I'd say, first, that I don't think the industry has done a very good job of communicating with the general public in terms of the value that we provide and the cost of the service.
Second, if you mathematically cut the cost in half but the user uses twice as much data as they did historically, the cost is going to look the same to the user from a nominal bill point of view.
Third, as it relates to the device component, that's an area where we do not control the economics. We are price-takers, not price-makers, on that front, and that's a significant component of the overall costs, sometimes making up close to 50% of the overall bill.
I think those three factors have had an impact on Canadian psychology.
The other thing that has not been made clear is that the value that we bring through that increased data is significant. In my remarks, I talked about how our move on technology and our deployment of infrastructure and services has created $77 billion in GDP for Canada alone in just the 2022 year. I think that connecting the dots in terms of the value that this creates for our economy and our society with consumer understanding is something that the industry has not been particularly adept at. It's something that we need to move forward on.
Lastly, we do great things on the affordability front for underserved Canadians—at scale, by the way. There are 1.1 million Canadians—from kids who are aging out of foster care to indigenous women, low-income families, low-income seniors and new immigrants supported by the Canadian government—who have services from Telus that are highly subsidized, below our cost base, to support the affordability agenda. I think we need to do a better job of communicating those things, and that's on us.