OTTAWA – Claiming he has a duty to protect the public from new texting fees (!), Industry Minister Jim Prentice has called the CEOs of Bell and Telus to his office to explain an impending wireless pricing change which both companies recently announced.
Beginning in August, both telcos intend to begin charging 15 cents per incoming wireless text message received by customers who are not a part of a data plan and who choose to pay as they go. Rogers, Canada’s largest wireless company, charges no such fee and has not announced plans to do so.
(Ed query: Is the minister now going to be interested in EVERY price increase put into the market by every service provider? Or just the ones people raise a stink about? Will Rogers be called on the carpet to explain its iPhone pricing plans? Will Shaw face the wrath if they boost their broadband rates?)
“The decision this week by Bell Mobility and Telus to begin charging for incoming text messages has raised serious consumer concerns, particularly with regard to charges for unsolicited, unwanted, spam text messages,” reads the Industry Canada press release.
(Ed note: As a long-time texter, I have never, not once, received a spam text message.)
According to Bell spokesman Pierre Leclerc, the new charge “does not affect clients on text bundles in any way, only those who pay per use for individual text messages,” and “about 95% of text messages are sent and received by Bell clients on text plans – in other words, this change won’t affect them at all. The 5% who do pay-per-use for text will see the new charge for inbound messages beginning in August. However, anyone who plans to send or receive a significant number of text messages really should be on a plan,” he added.
Those who text a lot and are not on a plan, are paying way too much to send their own texts anyway and would actually benefit by signing up for one so they can send and receive less expensively.
“Almost all wireless carriers in North America have taken this pay-per-use billing approach for individual incoming texts – all the major carriers in the U.S. do so, and indeed many charge 20 cents per message,” added Leclerc.
As for spam texts? “Our clients will not pay for unsolicited ‘spam’ messages – it is highly unlikely any they would ever receive any, thanks to the strict network safeguards we and all wireless carriers have put in place. But if they do somehow receive an unsolicited message, they should call our client care team to adjust their charges,” said Leclerc.
“While I have no desire to interfere with the day-to-day business decisions of two private companies,” said the contradictory minister’s statement, because he is absolutely doing what he claims to not want to do. “I do have a duty as Minister of Industry to protect the interests of the consuming public when necessary. I believe this was a poorly thought-out decision.”
Poorly thought out or not (and one wonders why the two companies would drop such a PR anvil on themselves for such an apparently small segment of texting customers), Canadian consumers should be trusted to protect themselves as there are various choices they have to avoid such charges by switching companies or buying into a plan.
“I have sent letters to the chief executive officers of Bell Mobility and Telus asking that they meet with me in Ottawa before August 8, 2008, to explain this aspect of their text messaging pricing structure with a view to finding a solution that provides the best service to consumers at the best price,” concluded Prentice’s release.
Leclerc added that nothing has been arranged and that Bell “would be happy to meet with the minister.”
