REGINA – Matthew McGillivray has a lot to say about cell phone contracts.
“If you don’t like your job you can get out of it. If you don’t like this, you can get out of it, but if you don’t like your cell phone contract, you can get out of it,” said the University of Regina business student.
Many people agree with him – cell phone contracts are too long. Of course, you can get out of them, but it’ll cost you, sometimes hundreds of dollars. Roaming charges will cost you even more.
“We took a trip to Europe for three weeks, paid $1000 cell phone bills two months in a row,” said engineering student Dean Kurtz.
These are frustrations Canada’s telecommunications regulator has been hearing a lot.
“Contract length, bill shock, unlocking their cell phones – or not being able to unlock their cell phones, and cancellation fees,” listed Barbara Motzney, the CRTC Chief Consumer officer.
The CRTC has now issued a wireless code to allow Canadians to terminate their contracts after two years without cancellation fees. They also introduced a cap of $50 a month on extra data charges and $100 a month on international data roaming. The code also requires cell phones be unlocked after 90 days.
The idea is to create more competition: “If you can walk away from your cell phone contract after two years regardless of the length of the contract that means that every two years you can make a choice.”
Others disagree with Motzney.
“Actually a very small percentage of our customers opt for two year agreements. They opt for three year agreements because it’s a lower price for the phones, so it is going to increase the cost of the phones on a monthly basis for our customers,” said John Meldrum, vice-president of corporate council and regulatory affairs at Sasktel.
Meldrum said the rules will cost the company in other ways, which could also trickle down to the consumer.
“The costs either get passed on to customers, or passed on to shareholders. There’s no sort of magic money tree that can pay for all the additional costs that the CRTC has foisted upon everybody,” he said.
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