GATINEAU – On Friday, the CRTC launched the review it said was coming over the 36-month device financing plans certain service wireless providers recently launched, which it told those carriers to stop doing in early August.
The Commission wants to ensure the provisions of its Wireless Code, which effectively make any sort of carrier service contract longer than two years illegal (there can be no break fee beyond 24 months for a customer to pay when they leave a carrier), are upheld. The carriers which launched the new 36-month plans, first from Rogers this summer, say the offers are on-side with the Code because they separate the service from the device and all the contract requires is the customer finish paying for the device if they choose to leave their wireless provider.
Plus, these new devices are near or at $2,000 in price and customers need more affordable monthly payment plans – all of which were interest free.
The CRTC is seeking views by October 15, 2019 on, among other things:
- What are the benefits for customers of having access to wireless device financing plans that exceed 24 months?
- How to ensure that device financing plans comply with the Wireless Code's objectives of making it easier for Canadians to understand their mobile contracts and switch service providers, and of preventing bill shock?
- If the carriers which began to sell the 36-month device payment plans (Rogers, Telus, Bell and Iristel) are found to have violated the Code, what penalties should they face?
"Although device financing plans may make cellphones more affordable, we want to ensure those benefits do not come at the expense of the protections offered to Canadians by the code. At the end of a two-year service contract, Canadians should have the ability to shop around and take advantage of competitive offers without barriers,'' reads the quote attributed to CRTC chair and CEO Ian Scott in the Commission press release.
