Cellphone plan prices in Manitoba: Bell versus MTS

The latest telecom takeover deal has Manitobans wondering what will happen to their cellphone plans: will prices increase? Could Internet service improve?

On Monday BCE Inc. signed a deal valued at $3.9 billion to buy Manitoba Telecom Services Inc.–the province’s largest wireless, Internet and phone company.

READ MORE: BCE to buy Manitoba Telecom Services in $3.9B deal

Although there is no word yet on how it will directly affect service or your MTS bill, Global News compared prices of Bell Canada and MTS’s current mobile phone packages and broke down some of the numbers.

Price comparison in Manitoba

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Note: The packages listed include unlimited local calling minutes, unless specified.

“With a bigger company like Bell they can write off their fixed equipment over more customers, that results in a lower cost to the consumer,” said economist Rob Warren.

Those lowers costs could be more profound for users who used their phones outside Manitoba, continued Warren.

“Your roaming charges which before you were paying with MTS are now going to go down because you’ve got a much broader Network to go into,” he said.

Some people took to social media to talk about the buyout and what this means for their wallet.

Coverage comparison

Bell is promising better smartphone service outside of Winnipeg. MTS president and CEO Jay Forbes said the deal will also mean faster Internet services.

“What I think we’re going to see is significant investment in upgrading the facilities that the people of Manitoba have,” Forbes said.

“Including Gigabit Fibe Internet, which is about 20 times faster than that which is currently offered in the marketplace, and an expansion of our mobile data services, our LTE network,” he said.

The deal is not finalized and will require approval from the Canadian Radio Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The deal should close by the end of 2016.

With files from CJOB 680