No. It's just utter bullshit due to a lack of competition. The province with the cheapest rates for wireless is not dense, population rich Ontario. It's one of the least dense, least populus. Why? Oh, because they have an extra wireless competitor in the form of a Crown Corp.
Other countries like Australia have similar densities and infrastructure costs yet still have way lower prices. The Canadian telecom industry is sheltered and there's really only 3 big players. Foreign competition isn't allowed so there's no possibility of Verizon or Vodafone coming in and shaking things up.
Ontario has 14 persons per square mile. The population density of ALL of Western Europe is 181, ten times greater, Netherlands is 521. Ontario is quite a bit closer to other "less dense" provinces than most countries used for comparison.
These prices need to come down, more competition and local initiatives need to happen, and more innovation for systems like mesh networks. It is particularly upsetting when ways can't be found to share infrastructure. But if providing access to every Canadian is the goal (rather than for every person in a city at a cost less than a bag of groceries) there is probably some logic to the existing system.
Some people will say "just pay for Starlink everywhere," but it's really not ok for a country's access to be owned by another country (as long as Musk is still on earth), wired ultimately has advantages, and there are probably benefits to supporting wired infrastructure, and competition and choice are important.
Ontario has a density of 14 people per square km, not square mile. Saskatchewan has a density of 1.9 people per square km yet has cheaper rates. And go look at a coverage map. The big 3 don't cover huge swaths of places including most of Nunavut, heck even Northern Ontario is not well covered. It's an excuse. Again Australia has similar low density with people mainly concentrated in a few cities yet rates are considerably cheaper. Taking a quick peek at Telstra and you can get a 40GB a month plan for 55AUD (51 CAD) while Telus/Bell/Rogers charge $80 CAD for 30 GB. And I'm pretty sure the Australia price includes taxes in the price unlike the Canada price.
You're right about km vs mile, but it's consistently km in the comparisons so the same proportional result. The telcos don't need to provide coverage to every square meter, but they do have to reach many sparsely populated areas. The large carriers have it as a goal to cover areas like Northern Ontario better. I don't know what Australia's policies are, but they would have to be part of the comparison.
The cost difference between Telstra and Telus/Bell/Rogers is double, but over a month tens of dollars is not a significant part of a budget, and when consuming video &c there's really not that much different between 30 - 40 GB (unlimited is another story). For people on a very limited budget, there are lower cost plans, but even with the Telstra plan it's not comparable to wired.
Don't get me wrong, I think Canada, right or wrong, coddles these big carriers as a defence against international players, which creates an uneven playing field here (sharing infrastructure at competitive rates seemed like a fair recourse). I am just trying to bring more perspective to the table than "Ontario has a high density so should be cheap," besides the obvious "we are not just talking about Ontario or Toronto here."
Wired is the real thing to discuss here, and what may get lost in the shuffle.
In addition to the comment salamandersauce made in reply to yours, I'd also add that comparing the raw population density of the province of Ontario like that is highly misleading. There's absolutely massive tracts of land that are largely uninhabited up north and something like 95% of the population lives along the great lakes, the American border, or the Ottawa river, comprising approximately 30% of the land within the boundaries of the province.
The population density of the areas people live (that actually have telco service) is much much much higher than 14 people per sq. km.
The Greater Toronto Area has a population density of 849/sq. km[1]. Why are its prices not lower than, or at least comparable to all of Europe?
Other countries like Australia have similar densities and infrastructure costs yet still have way lower prices. The Canadian telecom industry is sheltered and there's really only 3 big players. Foreign competition isn't allowed so there's no possibility of Verizon or Vodafone coming in and shaking things up.