{"id":49327,"date":"2013-07-17T11:07:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T07:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=49327"},"modified":"2013-07-19T07:07:39","modified_gmt":"2013-07-19T03:07:39","slug":"telcos-raising-wireless-prices-to-spite-crtc","status":"publish","type":"magazine","link":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/magazine\/telcos-raising-wireless-prices-to-spite-crtc","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Telcos Raising Their Wireless Prices to Spite CRTC&#8217;s New Consumer-friendly Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 11px 33px; float: right;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/content\/dam\/thestar\/business\/2007\/06\/21\/telus_considers_bell_merger\/bce_and_telus_discussmerger.jpeg.size.xxlarge.letterbox.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"320\" height=\"214\" \/>Canadian consumers<a href=\"http:\/\/www.techvibes.com\/blog\/new-wireless-code-canada-2013-06-03\" target=\"_blank\"> rejoiced in June<\/a> when the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission unveiled <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crtc.gc.ca\/eng\/com100\/2013\/r130603.htm#.%20Uaya69g_eYw\" target=\"_blank\">a new wireless code<\/a> that brings cellphone contract lengths down from three years to two, includes a maximum overcharge for data of $50 per month, and a maximum overcharge for international roaming at $100 per month.<\/p>\n<p><!-- pagebreak --><\/p>\n<p>But there apparently isn&#8217;t much to celebrate anymore.<\/p>\n<p>Rogers, Telus, and Bell are among a group of wireless carriers in Canada <a href=\"http:\/\/www.techvibes.com\/blog\/wireless-carriers-not-happy-with-crtc-2013-07-03\" target=\"_blank\">who are not happy<\/a> with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.techvibes.com\/blog\/new-wireless-code-canada-2013-06-03\" target=\"_blank\">new code of conduct<\/a>, which was created to make the industry fairer to consumers. Earlier this month the carriers argued that the CRTC&#8217;s code, particularly its &#8220;retrospective application,&#8221; will damage them financially and that the code may even been illegal in some respects &#8211; now they&#8217;ve taken it into their own hands to protect their corporate wallets.<\/p>\n<p>Carriers such as Telus and Bell are introducing new two-year contracts that have substantially higher monthly rates &#8211; up to $20 monthly premiums for smartphones &#8211; that negate any benefit customers may have derived from the shorter contract.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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,&#8221; said the CRTC last month. But did the national regulator count for Telus creating plans that cost up to $150 per month on two-year terms?<\/p>\n<p>OpenMedia Communications Manager Lindsey Pinto saw this travesty coming. &#8220;Canadians will never get the choice and affordability we deserve when just three companies control up to 94 percent of the market,&#8221; she explains.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Canadians already pay among the highest prices for wireless service in the industrialized world without these steep price hikes. A recent report found the average monthly cell phone bill in Canada <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newswire.ca\/en\/story\/1161847\/j-d-power-associates-reports-satisfaction-is-highest-among-wireless-customers-who-use-their-carriers-online-service-and-sales-channels\" target=\"_blank\">topped $77 at the start of 2013<\/a>, up nine dollars from $68 in 2012&mdash;an increase of 13%, or 13 times the rate of inflation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\" dir=\"ltr\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">Photo: Canadian Press<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Canadian consumers rejoiced in June when the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission unveiled a new wireless code that brings cellphone contract lengths down from three years to two, includes a maximum overcharge for data of $50 per month, and a maximum overcharge for international roaming at $100 per month. But there apparently isn&#8217;t much to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55555,"featured_media":49329,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"magazine-region":[],"magazine-series":[],"magazine-topic":[],"class_list":["post-49327","magazine","type-magazine","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine\/49327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/magazine"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/55555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine\/49327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/49329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49327"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine-region?post=49327"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine-series?post=49327"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine-topic?post=49327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}