Just about any company that's offered cell phone service in Canada — including Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless, Telus Mobility, and Fido — are named as defendants in a lawsuit filed in August but which is just coming to light now. My friend Tyler Hamilton at the Toronto Star reports on the suit today and I've got the TV version on tonight's CTV National News.
Essentially, the suit claims that the cell phone companies misled customers in describing and collecting what are variously known as system admin fees, system access fees, system license fees or network access fees. Just about every one of the 12 million or so Canadian cellphone users pays the equivalent of about $7 a month on top of their regular cell phone plans for these charges.
You can download the Statement of Claim in the case. (A fast connection is helpful as this is a 4 MB PDF file.)
The case is at a very early stage. A judge has not yet certified the class-action status of the claim and none of the defendants have responded.
So, where is the voice of consumer in this battle? I wonder if there is an easy way for the average mobile user to feedback on the matter or provide real testimonies for having been misled.
I really wish we had real competition in this market. Perhaps Fido could have been considered such competition before being bough by Rogers. A few years back all large motilities got together and moved from per second to per minute billing. Yes, the consumer was informed via a fine print in their bills. It sounds like we are going backwards in the global mobile market. Sometimes, I wonder with if it would be better for the consumer to completely deregulate the market and let foreign players join the game. Can the consumer really loose in this?
rY.
Yeah, it is absolutely outrageous the fact that they change whenever they want and it is the consummer that gets to pay.
They say “the System Licensing Charge covers a number of costs, including: federal government licensing charges, spectrum acquisition costs, contribution charges to help subsidize residential telephone service in rural and remote areas, costs associated with area code changes, invoicing requirements for special needs clients, relay services (TDD) and related costs and research and development. The remainder, if any, goes towards the costs of operating the national wireless networks, including new equipment and installations, ongoing maintenance and technology upgrades. “Now I have a question, isn't this just the cost of operation, why is the customer burdened with something that should be paid by the provider as part of the service they offer and the charges for the monthly plans?
I think it is time the CRTC or whoever regulates this at a federal level to open the border to international providers to see real competition.
What bothers me the most is the fact that they got together and decided to start charging by the minute without telling anybody, only in the fine print. I don't like to pay for something I'm not using. If I talk for 35 seconds, why would I have to pay for 1 minute, who is making the millions with this overcharging?