Black Friday deals contributed to a significant drop in cell phone prices compared to a year ago, according to Statistics Canada.

Monthly inflation numbers released Tuesday showed that Canadians who signed up for a cell phone plan in November paid a whopping 22 per cent less than a year ago.

“A variety of promotions across the industry, ahead of Black Friday, offered reduced prices for cellular phone plans, as well as bonus data,” Statistics Canada said.

Lower cell service prices, along with lower prices for fuel oil, offset upward pressure on inflation from higher travel costs, the agency noted.

Overall, inflation remained unchanged for the month at 3.1 per cent as higher prices in travel offset slower price growth.

COST OF CELL SERVICE

The data came as Freedom Mobile emerged as a fourth national player in the cell phone market, after Rogers sold the business to Quebecor.

Various studies have noted that Canadians pay relatively expensive cell phone prices when compared with other countries.

A September report from price comparison site Cable.co.uk found Canadians pay the 22nd highest median rates for cell phone data, at US$5.37 per gigabyte, out of a total ranking of 237 countries.

Another report from March 2023 by research firm Rewheel called the Canadian 4G and 5G networks a “de-facto network duopoly” with the second-highest price for 100 gigabytes, behind only South Africa.

A separate report from Wall Communications found Canada’s mobile wireless prices are generally cheaper than those of the United States and Japan, but are considerably more expensive than those of Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Germany, depending on the plan.