Same cable, half the price: the internet markup hiding in plain sight
A reseller sells you the incumbent's own line for a fraction of the price. Here is the math.
Here is a comparison that sounds like a trick and is not: TekSavvy vs Rogers, on the very same cable, is roughly $36 against roughly $75 for 100 Mbps.
Same wire into the same house. Same physical network underneath. The connection does not know which company's name is on the bill. And yet the two bills sit about $40 a month apart, which over a year is close to $480 for choosing one logo over another on identical infrastructure.
Understanding why that gap exists, and what you actually trade when you cross it, tells you most of what you need to know about how Canadian internet is priced.
- TekSavvy resells 100 Mbps over the incumbents' own cable from $35.95 a month, while a comparable big-provider plan runs around $75.
- This is legal and deliberate: CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) rules require network owners to sell wholesale access to their lines at regulated rates.
- What you trade is brand, bundling, and sometimes support speed. What you do not trade is the physical connection.
- The gap persists because most households never look: five in six did not switch providers over a two-year period.
- The same wholesale gap is part of what a pooled cohort's reverse auction squeezes in your favour.
The two-layer market behind the price
Canadian internet runs in two layers. A handful of companies own the physical last mile: Bell, Rogers, Telus, and the regional incumbents built the cable and fibre, and it would be wasteful to duplicate it. To keep that ownership from becoming absolute pricing power, the CRTC requires the owners to sell access to those networks at regulated wholesale rates. Independent providers like TekSavvy buy that access and retail it under their own brand, on the exact same lines.
So when TekSavvy sells you internet in Rogers territory, your data travels Rogers' cable either way. The difference is entirely in who bills you, supports you, and sets the retail margin on top of the regulated wholesale cost.
TekSavvy vs Rogers on the same line, in real numbers
The gap in practice: TekSavvy's entry cable plan for 100 Mbps is $35.95 a month, while a comparable Rogers plan typically runs around $75. Roughly $40 a month, roughly $480 a year, for the same speed over the same infrastructure. The exact figures shift with promotions and regions, and the incumbent's promo rate can narrow the gap for 12 to 24 months, but the regular-rate comparison is where the honest arithmetic lives, because the promo expires and the regular rate is what you keep paying.
| Big-provider plan | Same line, resold | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price, regular | ~$75 | $35.95 |
| Network | the incumbent’s cable | the same cable |
| Speed tier | 100 Mbps | 100 Mbps |
| Cost over 12 months | ~$900 | ~$431 |
| What differs | brand, bundles, plan range | price, terms; support varies by company |
The wire is the same. The bill does not have to be.
What you trade, and what you do not
Be fair to the incumbent side of the ledger. With a large provider you may get bundling discounts across mobile and TV, a bigger retail and support apparatus, and, in some cases, plan tiers a wholesale-based provider cannot match. With an independent you typically get a lower flat price, no-nonsense terms, and support quality that varies by company: some independents win awards for it, and it is worth reading recent reviews for the one you are considering.
What you do not trade is the connection itself. Speed and reliability at the line level come from the underlying network, which is the same network. Outages on the physical plant hit both companies' customers alike, because it is one plant.
Why the gap survives
A $480-a-year difference on identical infrastructure should not be stable, and yet it is. It survives on inertia: the Competition Bureau found five in six Canadian households had not switched providers in two years, and NotchUp's negotiation data suggests 73% have never even asked their current provider for a better rate. The gap is not a secret. It is simply invisible to anyone who never looks, and the pricing model quietly depends on most people never looking.
The bigger version of the same gap
One household crossing the gap saves one bill. A cohort of households, pooled by region and renewal date, turns the same wholesale economics into an auction: providers of every kind, independents and incumbents alike, bidding to win the group. That is what Whollar is being built to run, and it is why this comparison matters beyond TekSavvy and Rogers specifically. The gap is the market's slack. Collective switching is a way to claim it systematically instead of one phone call at a time.
See what your own line really costs.
The checkup takes two minutes and reads your bill the way this article does: same wire, honest arithmetic. And when your region's cohort opens, providers compete for the group, so the gap works in your favour by default.
Free for households · nothing to buy today · you only act if a bid comes back that you want.
Frequently asked questions
Is TekSavvy really using Rogers' network?
In Rogers cable territory, yes. TekSavvy buys regulated wholesale access to the incumbents' networks, Rogers cable among them, and retails service over those lines under its own brand. The physical connection into your home is the same plant either way.
Is internet from a reseller slower or less reliable?
The line itself performs the same, because it is the same line. Differences show up in things layered on top: plan tiers offered, traffic management policies, modem or equipment options, and support responsiveness, which varies by company rather than by category. Check recent reviews for the specific provider you are considering.
What is the cheapest internet provider in Ontario?
Among widely available options, wholesale-based independents are consistently the low end, with TekSavvy's $35.95 entry cable plan among the cheapest 100 Mbps rates in the country. The truly cheapest option at your address depends on which networks reach it, which is exactly why availability, not brand, is the first question to answer.
Why doesn't everyone just switch, then?
Mostly inertia and unfamiliarity. Five in six Canadian households did not switch providers over a two-year period, and most people simply have not heard that the same cable is sold at two prices. The gap persists because looking at it is rare, not because it is hard to cross.