The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), wrote the CRTC last week to express “serious concerns regarding the actions” of Bell, Telus, and Rogers with regards to their recently released low-cost plans.
On July 14, Bell, Telus and Rogers each released new low-cost and occasional-use plans, as directed by the CRTC in Telecommunications Regulatory Policy CRTC 2021-130. PIAC, in its letter to the CRTC, noted the policy indicated “the Commission expected that the incumbents provide at least one low-cost plan on their premium brands.”
Despite this, PIAC did not find any such plan on the any of the companies’ premium brand websites but did find them on their flanker brand websites (Virgin Mobile and Lucky Mobile (Bell), Fido and Chatr (Rogers), and Koodo and Public Mobile (Telus)).
“We do not understand, on behalf of those consumers who may be reluctant to trust flanker brands, why the Commission should allow the incumbents to avoid offering low-cost plans on their premium brands for any period of time,” the letter reads. “This means the incumbents will use this period to attempt to move most of the low-cost plan subscribers to their flanker brands until such time as the Commission stirs itself to turn this expectation into an enforceable order.”
PIAC requested “action now” from the CRTC on this matter.
