Promised measures light on details, analysts say
Jamie Sturgeon
Sun
Canada‘s wireless phone companies will allow customers to refuse changes made partway through their contract’s term or to get out of the contract at no additional cost.
The pledge is one in a litany of promises contained in a new “code of conduct” governing cellphones released Tuesday by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA).
CWTA says the three-page document “codifies” how the country’s carriers communicate with and treat the more than 23 million cellphone subscribers in Canada.
Yet beyond that, the new measures are light on details, analysts say.
The move also follows reports this week that a federal proposal to create an online tool to help consumers choose a wireless plan were derailed by the industry.
Included in the CWTA code is a stipulation that any material changes made to contracts partway through their terms, such as raising prices or limiting services, can be refused by subscribers, or they can terminate the contract without incurring hefty break fees, which are usually $20 for every month remaining.
Carriers “haven’t served their customers very well. Now they’re coming in with a political solution to what should be a customer solution,” said telecommunications analyst Eamon Hoey of Hoey Associates.
“There’s nothing impressive about a code of conduct.”
First recommended by the Conservative government more than two years ago when Ottawa moved to make the industry more competitive — including the opening of more wireless spectrum to new entrants — the code “will make it easier and simpler for consumers to know what they’re getting, how they’re getting it and how much its going to cost,” said Bernard Lord, president of the CWTA.
Details on monthly charges, including all fees and additional surcharges contained in any wireless plan, must be provided at the point of sale, the CWTA said. Also included in the document is a promise to “communicate with our customers in plain, simple language.”
Lord, the former premier of New Brunswick, said most carriers, including Rogers Communications Inc., Bell Canada Inc. and Telus Corp. — the country’s largest incumbent providers — are already giving customers relevant information, but the code has created an industry-wide benchmark to follow.
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