That’s exactly how cable works in the States, you only have one real choice depending on where you live. If you try and cancel over their atrocious service there’s a very real chance they’ll ask what other choices you think you have.

Susan Crawford wrote on and talked about this (mis)handling of telecoms in the US context years ago, the government letting the companies divide regions up and ensure a lack of competition.

My reading of the situation in Canada for internet and wireless is that it was a historical mix of:

• lacking political will/interest to govern from day one
• a policy of letting the free market run until it’s a major problem
• follow the US lead for anything new
• and support the (then) recently de-regulated incumbent (Bell) to dominate
• give competitive advantages to Canadian companies vs allowing foreign competition even if it means worse outcomes for Canadian consumers (better to protect the Canadian economy from foreign interests than to ensure consumer best interests).

Didn't a Telus exec confirm this publicly? It's a little more than a theory.

I don't know about elsewhere in Canada, but here, Bell and Rogers compete directly in the mobile space, and Bell competes directly with cable, and all of those options have multiple resellers at half the price, thanks to CRTC.

Are the prices the lowest in the world? No. Can you tell a company to fuck off? Yes, you can.

I don't know. The Canada described by OP might be a foreign land compared to the part of Canada I know.