Many customers still pay more than today’s best offers, with average revenue per user at the large wireless companies around $56 a month, according to the figures cited in the coverage. Regional challengers are also moving, as Freedom Mobile added bigger data plans in Manitoba this week, while Rogers has said SpaceX filings point to carrier partnerships.

The government said it will track progress through prices, switching behaviour, network speeds, coverage and consumer complaints. If results fall short, Ottawa said it is ready to revise its policy direction to the CRTC.

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Sources: iPhone in Canada, MobileSyrup.