Follow Quebec law for new national wireless code, carriers say

The CRTC should model its future code of conduct for wireless carriers on similar consumer wireless legislation passed in the Quebec legislature, Canada’s wireless carriers said. In regulatory filings submitted to the commission this week, the majority of Canada’s wireless carriers—BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp., Globalive Wireless Management Corp., Public Mobile, and Quebecor Media Inc. subsidiary Videotron Ltd.—said the national wireless code being developed by the CRTC should be modelled on Quebec's Consumer Protection Act, passed into law in 2010. Industry group the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), representing Canada's telcos, told the commission in its submission, dated Dec. 4, that the principles embodied in the Quebec law “should form the underlying basis” of the commission’s wireless code. The CWTA submitted a draft code based on the principles. “Quebec’s consumer legislation applicable to wireless services was the first of its kind in Canada and has thus been in force by far the longest,” the CWTA said. “Quebec’s is the legislation that consumers and wireless service providers are most familiar with … each of the three provincial statutes that have been enacted since Quebec’s are all modelled to a large extent on the Quebec model.” The CRTC said in October it will hold a hearing in the new year to create a national code to govern wireless carriers’ relationships with their subscribers. Several carriers had requested the code as a “patchwork” of provincial regulations emerged for the wireless industry. The commission opened a consultation seeking industry and public input on what that code should look like. Dec. 4 was the deadline for preliminary comments. Under the Quebec law, cancellation fees for mobile phones cannot exceed the subsidy, or discount, the customer received when the phone was purchased. In cases where the phone was purchased without a subsidy, the fee cannot exceed $50 or 10 per cent of the value of the unpaid services, according to the law as it came into force in 2010. Among other provisions, the law says telecom providers must also give customers at least 30 days’ notice before making changes to a wireless contract’s terms or conditions. If the customer does not approve of the changes, they can cancel the contract without penalty. In its submission, the CWTA said Quebec’s consumer protection law offers the best basis for national regulation of the wireless industry, and that it could be built upon to “address gaps or unclear or ambiguous language or terms.” The CWTA said the CRTC should adopt different regulations for pre-paid and post-paid services and proposed that the new code prevent carriers from changing service costs or terms on mobile contracts “if the change would increase a consumer’s obligations to the service provider or reduce the service provider’s obligations to the consumer.” Carriers should be allowed to make changes to pre-paid, or “monthly term” plans, the CWTA said, though they can be required to inform affected customers at least 30 days in advance of any changes that increase costs or reduce services. The CWTA said the code should regulate fees the carriers can charge subscribers who want to cancel services part-way through a mobile contract. Those charges, the industry group said, should be tied to customer incentives such as device subsidies. It proposed a formula to determine cancellation fees, which was mirrored on the Quebec law. Globalive, which operates the wireless brand Wind Mobile, said in its submission that an online poll it ran on Facebook identified the elimination of “early termination fees” as the issue consumers most want addressed in the commission code. Wind and Public Mobile said they generally support a code modelled on Quebec’s consumer wireless law. Rogers, Bell and Telus, the country’s three largest wireless carriers, as well as Videotron, each said they supported the CWTA’s proposed code of conduct. “The public interest favours providing Canadian consumers with the benefit of proven standards while gaining the efficiencies associated with adopting the least disruptive changes,” Bell said in its filing. SaskTel, the only wireless carrier that opposed the creation of a national consumer code during an initial CRTC consultation, said in its submission that it supports the CWTA code, though the commission’s “reintroduction of regulation into the wireless industry a significant and worrisome step,” the company said. “SaskTel’s concern in this hearing is that this new regulation may, in some currently unforeseen way, reduce our flexibility to serve Saskatchewan citizens or increase the cost of doing business,” SaskTel said. While most of the carriers agreed that the code should be enforced by the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS), an independent body created by the CRTC to handle consumer complaints, new entrant carrier Mobilicity said it is concerned that the “CCTS enforcement regime” would be insufficient and would not provide “adequate remedies” to ensure carriers abide by the code. The company said it is concerned about limitations to the CCTS' enforcement, which prevent it from imposing “punitive consequences” on telecom carriers such as penalties, or from forcing carriers to change their policies. “In contrast, provincial legislation is generally assorted with robust enforcement regimes administered by specialized authorities,” Mobilicity said. nkyonka@thewirereport.ca

Follow Quebec law for new national wireless code, carriers say

News | December 5, 2012

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Follow Quebec law for new national wireless code, carriers say

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