Communications Brands in Canada

The Communications industry in Canada—encompassing telecom and wireless service providers—occupies a paradoxical position in the GCBI. It’s one of the most vital sectors in modern life, yet it consistently ranks near the bottom in emotional and moral brand perception. Among the better-performing brands in this category, Freedom Mobile stands out with comparatively stronger scores in friendly, nice, and honest. Its reputation as a disruptor in the telecom space, offering lower-cost alternatives and simpler pricing structures, seems to have earned it a degree of goodwill from consumers who are otherwise skeptical of big telecom.

In contrast, many of the major players in the communications sector—such as Bell, Rogers, and Telus—tend to underperform across nearly all value-based dimensions. Despite offering extensive service coverage and heavily investing in 5G infrastructure, they are often perceived as impersonal, inflexible, and profit-driven. These brands score particularly low on tolerant, respectful, and honest, reflecting years of consumer frustration with opaque billing practices, expensive plans, and inconsistent customer service. Media coverage of outages, mergers, and anti-competitive behaviour only deepens this skepticism, making trust difficult to rebuild.

The communications industry is also one of the most regulated and politically sensitive in Canada. The federal government has made affordability and competition in telecom a public issue, and consumer expectations have shifted as a result. Canadians now demand not just reliable service, but also transparency, fairness, and a sense of accountability. The fact that Freedom Mobile performs relatively well—despite its smaller size—demonstrates that consumers are responsive to even modest efforts toward those values.

To improve their standing in the GCBI, communications brands must move beyond polished advertising campaigns and address the underlying trust gap. This means radical transparency, ethical pricing models, and authentic customer advocacy. Canadians are no longer content to accept high costs and convoluted service agreements as the norm. The path forward for telecom brands lies in simplifying the experience, treating consumers as partners rather than accounts, and proving that they prioritize people over margins. In a sector that Canadians rely on every day, there’s immense opportunity for brands that are willing to earn trust rather than assume it.