1.5 million households already did this. It just was not for internet.
Collective switching is not a theory. It moved energy markets for years. Now, internet.
The idea sounds almost too clean to be real: pool households together, make suppliers bid for the group, everyone saves.
Reasonable people hear it and wait for the catch. So here is the most useful fact about collective switching, the one that reframes the whole conversation: it is not a proposal. It has already happened, at scale, for years, in a market with the same shape as internet. It just happened to energy first.
- Collective switching has run at scale in energy markets for over a decade, with iChoosr alone reporting more than 1.5 million households switched through group auctions.
- The recipe is stable across markets: register freely, pool demand, run a reverse auction, let each member accept or decline.
- Energy and internet share the shape that makes it work: an essential utility, confusing pricing, and deep consumer inertia.
- Canada has no established collective switching platform for internet, and the timing mechanic, pooling by renewal window, is the internet-specific addition.
- That is the gap Whollar is being built to fill, with the first regional cohorts forming now.
What collective switching did in energy
The model that platforms like iChoosr refined works like this. Households register, free, with no obligation. When the group is large enough, suppliers are invited to a reverse auction, bidding tariffs down to win the whole pool at once. The winning offer goes back to every member, personalised to their usage, and each household decides individually: accept and switch, or decline and keep what they have. iChoosr reports more than 1.5 million households switched this way, with the model running across the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, Japan, and beyond, often distributed through municipalities and community organisations that residents already trust.
Two design choices did the heavy lifting. Free registration removed every barrier to pooling, which is what made the groups large enough to matter. And the no-obligation offer kept the auctions honest, because suppliers knew the group would only move for a bid genuinely worth moving for.
New for internet does not mean unproven. It has moved millions before.
Why it worked: the shape of the market
Collective switching thrives in markets with a particular anatomy. An essential service everyone buys. Pricing opaque enough that comparing offers is a chore. Suppliers whose real margin lives in customer inertia rather than product difference. And a large population of households who know they are probably overpaying and never quite get around to acting. Energy fit that description exactly. Read the list again with Canadian internet in mind, promo cliffs, retention desks, five in six households not switching in two years, and it fits just as precisely.
What is the same for internet, and what is different
The mechanism transfers cleanly: pool, auction, free choice. Two things change. First, the product is less interchangeable than a kilowatt hour, since networks, speeds, and availability differ by address, which makes the regional cohort, households grouped where the same networks actually reach, the natural unit rather than a national pool. Second, and this is the internet-specific insight, contracts have windows. Energy switching is largely open season; internet leverage peaks when terms expire. So the cohort is pooled not just by region but by renewal timing, which concentrates the group's freedom to move into the exact moment providers must compete for it. That timing mechanic is Whollar's addition to a proven recipe.
| Carries over from energy | Changes for internet |
|---|---|
| Free registration, no obligation | Cohorts are regional, since networks differ by address |
| The reverse auction | Pooling is timed to contract-renewal windows |
| Group offer, individual choice | Bidders span incumbents, flankers, and independents |
Why Canada, and why now
Canada is unusually well suited and unusually untouched. The market concentration and inertia are well documented by the Competition Bureau. The CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission)'s wholesale framework means multiple providers genuinely can serve the same address over the same lines, which is what makes an auction meaningful. And no established collective switching platform exists here for internet, in either official language. A proven mechanism, a market shaped for it, and an empty field: that is the opportunity, in one sentence, and it is the one Whollar was founded on. The first cohorts are forming region by region now, which means the Canadian version of the 1.5 million is currently at its very beginning.
Be part of the Canadian first.
The mechanism is proven elsewhere; the Canadian chapter starts with the founding cohorts. Holding a spot is free, commits you to nothing, and every neighbour who joins makes the first auctions stronger.
Free for households · nothing to buy today · you only act if a bid comes back that you want.
Frequently asked questions
Has collective switching actually been tried before?
Yes, extensively, in energy. Platforms like iChoosr have run group auctions for over a decade across Europe and Asia, with more than 1.5 million households switched through their auctions alone. The mechanism is mature; applying it to internet is the new part.
Why has nobody done this for internet in Canada already?
Partly because the wholesale rules that make multi-provider competition possible at one address matured over recent years, and partly because internet's contract windows make the pooling harder to time than energy's open switching. Both conditions have now shifted, which is why the gap exists and why it is worth filling now.
Is this legal?
Yes. Collective switching is households voluntarily grouping to solicit competitive offers, and each household contracts individually with the provider it chooses. It is comparison shopping with better leverage, running on the same regulated wholesale and retail framework as any other switch.
Will providers actually show up to bid?
That is precisely what a forming market has to prove, which is why Whollar is recruiting founding partners on the provider side in parallel with founding members on the household side. The energy precedent is the strong signal: suppliers bid there because a pooled cohort is cheaper to win than the same customers acquired one at a time, and the same arithmetic holds for internet.