CRTC - National Code of Conduct for Wireless Indurstry | GTAMotorcycle.com

CRTC - National Code of Conduct for Wireless Indurstry

T

TheNewDude

Well-known member
So the CRTC has opened up a discussion board for Canadians to provide there thoughts on the wireless industry.

I'm very passionate about this since I strongly believe we're getting royally screwed by Robelus.
So, if you think the same please take the time to log in and participate in the discussion as it may help shape the telecommunications industry in Canada.
The 3 main questions they’re asking on that discussion website are as follows:
- What should be in the Wireless Code?
- How should complaints related to the Wireless Code be resolved?
- How should the Wireless Code be promoted and reviewed to ensure it is working?

Some of the important issues people have brought up are:
- Elimination of the 36 month contract
- Unlocking/Locking of phones
- Billing Errors

Here is the link to the CRTC website.
 
Unlocking/Locking of phones - agreed here.
Billing Errors - agreed as well.

Elimination of the 36 month contract - you don't have to sign a contract. This one won't hold.
 
Chaos said:
Unlocking/Locking of phones - agreed here.
Billing Errors - agreed as well.

Elimination of the 36 month contract - you don't have to sign a contract. This one won't hold.
Click to expand...

Well, they had 36 month contracts in the UK and then the CRTC equivalent banned them in the UK.
The reason was that the subsidy disparities between the 24-36 month contracts were so high that people didn't even consider 24 month contracts. And the same is happening here. The Subsidized price on a 24 month contract is so high compared to 36 month contracts because Robelus want you locked in for 36 months.

Plus, how is it that the rest of the world can offer 24 month contract at about the same price for the phones for which we sign 36 month contracts?

There is some serious price collusion happening between Rogers/Bell/Telus. There price plans are almost always identical and come out within hours of each other. Such amazing coordination cannot be pure luck. It's definitely price fixing which is illegal in Canada.


Cell phones have become a necessity for Canadians. Since we're so dependent on it, it becomes an industry that needs to be regulated and monitored. There isn't enough competition in the market for the Free Market to dictate pricing. There are massive barriers to entry for new comers now and Robelus need to be regulated thoroughly.


Another note of issue is contract changes. Robelus reserve the right to change anything on your contract at any time where as you can’t. They also lock you in for the “Base Plan” of the contract and keep hiking the prices of the extras and you cannot do anything since your “Base Plan” has stayed the same and you’re under contract.

It’s a lot of unethical practices that need to stop.
 
Roaming costs. If you use your phone in the US it magically costs $2/minute because you arent on the Rogers network. When I was privy to that kind of information the agreement between Rogers and AT&T as an example is $0.10/min for roaming. Where does the other $1.90 per minute go - Pure profit. Im sure nothing has changed in the last few years. I am not against any company making money but there should be some limits.


Dave
Worked in Cellular at the manufacturer, carrier and reseller level for 8 years.
 
I just use less.

My plan now is $33 after taxes.
100 mb data
200 weekday minutes
Unlimited weekends

The trick is to negotiate a contract at the end of your term. If not just tell em you.'re leaving.

I'm with rogers

Sent from my tablet using my paws
 
TheNewDude said:
Well, they had 36 month contracts in the UK and then the CRTC equivalent banned them in the UK.
The reason was that the subsidy disparities between the 24-36 month contracts were so high that people didn't even consider 24 month contracts. And the same is happening here. The Subsidized price on a 24 month contract is so high compared to 36 month contracts because Robelus want you locked in for 36 months.

Plus, how is it that the rest of the world can offer 24 month contract at about the same price for the phones for which we sign 36 month contracts?

There is some serious price collusion happening between Rogers/Bell/Telus. There price plans are almost always identical and come out within hours of each other. Such amazing coordination cannot be pure luck. It's definitely price fixing which is illegal in Canada.


Cell phones have become a necessity for Canadians. Since we're so dependent on it, it becomes an industry that needs to be regulated and monitored. There isn't enough competition in the market for the Free Market to dictate pricing. There are massive barriers to entry for new comers now and Robelus need to be regulated thoroughly.


Another note of issue is contract changes. Robelus reserve the right to change anything on your contract at any time where as you can’t. They also lock you in for the “Base Plan” of the contract and keep hiking the prices of the extras and you cannot do anything since your “Base Plan” has stayed the same and you’re under contract.

It’s a lot of unethical practices that need to stop.
Click to expand...

You seem to have some good knowledge on the subject. Do you know of any consumer advocay groups that you can point me to regarding cell service competition?
 
fastar1 said:
You seem to have some good knowledge on the subject. Do you know of any consumer advocay groups that you can point me to regarding cell service competition?
Click to expand...

Well the CRTC is the Customer Advocacy group, even though it doesn't feel like it over the last little while. They have a new director in place now and seems like he's trying to turn things around and do things that benefit consumers and not the corportations. I provided the link to the CRTC website in my orginal post.

Or are you looking for something totally different?
 
TheNewDude said:
Well the CRTC is the Customer Advocacy group, even though it doesn't feel like it over the last little while. They have a new director in place now and seems like he's trying to turn things around and do things that benefit consumers and not the corportations. I provided the link to the CRTC website in my orginal post.

Or are you looking for something totally different?
Click to expand...

I dunno, are they a consumer advocacy group? This link seems to direct complainants everywhere but the CRTC.

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/info_sht/t1021.htm

I'm trying to find out more for a class project I'm doing, and I'm not sure exactly what CRTC's role is.
 
RockerGuy said:
I just use less.

My plan now is $33 after taxes.
100 mb data
200 weekday minutes
Unlimited weekends

The trick is to negotiate a contract at the end of your term. If not just tell em you.'re leaving.
Click to expand...

I'm assuming you don't exceed those 100MB, in which case I'm actually impressed that you can manage with so little mobile data provisioned. I have 10 times that, and struggle not to exceed that limit. I would have to believe that most people are in the same boat. Fast and capable mobile internet connections, along with the variety of content they can access, do not do well to promote rationed bandwidth use. They encourage fat pipes, which result in tiny wallets.

The mobile internet experience is being made to come as close to the desktop experience as possible, yet the infrastructure to experience it with is bottle necked by incredibly limited access. I pay as much for 1GB of bandwidth for my phone as I do for 300GB of bandwidth to my entire home.
 
This won't do anything to change rates or pricing. Basically all they will get is an information site to tell you how contracts work, if that.


CRTC doesn't have any control of, or effect on, Cell providers.

CRTC is frequency management.

It splits the spectrum up into usable segments and allocates those segments for use.

Radio, television, LRC, Cellular, Satcom etc.

Cell phones are not a necessity. Food, water, shelter are.

You may have a requirement for a cell phone. If it's for work then work should supply one, if it's for ones personal business then that's the cost of doing business.

No company will ever lower the cost of anything they make/serve until they are no longer moving those items/services.
 
D23 said:
This won't do anything to change rates or pricing. Basically all they will get is an information site to tell you how contracts work, if that.


CRTC doesn't have any control of, or effect on, Cell providers.

CRTC is frequency management.

It splits the spectrum up into usable segments and allocates those segments for use.

Radio, television, LRC, Cellular, Satcom etc.

Cell phones are not a necessity. Food, water, shelter are.

You may have a requirement for a cell phone. If it's for work then work should supply one, if it's for ones personal business then that's the cost of doing business.

No company will ever lower the cost of anything they make/serve until they are no longer moving those items/services.
Click to expand...

Well, clothes are not a necessity. But we do all wear them because if we're caught in a public place without them, you'd be controlled by the "Police" and escorted to jail.

What I'm trying to say is that, I don't necessarily even agree that prices should be controlled or set by CRTC, but the CRTC does have enough control to make sure consumers are protected.
1. CRTC can ask the Government to make 36 month cell phone contracts illegal.
2. CRTC can even further lower ownership rules and open up the market in Canada for new entrants possibily increasing competition.
3. CRTC can set aside enough spectrum for the new entrants to bid on amoung themselves lowering spectrum price for new comers and possibly increasing competiton again. (Bell and Rogers and I believe Telus too, got a lot of their spectrum for free WAY back in the days.)

So there is a possibility of good coming from this. Now I wasn't born yesterday, I do realize that the CRTC has mostly done things that has harmed Canadians rather than benefit them, but this SEEMS like a good gesture from the CRTC to try and help Canadians. Now, if anything will come of it still remains to be seen. All we can do at this point is participate and include our 2 cents in that chatter. Show them that there are enough Canadians out there that are very unhappy with how they are being treated.
 
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The only way any of the cellular providers will lower prices is if there is a significant drop in new customers. Since the vast majority of people seem to feel the need to be in constant contact through their wireless devices, this is not likely to happen. As noted by D23 above, cell phones are not a necessity. Many may believe they are, but in reality you can get by fine without one.

I cancelled my monthly plan two years ago because I felt the $35 a month was too much for my needs. The plan I had at the time was for voice and text only and provided more time than I could use. I changed to a pre-paid plan that now costs me $100 a year and still find I have a balance at the end of the year which I can carry over.

I would like a newer phone with data, but I am not prepared to enter into a long term contract, or pay more than $40 a month for that luxury. So until the contract obligations change and the prices come down I will continue along with my old phone on a pre-paid plan.
 
Malks said:
The only way any of the cellular providers will lower prices is if there is a significant drop in new customers. Since the vast majority of people seem to feel the need to be in constant contact through their wireless devices, this is not likely to happen. As noted by D23 above, cell phones are not a necessity. Many may believe they are, but in reality you can get by fine without one.

I cancelled my monthly plan two years ago because I felt the $35 a month was too much for my needs. The plan I had at the time was for voice and text only and provided more time than I could use. I changed to a pre-paid plan that now costs me $100 a year and still find I have a balance at the end of the year which I can carry over.

I would like a newer phone with data, but I am not prepared to enter into a long term contract, or pay more than $40 a month for that luxury. So until the contract obligations change and the prices come down I will continue along with my old phone on a pre-paid plan.
Click to expand...


Well you do have options with Wind and Mobilicity. They both have $40 plans that give you voice and data.
And that's been possible with changes that the govt made to ownership rules and overriding the old CRTC.

This code of conduct is more for how the telcos treat consumers. A way of recourse for consumers who are being bullied by the big 3.
 
i was happy with mobility service. for 30 bucks a month for unlimited everything + data for 30 a month. no contracts.

its a shame i have to pay double that now with koodo because my employer kept sending me outside the coverage zone.

now i only get 1 gig of data and less features. but gain better coverage.

still wish i was with the smaller carriers. don't like the idea of giving my business to greedy investors of robelus.
 
I'm against a nationalized standard especially since the CRTC is already in the pockets of the Robellus Cartel, so they only need to kick a little more their way to make any problems disappear. CRTC has no teeth when it comes to protecting the consumer. I work in the industry so I see what they can get away with. I'd leave the standards up to the provinces. It's more expensive to bribe regulatory bodies on a per-province level than on a national level especially since the national regulatory body has already been "golfed" into becoming bitchboys by the cartel.
 
FiReSTaRT said:
I'm against a nationalized standard especially since the CRTC is already in the pockets of the Robellus Cartel, so they only need to kick a little more their way to make any problems disappear. CRTC has no teeth when it comes to protecting the consumer. I work in the industry so I see what they can get away with. I'd leave the standards up to the provinces. It's more expensive to bribe regulatory bodies on a per-province level than on a national level especially since the national regulatory body has already been "golfed" into becoming bitchboys by the cartel.
Click to expand...

I do agree on how badly CRTC has treated Canadians. But supposedly a new guy is in charge of the CRTC now. So you can hope for some positive change.
 
Bermuda said:
I'm assuming you don't exceed those 100MB, in which case I'm actually impressed that you can manage with so little mobile data provisioned. I have 10 times that, and struggle not to exceed that limit. I would have to believe that most people are in the same boat. Fast and capable mobile internet connections, along with the variety of content they can access, do not do well to promote rationed bandwidth use. They encourage fat pipes, which result in tiny wallets.

The mobile internet experience is being made to come as close to the desktop experience as possible, yet the infrastructure to experience it with is bottle necked by incredibly limited access. I pay as much for 1GB of bandwidth for my phone as I do for 300GB of bandwidth to my entire home.
Click to expand...

I only use it for emails & maps. Thats plenty

Sent from my phone using my paws
 
TheNewDude said:
I do agree on how badly CRTC has treated Canadians. But supposedly a new guy is in charge of the CRTC now. So you can hope for some positive change.
Click to expand...

I think so too. There's a different mood at CRTC now IMO. I think it has to do with Harper TBH, he's always made statements about making Canada a more competitive environment for business, for the benefit of consumers. And this is coming from a guy who HATES the Conservative Party.
 
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