CRTC Unveils New Wireless Code To Protect Canadian Customers 230
FuzzNugget writes "The CRTC has unveiled a code of conduct that brings many positive changes for Canadian wireless customers, most notably:
1.) Carriers must provide the option to unlock a cell phone after 3 months for subsidized phones within the contract period, or immediately if the device was purchased outright.
2.) Contracts are now capped at two years, and cancellation fees are limited to the amount of the subsidy.
3.) Carriers can no longer charge outrageous data overage and international roaming charges. Without explicit consent from the a customer, such charges are capped at $50 and $100 per month, respectively."
1.) Carriers must provide the option to unlock a cell phone after 3 months for subsidized phones within the contract period, or immediately if the device was purchased outright.
2.) Contracts are now capped at two years, and cancellation fees are limited to the amount of the subsidy.
3.) Carriers can no longer charge outrageous data overage and international roaming charges. Without explicit consent from the a customer, such charges are capped at $50 and $100 per month, respectively."
A nice lead... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:A nice lead... (Score:5, Interesting)
I doubt that.
I just wish VZW had some idea of what country I am in. When I go to the US Falls I have to turn off the phone or put it in airplane mode as it assumes I am in Canada. I get it, it is close and it might connect to the wrong tower. As a customer I do not care. I paid for nationwide Data and I wish I could use it. Niagara Falls State Park is in the USA and I should not have to pay extra for data in it.
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GSM and UMTS/HSPA phones can be locked to "home" network. As long as your provider uses the same network code nationwide, you can do this to prevent accidental roaming. I'm not sure if one can meaningfully do this on CDMA phones though.
I've never bothered doing this and never been hit for accidental roaming fees, though, because I keep data roaming off and I don't make voice calls (or answer any) if I show to be roaming. Well, that used to be true until a couple of years ago, anyway. My voice plan now i
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I think I would like the changes overall, but any regulation has trickle-down effects. For instance, capping the price of certain services may be realized by capping the ability to use the service, or removing the service altogether if it is no longer profitable.
And of course, FTA:
There's a good chance, however, that Canadians could see the price they pay for their cellphones up front rise as a consequence of their newly won long-term freedom.
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In other words, government regulation can do a lot to bring fairness and transparency to business. But it can do nothing to force a business to support or continue an unprofitable venture.
Re:A nice lead... (Score:5, Informative)
Trust me, These piddly little changes will still allow Telus, Bell, and Rogers to charge overly high prices, buy up or stifle competition, and generally make obscenely large profits. There never has been, and likely never will be, an unprofitable business in Canadian telecoms, as long as you belong to the Big Three monopolists.
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I think I would like the changes overall, but any regulation has trickle-down effects. For instance, capping the price of certain services may be realized by capping the ability to use the service, or removing the service altogether if it is no longer profitable.
That depends on whether it is something work keeping. If it isn't, then it wasn't worth it at the old price either. Honestly, data plans are being charged at way too high an amount, and can be very unsuspecting so yes - something needs to be done in terms of regulation, USA included.
And of course, FTA:
There's a good chance, however, that Canadians could see the price they pay for their cellphones up front rise as a consequence of their newly won long-term freedom.
That wouldn't be a bad thing really. People have too low a value on their phones, so they don't treat them well, then wonder why they're breaking - which in turn drives up the cost for the carriers. Make people realize the real
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That depends on whether it is something work keeping. If it isn't, then it wasn't worth it at the old price either.
You're right in this case, where the customer can consent to removing the cap. I'm more concerned about what happens when regulators forget the consent portion, and force both the company and the customer into a situation neither wanted.
This is more applicable when caps are too low, but in any case, it could be those customers that would happily pay more than the cap that keep the service profitable via economies of scale.
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Phone prices should go up - but carriers will now have significant incentive to provide discounts to customers who are out of contract and not using such a subsidy. All we need is one first mover to give a significant discount for it, and the rest will, of necessity, follow.
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LOL, AT&T and VZ have the market here and they pay billions for frequencies and markets.. Sprint and T-Mobile are also rans but asking for the Wireless Carriers to change is about as likely as having Sarah Palin becoming a Rhodes Scholar.
"How's that hopey, changey thing working out for ya?'" - Sarah Palin
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In the US, it seems to be happening automatically.
After all, you don't have 3-year contracts In the US for a long time - it's always been two years.
And lately even ETF fees have been going down across the board - I think it was Verizon who wanted to charge it all the way and they got smacked back rather badly, so now everyone uses a pro-rated system.
Cellphone unlocking - OK that's relatively new, but the ones where it matters seem to be coming around to doing it willingly as well.
It
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Give me a good reason why anyone should have to sign on for a two-year contract for data service.
If the service is good, and it's offered for a fair price, I'll continue being a customer without the contract.
2 year (or even 1 year) contracts are nothing more than invitations to provide bad service at high prices.j
Until there is a reasonable level of competition, and the telecoms don't enjoy government's sweethe
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really? Which part? The part where the less fortunate are also able to get reasonable health care? The part where they don't squander huge amounts of their resources on an unwinnable and moronic war on drugs? etc... Just curious as to what you meant exactly with such an ambiguous statement.
Devistating blow (Score:3)
How many people are suckered into overpaying in all kinds of creative ways. The locked phone for instance must keep many people from switching carriers. So I don't see the big three going bankrupt but I do see their profits taking a bigger hit than even they see coming in that they have probably fooled themselves into thinking that they are making profits in ways other than taking advantage of bad luck and stupidity.
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Funny thing with BB late fees, you actually had until 2PM, not Noon, to get your movie checked in. I know this because I used to work for BB from 2001-2002; the 2PM deadline was to allow the clerks time to get the movies checked in, and even then the late fee could be overridden by the clerk.
Then again, considering that it was a minimum wage job, most clerks didn't care (I was one of the few who actually gave a rats ass). Its hard to give quality service when the majority of your staff works minimum wage. A
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Netflix seems to do fine. BlockBuster could have survived by they screwed over their customers, changed polices without telling anyone and foolishly guaranteed they would have some movies in stock at all times.
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That move was a hail mary for Blockbuster, they'd already lost to Netflix & Friends at that point. Besides, it wasn't really a "no late fee" policy so much as a "we'll eventually charge the full cost of the movie to your card if you don't return it" policy. Not the same thing.
Reduced Expectations (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Reduced Expectations (Score:5, Insightful)
Perfect is the enemy of good. If you burn "good" in the pursuit of "perfect" not only will you never have "perfect", you'll never have "good".
Also, baby steps, my friend. Baby steps.
Get a Canadian phone! (Score:3)
With the way things are now in the US, it might be a good idea to buy Canadian phone service and "roam" in the US.
Actually, with the actions of T-Mobile lately, it's almost as if they were anticipating this. There are no cancellation fees... no more contracts. If you decide to stop being a T-Mobile customer, you just have to pay for the phone you bought through them if you haven't already.
The roaming and overage charge caps are new though.
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Oh god but dealing with T-Mobile is an outright clusterfuck! It's better to go to WalMart and buy the SIMs from them or get their StraightTalk (aka Carlos Slim) services or even to SimpleMobile which is now owned by TracFone who is in turn owned by América Móvil [wikipedia.org] that is owned by Carlos Slim. So, choose you can go to VZ, AT&T or T-Mobile (with the shittiest customer service out there and who have been called to account for their new 'no contract deals' with gotchas [go.com]) or you can go to the Mexic
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T-Mobile (with the shittiest customer service out there and who have been called to account for their new 'no contract deals' with gotchas [go.com])
Oh, the horror. Buy a no-contract phone on a monthly payment plan, and they actually expect you to pay the remaining balance owed if you terminate service with them?
Wow, that's some gotcha.
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Uh, sorry forgot to mention I was a contract customer before they had the pre-pay plans and at the time I brought my phone with me, so all they provided were the network services.
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I worked in Canada from 2007-2010. It was actually cheaper for me to add Canada roaming to my U.S. plan and pay $3/mo + 20 cents/min roaming, than to get a Canadian cell phone exclusively for use in Canada (i.e. no U.S. roaming). I would've had to have gotten a 1000 min/mo plan for the per-minute rate on the Canadian plan to be cheaper. Their wireless service was ridiculously expensive. No
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I pay $70/month for 300 daytime minutes, unlimited 6 pm-8 am evenings and 24/7 weekends, including free North American long distance and US voice roaming (which always comes out of my 300 minutes but that's fine). Voicemail, call display, and unlimited data. Not all Canadian providers suck.
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Not really. The Canadian Telecom sector is similar to the American one, except a bit worse in every way. As in the US, unless you go with a MVNO (reseller) you pretty much get screwed over by the cabal's conspiracy of crappiness. Even the MVNO's are not ideal, as they are the same thing but cheaper, and the cabal is still getting your money.
Unlocked phone? (Score:4, Interesting)
This may sound like a stupid question to some...
When going to Europe, I would get a burner phone as it was cheaper than paying roaming/data fees. Since they must now unlock the phone (in my case, an iPhone), does that mean that when I now go to Europe all I need to do is buy a SIM card/service from a local cell provider and stick it in my iPhone and it will work?
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yes as long as the phone covers the frequencies on the network you wish to roam on, which is why "QUAD BAND GSM" used to be popular, although there are more bands now with 4G LTE and so on
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This may sound like a stupid question to some...
When going to Europe, I would get a burner phone as it was cheaper than paying roaming/data fees. Since they must now unlock the phone (in my case, an iPhone), does that mean that when I now go to Europe all I need to do is buy a SIM card/service from a local cell provider and stick it in my iPhone and it will work?
Yes.
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if you have a phone that covers the frequencies yes. I have a Galaxy Note 2, International edition and it works great all over Europe, I just buy a SIM card when I land at the airport.
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Yes, as long as the cellular RF hardware runs on the correct frequencies. Most likely, it does.
*NOW* they do this.... (Score:2)
"Contracts are now capped at two years"...
(sigh)
My contract is 2 years old next month.
I still have a year to go, and boy do I have grievances.
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I signed up for a new 3 year contract 9 days ago. Oh, well. The data overage caps are nice.
yours may be up early (Score:2)
I read somewhere that the 2-year limit actually applies to existing contracts, too. Might be worth checking out.
Still sucks to own a phone in Canada (Score:3)
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Your options are Bell/Telus or Rogers/Fido
Or one of the small carriers who might go out of business at any moment.
Lastly, SaskTel, in some areas, but not where I live.
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Just getting another Wind customer's opinion (I've only been able to identify 2 among the people I know)....
Both the Wind customers I know in the Toronto area complain about rotten coverage, even within Toronto boundaries. Phone calls drop regularly while driving down the 401. Data stops inexplicably for minutes at a time. There are more "dead" areas, and going down in the basement of their homes inevitably leads to zero signal. One has an older Blackberry Bold, the other a Nexus 4.
What's your experienc
Re:Still sucks to own a phone in Canada (Score:5, Informative)
Until relatively recently, 3 large wireless companies completely dominated the market. there are 3rd party offerings in urban areas that have largely been crippled by regulation favouring the large incumbents [thestar.com]. Mobilicity (now telus), Wind, and Public Mobile recently Withdrew from their own lobbying organization [publicmobile.ca] claiming they were also in the pocket of the big 3.
“It has been evident for quite some time that, rather than being a true industry association which represents the views of all players regardless of size, the CWTA has instead largely been an advocate for Rogers, TELUS and Bell, and often directly contrary to the interests of new entrant wireless carriers” said Bob Boron, General Counsel and Senior Vice-President, Legal & Regulatory Affairs for Public Mobile.
The CEOs of the big 3 mobile companies tell their shareholders proudly that they consistently have the highest revenue per customer in the world. This is not in dispute [wordsbynowak.com]. However, when pressed to justify such high priced plans, they use the same hackneyed mantras of: sparse geographic distribution, threat of netflix and streaming services [thestar.com], and supposed customer satisfaction, which are largely corporate marketing spin repeated year after year until it's true [michaelgeist.ca].
Recently, all 3 new entrants in the urban wireless market became up for sale, and Telus is intending to buy Mobilicity, and Rogers is attempting to purchase the spectrum [michaelgeist.ca] originally allocated by the CRTC to new entrants to increase market competition.
Canadian wireless service has less choice, higher prices, offering fewer services and typically lower bandwidth caps, thanks to collusion from the large telcos. It's a caricature of the US market.
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According to the summary carriers must unlock phones after a certain point. However, I read the article and it makes it sound like the a carrier must simply allow users to unlock phones, not unlock it for them. I'm curious to find out which is correct.
They need to, on request after 90 days, either unlock it for you or provide the means for you to to unlock it (their choice) for whatever fee they wish to charge.
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Do you have any evidence for what you've said here, especially what's bolded above, that's not going to end up sounding like a conspiracy theory?
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I'm in Saskatchewan... (Score:2)
So Sasktel has the best coverage by far, but Rogers/Fido/etc. have the better plans for low usage.
I'm actually currently using the 7-11 Speakout plan.
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Is that any good? I was thinking about getting that for my mother. Just so she could text. She is the only person in the family who con not text. Strangely, since texting has become common, I feel I am closer to my siblings than ever before.
Not retroactive (Score:3)
The CRTC has opted to not make this retroactive to existing contracts, so if you're currently on a contract, you're still screwed until it ends, and you've got to wait out the entire preexisting term and can't use the new 2 year cutout.
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You're in a contract by choice, though. We are not in a contract; we bought unlocked phones.
Given the automatic unlocking provision coming up, I might just get subsidized phones again, but it would be better if our carrier gave a discount for bring-your-own-device clients.
Consumers always have a choice. While I'm in favour of the new rules proposed by the CRTC, people knew what they were getting into. 3 years is just too long for me and even when I was under contract, I never went longer than 2.
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You're in a contract by choice, though. We are not in a contract; we bought unlocked phones.
Given the automatic unlocking provision coming up, I might just get subsidized phones again
If there's no BYOD discount, it might still worth it to buy unsubsidized. Unlocking isn't free (wording of code made sure of that), and right now it's $35 for Telus, $50 for Rogers and a whopping $75 ripoff for Bell. Expect these to rise very soon.
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No, but it gives you more control. I admit I'm paying more right now, but I'm also free to port to any company at any moment I want to. (And since I bought my device unlocked, I can use it elsewhere, like in Australia in a few months.)
Too late (Score:2)
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There are plans that include US voice roaming, and US texting. You just have to dig a little to find them.
The only thing I do differently in the US with my plan is to have data roaming turned off. I use text and voice normally and I don't incur any overages as long as I don't talk more than five hours a month while in the US - not hard to do.
Didn't go far enough with prepaid cards... (Score:2)
Here's their mandate on prepaid cards:
J. Expiration of prepaid cards
1. General
A service provider must keep open the accounts of customers with prepaid cards for at least seven calendar days following the expiration of an activated card, at no charge, to give the customer more time to “top up” their account and retain their prepaid balance.
In my opinion, prepaid phone cards should be considered the same as gift cards: they should never expire, they can only be used up by the customer. They essentially represent a cash transaction, same as a gift card.
The only difference is, there may be some *slight* cost to the provider to keep that phone number active in their system (I can't right now think of what would cost them money, exactly, but there might be). To cover those costs, the provider could be allowe
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Prepaid used to work as you described, but unless you are "grandfathered" with such a plan, they're no longer running that way. My folks have a plan they've been on for about five or six years. As long as they top up before their credit runs out, they remain grandfathered. Typically a $50 card lasts them for about four months.
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If it is a 911 emergency, you don't even need an active subscription, just a working phone that can pick up signals from the tower.
Yeah, but grandma's "emergecy phone" is as much for "I got a flat tire" or "my car won't start" as it is for "I've fallen and broken my hip".
We don't want grandma calling 911 when she gets a flat tire.
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If it is a 911 emergency, you don't even need an active subscription, just a working phone that can pick up signals from the tower.
Yeah, but grandma's "emergecy phone" is as much for "I got a flat tire" or "my car won't start" as it is for "I've fallen and broken my hip".
We don't want grandma calling 911 when she gets a flat tire.
Precisely. Even my parents were looking high and low for such an option a few (or maybe more like a dozen) years back: neither of them wanted a phone that they would use very often, just one that would let them call and ask if we needed milk, or if they got a flat tire, or (more importantly, probably) let their kids get a hold of them if they (er, we) got in trouble.
We tried pay as you go, but quickly gave that up in frustration since every time they tried to use it, the minutes were 'expired'.
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The current situation is better. If you buy a $100 prepaid, the minutes last a year; even if you don't touch the phone. If you are a super light user / emergency user $100 year isn't too bad. Works out to around $8/month. If you aren't using more than $100 in minutes a year you only even have to think about it once a year.
'Code of Conduct' != Law... (Score:3)
I can't see where it says that the carriers have to comply with this code under penalty of law...am I missing something?
I can definitely see that being able to claim that your company complies with the Code would be a great advertising feature, but what's to stop them from saying "that's nice" and continuing on with business as usual?
As per the wikipedia article on the CRTC [wikipedia.org]:
Regulation of telephone service
The commission currently has some jurisdiction over the provision of local landline telephone service in Canada. This is largely limited to the major incumbent carriers, such as Bell Canada and Telus, for traditional landline service (but not Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)). It has begun the gradual deregulation of such services where, in the commission's opinion, a sufficient level of competition exists.[11]
The CRTC is sometimes blamed for the current state of the mobile phone industry in Canada, in which there are only three national mobile network operators – Bell Mobility, Telus Mobility, and Rogers Wireless – as well as a handful of MVNOs operating on these networks. In fact, the commission has very little to do with the regulation of mobile phone service, outside of "undue preference" issues (for example, a carrier offering a superior rate or service to some subscribers and not others without a good reason). It does not regulate service rates, service quality, or other business practices, and commission approval is not necessary for wireless provider sales or mergers as in the broadcasting industry.[12] Moreover, it does not deal with the availability of spectrum for mobile phone service, which is part of the Industry Canada mandate, nor the maintenance of competition, which is largely the responsibility of The Competition Bureau.
So...they're expanding their mandate?
Hmm...interesting times.
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Too lazy to actually check, but it may be yet another semi-voluntary thing. At a guess I'd say that this new set of rules was pretty much developed within, and then handed to the CRTC by the Big Three telcos.
As you noted, the CRTC really doesn't regulate mobile phones. In fact they hardly regulate anything any longer, what with years of neo-liberal Harper government, and a Prime Mi
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Or Aboot Time (?)
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Or Aboot Time (?)
-Eh?
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Re:About Time (Score:5, Informative)
I was born and raised in Canada. I am a proud Canadian through and through. I have never heard a Canadian pronounce aboot instead of about. I have travelled coast to coast, and have never heard it. Ever.
Sorry, just needed to get that off my chest.
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To some American ears, our "about" sounds like "aboot" but to my ear, some of their "abouts" sound like "abauwt".
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Apparently my "sorry" is where an accent is more apparent for some Americans I know. And it's not just because they don't know the word :P
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I'm sick of it too, since its obvious to any Canadian that we do not say "aboot", but most Americans are completely unable to hear the difference, and do hear it as "aboot". Its a dialect thing. :P
The same thing is true when we listen to some US accents, they seem to lengthen many many vowels to our ears. Their "About" is more like "Abawwwwt"
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Damn fucking straight! It's time we destroy these stupid stereotypes people have about use Canadians...
Goddamn it...
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Your battery will crap out before two years is up.
You may be able to replace the battery for a while, until they stop making it in that shape.
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My first cell phone lasted 10 years until I couldn't find 3rd-party aftermarket batteries that fit it - the phone itself still works fine.
My 2-year-old android phone has already broken the touch screen glass - first time it fell, of course. Seems like a crappy way to make a phone, but I'll just ignore the cracks as long as it still works. I keep thinking about going back to a feature phone with actual buttons, though: I'm not sure what I get from the smart phone that I actually use.
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My casio fx750 calculator has been running on the same battery for 25 years.
The evidence is mounting up that old batteries were simply better.
Re:2 year contract (Score:5, Insightful)
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I never said throw away. I fully meant give it to someone who could use it, repurpose or recycle.
A 1st gen iPhone must be painful to browse the web on these days. The battery must be near useless by now as well.
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The irony is, being a 2G phone, the battery life (with a good battery) will be significantly better than what a 3G phone can do.
The data will come slowly... but the battery will do well.
Re:2 year contract (Score:5, Insightful)
You mock his outdated hardware, then suggest he give it to someone else? So you can mock them for their outdated hardware? It's not good enough for him but it's good enough for someone else? As long as it does what he needs it to do, why does he need to upgrade?
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You are not playing any modern games on a phone that old. Nope, I have several android devices all running stock or CM. Depending on how the mood strikes me.
The biggest features of newer phones are just better displays and faster CPUs. The old nook color I use with CM10.1 really shows that in 2013 more RAM would be very helpful.
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I don't expect providers to hope that I'll stay with them long enough to pay for a subsidized device. Instead, offer me a discount for staying with you after I've paid for the device, or if I bring my own. Otherwise, why not just get a new device every 2-3 years.
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So does Telus, and Koodo... with Koodo, it's both voice and data, and you can opt to continue paying the full price. It banks in your "tab" towards the purchase of your next phone... with a full bank, you can get double the normal subsidy on a new phone: $300, instead of $150 (and that's a carrier which has already been following every rule set out in the code of conduct for at least as long as I've been with them).
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Re: 2 year contract (Score:3)
You know Koodoo is the alias Telus set up so people they'd screwed over under the Telus name would still do business with them, right?
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Which is better than nothing, but is still less than the subsidy you can get on 3 years.
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Re:Point 3 will be fiercely faught. (Score:4, Insightful)
If "brazil telecom" charges exhorbitant roaming fees to the canadian carriers and provides no mechanism to cut users off when they reach their roaming limit then the canadian carriers need to either negotiate a better roaming deal with "brazil telecom", or stop enabling roaming to "brazil telecom" by default.
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They'll just shut off your data roaming once you hit the cap.
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According to TFA on this point:
2. Cap on data roaming charges
i. A service provider must suspend national and international data roaming charges once they reach $100 within a single monthly billing cycle, unless the customer expressly consents to pay additional charges.
ii. A service provider must provide this cap at no charge.
I would hazard a guess that in this case, most telco's would suspend service once you've reached $100 in charges. Either that, or your consent to pay more will be found as part of the
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Which means that it cannot be part of the standard contract. You have to explicitly require, and agree to this new provision....
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There is a cap except if you agree to a higher charge. This just stops them from automatically charging you outrageous fees based on fine print rather than explicit consent.
In your Brazil example, you'd have a teeny cap, then a window would pop up, "From this point on, Brazil charges $700/Gigabyte. Do you accept?"
Dirty Harry: "Well, do ya...punk?"
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Bell wouldn't shut off your plan in general, only roaming. Your basic plan would continue in full force and effect if you were in your home network's coverage area.
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2.) Contracts are now capped at two years, and cancellation fees are limited to the amount of the subsidy.
Bell, Telus and Rogers announced that you can now get the iPhone 5S and the Galaxy S5 for $300 on two years, or $10000 outright. That's a subsidy of $9700.
You have the option to cancel anytime, provided that you refund Bell, Telus or Rogers that $9700 subsidy they were so kind to give you in the first place.
They did cover off this dodge, at least:
G->2.->ii) When calculating the early cancellation fee,
a) the value of the device subsidy is the retail price of the device minus the amount that the customer paid for the device when the contract was agreed to; and
b) the retail price of the device is the lesser of the manufacturer’s suggested retail price or the price set for the device when it is purchased from the service provider without a contract.
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Interesting.
But still, nothing stops the carriers from making an arrangement with Samsung so that the "retail price" be $10000 outright or $300 on 2 year.
Other than the carriers, only Apple and Google sell phones in Canada. So the suggested retail price could be anything. If the carriers can get their bloat on the phones, they can surely choose the suggested price too.
My bet: no contract prices will continue to go up.
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Interesting.
But still, nothing stops the carriers from making an arrangement with Samsung so that the "retail price" be $10000 outright or $300 on 2 year.
Other than the carriers, only Apple and Google sell phones in Canada. So the suggested retail price could be anything. If the carriers can get their bloat on the phones, they can surely choose the suggested price too.
My bet: no contract prices will continue to go up.
I'm quite sure that Samsung would have to answer some hard questions if their MSRP for a device the US were listed at $700, say, but for Canada it's listed at $10,000...no, the bad press alone wouldn't be worth it, to them. They provide hardware, that's it. I'm pretty sure no single carrier is big enough to sway them to alienate their userbase that badly...there's a lot more than just phones at stake, for them, and they have a *lot* invested in appearing to be an economical and high performance choice whe
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I don't believe the code allows for them to charge for unlocks so nope unlock in 3 months voila.
Yes, it does allow them to charge and doesn't place any limitation on that charge.
1. Unlocking
i. A service provider that provides a locked device to the customer as part of a contract must
a. for subsidized devices: unlock the device, or give the customer the means to unlock the device, upon request, at the rate specified by the service provider, no later than 90 calendar days after the contract start date.
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I'm pretty sure its apple that sets the unsubsidized price, you know since they're the ones that make the phone and set the actual price they sll it at.
Apple sets the price in their Store. The carriers can charge whatever they like in theirs, with or without subsidy.
Only as of now it made no sense to charge more than Apple. With the new code it will.
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In fairness to the cellular provider, as a consumer you have a duty to test this yourself before you lock into a contract. Ask your friends, or better yet, get a loaner phone. Also, most providers will let you cancel within the first few days without penalty, at least here in Canada.
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Canada is way more fucked on the telecom regulatory/monopoly end than the US will ever be...
Fascinating. Perhaps you could expand on that a bit? Verizon had a "special" 700Mhz spectrum LTE that is incompatible with AT&T and Canadian 700Mhz LTE whereas in Canada, the CDMA carriers all switched to HSPA+ back in late 2009 rather than waiting for a CDMA compatible iPhone. So even back in 2009, Canadians could get an iPhone or other HSPA+ smartphone on a choice of several carriers whereas Verizon customers had to have a special CDMA version and then they managed to screw up LTE with compatiblity by
Re:If only the USA wasn't bought by corps (Score:4, Insightful)
The Canadian government seems to hold near-monopolies in very high favour. The result is always that the customer gets screwed completely. The Telephone industry here is a great example.
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(afterthought: realistically, of course, they'll just cut your service after you hit your overage cap)
And that to me is *perfectly fine*. Send a text message alert as soon as they hit the user's monthly data plan, and have data shut down by default once you're $50 over. This way the unwitting user (which this part of the carrier code of conduct is for--iPhone data leakages, forgot to turn roaming off, etc) knows they've hit or are approaching their limit in real-time and make a relatively informed decision, not a month or two later when they get the bill and have to waste several hours fighting it. Mistakes