Just in time for Halloween, Vancouver digital advocacy group OpenMedia is asking Canadians to submit their best cellphone horror stories, in anticipation of new national cellphone carrier regulations.
OpenMedia yesterday launched CellPhoneHorrorStory.ca – part of a campaign aimed at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which is considering new regulations for cellphone carriers to address concerns about price gouging and complicated contracts.
The OpenMedia campaign is largely aimed at the “Big Three” telecoms – Telus (TSX:T), Rogers Communications Inc. (TSX:RCI) and Bell (TSX:BCE).
“The Big Three cellphone companies…control nearly 94% of the market and many Canadians feel trapped by long-term restrictive contracts, price-gouging and disrespectful customer service,” OpenMedia said in a press release.
The CRTC decided in the 1990s it would not regulate pricing and contracts for the emerging cellphone industry in Canada. It is only now, after years of complaints by Canadian consumers, that it is conducting a public consultation to craft a national cellphone carrier code.
“Canadians are more and more aware that they pay some of the highest cellphone fees and are forced into some of the worst contracts in the industrialized world,” OpenMedia executive director Steve Anderson said.
“We know that the Big Three would like nothing better than to use this process to weaken the existing rules and lock Canadians into arrangements that are even more costly and restrictive. It’s wrong, it’s bad for our country and our economy, and we shouldn’t stand for it.
“The CRTC should focus this process exclusively on what Canadians are asking for. For too long we’ve let a few telecom companies squeeze ever more money out of our wallets.”
Earlier this week, Telus announced it is scrapping the activation and renewal fees it charges its customers, something its subsidiary, Koodo, has never charged.
