VANCOUVER – While BCE deals with a few other things, Telus today confirmed that wireless clients have never been required to pay for spam text messages – and announced an even easier way for customers to receive credits for any spam text messages they might receive.
Beginning August 24, clients can simply send any spam message to 7726 with the word SPAM in the body of the message and their account will be adjusted automatically. The credit will be processed with no questions asked of the client by Telus. This change has no impact on any Telus mobile email services.
Telus re-iterated its policy has always been to credit customers for spam messages they have received and that it uses sophisticated spam filters to eliminate most of these types of messages from reaching clients. And, Telus “further guarantees that customers will not pay for spam text messages,” reads its release.
In May, the company – and Bell Canada – began advertising a change to the way incoming text messages are to be billed beginning August 24. In addition, Telus began directly informing affected clients via bill notification messages on June 24.
The overall text messaging rate changes affect a small segment of Telus wireless customer base and are limited to those who do not currently subscribe to a text messaging plan (same goes for Bell).
(Ed note: An ill-informed media maelstrom ensued, fuelled then by online misinformation that finally culminated in the companies being summoned to Ottawa by Industry Minister Jim Prentice.)
Customers not on any plan currently pay $0.15 to send a text message as well as $0.15 to receive text messages that originate from a computer or the Internet. Beginning August 24, the $0.15 per charge will also apply to text messages that originate from other cell phones. Charging for incoming text messages is a standard practice in North America with most of the major U.S. carriers charging $0.20. That is a 33% premium compared to Telus.
Customers who subscribe to any text messaging plans will continue to receive unlimited incoming text messages free of charge (same with Bell). Customers can choose to subscribe to a text messaging plan from prices starting as low as $3 per month which includes 30 outgoing text messages and unlimited incoming messages.
“To develop new broadband technologies and build a network that will be the envy of the world, the Canadian telecommunications industry faces significant investments. Over the past 8 years, Telus has invested $54 billion in Canada and created thousands of new jobs across the country. In addition, we will be investing even more with the current AWS spectrum auction to bring Canadians advanced wireless services in the near future. Telus is standing high bidder on a series of national AWS spectrum licenses of over $850 million,” concludes the company’s press release.
