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On Wednesday, Rogers’ Class B shares closed more than eight per cent down at $61, bringing the stock’s year-to-date losses to more than 12 per cent. Bell and Telus each saw declines of more than four per cent but both remain positive for the year.

Shaw Communications Inc. has been driving competition in the sector, according to Morningstar analyst Matthew Dolgin, with Shaw’s Freedom Mobile brand having released its own unlimited data package before the big three.

It was only a matter of time before the big three followed suit, Dolgin said — and once one of them did, the rest were bound to follow.

The same scenario played out in the U.S. when T-Mobile U.S. Inc was the first to introduce these plans to the American market.

Edward Jones analyst Dave Heger suggests the Canadian sector might follow the U.S. example in that it might take more than a year to recover from losses incurred by unlimited data plans.

The leaders in the American telco space, Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc. and Sprint Corp. each suffered when these plans were introduced in the U.S. in 2017. What complicates the comparison is that the telcos had also begun adopting instalment plans for handsets prior to offering unlimited data plans. Combined, the moves placed significant downward pressure on stocks.

Each one of the U.S. stocks peaked in January in 2017 and would go on to lose more than 20 per cent of their value (in Sprint’s case, more than 40 per cent) throughout the year. Verizon took one year to once again reach its trading level from January 2017.

“If there’s a silver lining, maybe it’s kind of like pulling off a Band-Aid,” Heger said. “They shift to unlimited and if it happens faster than expected, it could be rough for four quarters or so, but 60 per cent of customers were moving up to a higher price plan. Across the industry, you’re likely to see it negatively impact revenues in the short-term, but it’s encouraging people are moving up.”

• Email: vferreira@nationalpost.com | Twitter: VicF77