OpenMedia.ca, an advocacy group for open internet, has for years led the fight for more choice, fairness and competitiveness in Canada's telecom market. Canadians pay on average a far higher rate for cell phone service than is standard in other countries in the world: stories of a $35 phone/month phone plan that turned out to be far higher abound in the country, due to the lack of competition in Canada's market. Nearly 3,000 people submitted their stories to OpenMedia to share their negative expriences with cell phone service providers.?
Below are a few of the horror stories in Pinto's presentation to the CRTC:
?I find it despicable that some carriers continue their archaic contract cancellation policies, which keep customers afraid to leave their carrier if they want to try a new one. The companies know that these inflated fees scare their customers [...]. This behavior and policy is terrible and we need less of a stranglehold on our activities and options as customers.?
?On a weekend trip to Chicago last year, I planned ahead and bought that $30 Month Pass in spite of the fact I was going for only 3 days but I wanted to be safe. [?] I arrived home to a bill for over $400 for data roaming charges. When I called to complain, I was advised that the iPhone uses lots of data for background location services and that kind of thing, which is why my data charges were so high.
Well, isn't that kind of what a smartphone is all about? Isn't that the purpose of having that phone in the first place? How can they advertise that you can stay connected on your travels and ?Roam Free?? Why call the package a Month Pass when it's clear that even the most basic smartphone use is going to chew up the data limit in a matter of hours??
One of the individuals who contributed a story explained the poor service and insensitivity from her recently deceased father's cell phone company.
?A few days after the funeral [...] I had to start helping my mom take care of various business items, such as cancelling the cell phone that my dad had. I will never forget my mom calling the cell phone company. The operator at Bell was unbelievable. My mom explained that her husband had just died and that she needed to cancel his cell phone, but she would be keeping her phone. The operator didn't even have the courtesy to express her condolences and then proceeded to tell her that there would be a $200 + early cancellation fee.?
Meanwhile, OpenMedia founder and executive director?Steve Anderson anounced today that Bill C-30, also known as the warrentless online spying bill, is finally defeated. From the OpenMedia website:
The government has finally listened to Canadians and?killed online spying bill C-30!?Way back in June 2011 when we worked with Canadians from across the country to launch the?StopSpying.ca?campaign all the pundits and "experts" said we couldn't win. Well Canada, you just proved them all wrong.
This is what the Minister?said today: "We will not be proceeding with Bill C-30 and any attempts that we will continue to have to modernize the Criminal Code will not contain the measures contained in C-30, including the warrantless mandatory disclosure of basic subscriber information or the requirement for telecommunications service providers to build intercept capability within their systems."
For more, please see www.OpenMedia.ca
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