Canadian Government to Cell Phone Companies "Cut that shit out"

[gremcint]

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/com100/201...%20Uaya69g_eYw

Starting Dec 2 2013 the CRTC will introduce a wireless code of conduct:

The wireless code addresses the main frustrations that Canadians shared with the CRTC, which included the length of wireless contracts, cancellation fees, roaming charges and other industry practices. Among other things, individual and small business consumers will be able to:

- terminate their wireless contracts after two years without cancellation fees, even if they have signed on for a longer term
- cap extra data charges at $50/month and international data roaming charges at $100/month to prevent bill shock
- have their cellphones unlocked after 90 days, or immediately if they paid for the device in full
- return their cellphones, within 15 days and specific usage limits, if they are unhappy with their service
- accept or decline changes to the key terms of a fixed-term contract (i.e., 2-year), and
- receive a contract that is easy to read and understand.

This might finally make me consider getting a smart phone.

[Nekojin]

Go, CTRC! It's awesome that someone is actually looking out for the consumers' interests.

[Greenday]

Great victory for consumer's rights.

Awful defeat for the free market system.

[Andara Bledin]

All of those are great, except the first.

The point of a contract is to lock in a lower rate. It's not fair to those who opt to go without a contract that those who choose to sign on for the lower rate can then walk away with no penalties. This one in particular is going to result in higher rates across the board.

[bara]

When I worked for a couple of different cell phone companies the whole point of the contract and termination fee as it was explained to me was to make certain the cost of the phone was subsudized. Might be different in Canada... dont know. Although they seem to have a better idea of how to run a a country than the US does.

Free market is bullshit without proper safeguards in place to protect consumer interests.

[fireheart17]

The rule about unlocking a phone down here for prepaid ones is either six months or you've recharged to a certain point.

[gremcint]

All of those are great, except the first.

The point of a contract is to lock in a lower rate. It's not fair to those who opt to go without a contract that those who choose to sign on for the lower rate can then walk away with no penalties. This one in particular is going to result in higher rates across the board.

keep in mind this only applies to new contracts not existing ones, given how loosely these have been properly followed on the part of carriers in the past it gives the consumer an out when the carrier bends them over the table
http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2008/07...-messages.html

[smileyeagle1021]

You know, I never even considered complaining to the government that I wasn't happy with my terms with Verizon... I just left Verizon for Straight Talk, and hey, what do you know, I got rid of most of what I didn't like about Verizon and cut my bill in half to boot, no whining to my congressman required... what a novel idea, solving my own problem rather than asking the government to solve it for me

[Andara Bledin]

Yeah, 'cause America has never had the government step in to tell corporations to stop screwing over the public.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

All of those are great, except the first.

The point of a contract is to lock in a lower rate. It's not fair to those who opt to go without a contract that those who choose to sign on for the lower rate can then walk away with no penalties. This one in particular is going to result in higher rates across the board.

But here in the US, a contract is no guarantee. I've had a contract with AT&T and my service was $60 a month for the first phone, another $10 for the second phone and another $20 for the shared data plan.

We never went over our minutes, never went over our data plan's usage and yet in the last 6 months of the service when we were considering taking the early upgrade option we realized that our $90 a month service had creeped up to $150 a month and when we asked AT&T about it...they said that they had the right to change the contract whenever they felt like it even though we could not find such clause in the copy of the contract that we had on hand.

Needless to say...we're on Verizon now. We get more service for less and so far (knock on wood) they haven't raised the prices during our last contract at all. It went up $15 this last renewal but that was a new two-year contract and not @#$%ing us up the ass during the existing one.

[Jetfire]

You know, I never even considered complaining to the government that I wasn't happy with my terms with Verizon... I just left Verizon for Straight Talk, and hey, what do you know, I got rid of most of what I didn't like about Verizon and cut my bill in half to boot, no whining to my congressman required... what a novel idea, solving my own problem rather than asking the government to solve it for me

The issue up here is we have a Triopoly between Bell/Rogers and Tellus. There are some smaller players that got in with the spectrum auction a few years back, but they are barely a blip on the radar.

The Big Three set the prices and the contracts and so forth so there is no real competition. In the past even they had a habit of buying up the competition when someone looked to be making splashes (See: Fido, Virgin). That changed when the Government squashed Telus's attempts to buy Mobilicity (one of the small players).

The Big Three have shown they are painfully out of touch with the consumer demands; during the talks about the Code of Conduct, the Telus guy is on record as saying "I think a lot of customers don't want a cap [on their monthly bill]," (which is one of the things included in this Code of Conduct the CRTC is bringing in)

In general, Canada has been faltering badly as far as Cell phone/Smart phone use goes. We pay among the highest fees for some of the worse service in the world. The Big Three get more from Canadians than most Cell phone companies get from their customers, for providing less service, and crying poor when they're questioned on it. ( http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6803/125/ for example).

And yes, Canada is a big country, but that doesn't mean Cell phone companies need to cover ALL of it. The deep woods of Northern Ontario don't need 3G/4G/SuperG/HyperWalletG coverage. Most Canadians live in the cities now, and not all that many cities at that. The actual area a company needs to set up equipment to cover 90% of the population is probably less than the area needed in most countries really. But that's the standard excuse brought out to explain our high costs. Thankfully, that's being called out as the BS it is.

*Edit to add* For the record, I've got a Koodo smart phone, no contracts, just a tab. It is Telus's cheap subsidiary. I pay 35$/month for free nationwide calling evenings and weekends, unlimited text and 200 mb/month data. No contracts but they also can't increase my fees without asking. (The plan I'm on isn't offered any more, but I'm on it until I decide to go on another). I'm nickle and dimed if I go over the limits but that isn't often, and it is outlined what the costs would be. And I can cancel any time by just paying off what I owe on the tab. (Basically by finishing paying off the phone itself since that's what the tab is used for)

[crashhelmet]

When I worked for a couple of different cell phone companies the whole point of the contract and termination fee as it was explained to me was to make certain the cost of the phone was subsudized. Might be different in Canada... dont know. Although they seem to have a better idea of how to run a a country than the US does.

Free market is bullshit without proper safeguards in place to protect consumer interests.

I work in the wireless industry. Providers have contracts and early termination fees because they have to have a subscriber for anywhere from 11-16 months before they see a profit. This is due to phone subsidization, competitive rates, and the overall cost of network management.

That's why you see huge price reductions on devices with 1 or 2 year contracts and some offer varying rates for with or without a contract. It's also why carriers make you wait for your contract to end before you upgrade your phone for a reduced price.

Sadly, you have companies like AT&T that boomed because of the iPhone (They sold off their wireless business to Cingular and then bought it back right before they signed their exclusive contract with Apple for the iPhone) but lacked the spectrum to handle all of the traffic their new subscribers were eating up. They had no choice but to cap data and charge their subscribers for it. Verizon followed suit.

Sprint had more spectrum than either of them and then bought 50% of Clearwire for their 4G spectrum and they're offering unlimited plans without any problems. If they can buyout the rest of Clearwire and then get bought out by Softbank, they will own almost twice as much spectrum than AT&T and Verizon combined.

[mikoyan29]

Great victory for consumer's rights.

Awful defeat for the free market system.

If there is in fact a free market.