Bell and TELUS are under fire from Canada's telecom regulator over fees that the watchdog says may be violating new federal rules. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC, has taken the two carriers to task just days after tightening the rules around what customers can be charged, setting up a confrontation between the regulator and two of the country's largest telecom companies.
The dispute stems from rules the CRTC introduced on Friday, which were designed to ban telecom companies from charging fees to activate, change or cancel cell phone plans. The measures were meant to remove a layer of costs that customers have long faced when managing their service, part of a broader push to make wireless plans easier and cheaper to navigate.
Soon after the rules took effect, Bell and TELUS rolled out a 15 dollar charge for physical and digital SIM cards. The CRTC says those fees appear to sidestep the new rules, raising the question of whether the carriers are simply repackaging charges the regulator had just moved to eliminate. It is that timing, coming right on the heels of the new rules, that has drawn the regulator's scrutiny.
In response, the CRTC sent warning letters to both Bell and TELUS and has ordered the two companies to explain themselves by June 17. The deadline puts the onus on the carriers to justify the new SIM card charges and to show how they square with rules that were specifically aimed at curbing activation and account-change fees.
Consumer advocates have been sharply critical of the move, accusing the telecom giants of rebranding old activation-style fees in order to make up for the revenue they stand to lose under the new rules. From their perspective, the SIM card charge is a workaround that leaves customers paying much the same costs under a different name, undercutting the intent of the regulator's recent action.
For now, the matter rests on how Bell and TELUS respond to the regulator's demand for an explanation. The CRTC has signalled that regulatory action could follow if the dispute is not resolved, leaving open the possibility of further intervention. The outcome will test how far the new rules can go in changing what Canadians are charged for their wireless service.