Complaints against Canadian telecom providers have dropped 8.5% to 5,468 in the previous six months ending in January, according to the first mid-year report from the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS).
But the CCTS revealed April 2 that confirmed breaches of the wireless code of conduct are actually on an upward trend, reaching a total of 328 cases between August 1, 2014 and January 31, 2015.
The wireless code went into effect in December 2013 and includes provisions to force carriers to make contracts clear to customers, make devices unlockable and not charge cancellation fees after two years.
“CCTS is certainly concerned about the increase in confirmed breaches, but we expected to see an adjustment period while providers and consumers learn to understand the Code’s full impact, and we think that’s what’s happening here,” CCTS Commissioner Howard Maker said in a statement.
Bell (TSX:BCE) and Rogers (TSX:RCI.B) were the two biggest targets of complaints, with those wireless carriers receiving 1,989 and 1,240 complaints, respectively.
This is the first time the CCTS has released a mid-year report, so an exact comparison to another August-January time period is not available.
But in the CCTS’s previous annual report (covering the period from August 1, 2013 to July 31, 2014), Bell had 3,651 complaints and Rogers had 2,379.
If the complaints in the mid-year report were doubled, Bell and Rogers would both be on upward trends with 3,978 and 2,480 complaints, respectively.
However, a CCTS spokesman told Business In Vancouver the carriers still have time to reverse the current trends they’re on.
Wind Mobile, which only operates in B.C., Alberta and Ontario, came in third with 361 complaints. It, too, is on an upward trend compared with the previous annual report when it had 510 complaints.
Virgin Mobile, which is owned by Bell, ranked fourth with 312 complaints in the mid-year report. But the carrier is on the downward trend compared with the numbers in the annual report when it had 815 complaints.
Fifth-place Fido had 306 complaints, putting it on a downward trend compared with the annual report figures that showed it had 905 complaints last year.
Vancouver-based Telus (TSX:T) is also on the downward trend, with 243 complaints in the mid-year report. If the numbers were doubled, one of Canada’s largest providers would have 486 complaints compared with 653 complaints in last year’s annual report.
The provider was responsible for two out of the 328 confirmed wireless code breaches.
