Those who signed a three-year wireless contract before June 3, 2013, may be tempted to open a bottle of champagne, since it is time to celebrate: The “dark age” of three-year contracts is over for (some) Canadians. Today marks the final stage of the industry’s transition toward two-year contracts. That’s why we are calling this day Cell Phone Freedom Day via Open Media.
What this means to you is the following: As of today, if you signed a contract before June 3, 2013, you are free to walk away without paying a penalty. Those who signed a three-year contract between June 3 and December 2, 2013, will be able to walk away as soon as the minimum required 24 months have passed since they signed up. You can cancel it anyway, if you want to, but you will have to pay at most $50.
[…]three-year contracts which have run for more than 24 months can be cancelled without payment of cancellation fees, as the Code requires such fees to be reduced to zero within 24 months. Cancellation of three-year contracts in which the customer received a device subsidy but which have not yet run for 24 months (those entered into between June 3 and December 2, 2013) may still require payment of a cancellation fee.
Starting today, the Wireless Code applies to all contracts. What does this mean? Well, here’s what you get:
– plain language – no more legalese (yay!)
– clear prices
– caps on data and roaming charges; this includes a $100 cap when roaming, and $50 for data overage charges in the country
– you have the right to unlock your phone 90 days after purchase
– you can return your phone within 15 days without paying any penalty fees if you don’t like what you got.
This is just a simplified list of the benefits of the Wireless Code. For the full list, you can visit the CRTC’s website. Will you be switching to another carrier?
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So does this mean that we are not to get charged more than $50 in over usage of data within Canada or more than $100 outside of Canada?
Yes, but then your data stops working. If you want to continue using data, you must opt-in to continue using data for the month, and you will get charged overages past this point.
Your data will be blocked at those levels, and you will have to take some particular action to release it. Once released, the $ky is the limit.
3. Cap on data overage chargesA service provider must suspend data overage charges once they reach $50 within a single monthly billing cycle, unless the customer expressly consents to pay additional charges.
A service provider must provide this cap at no charge.
You think they will give you unlimited internet for $50 overage?
Exactly. This isn’t a forced “deal”, it’s just the CRTC trying to put a stop to people accidentally ending up with huge overage charges.
It sure would be nice if Rogers notified you when you got close or went over your limit but they wouldn’t make as much money that way. Today I finally received one of those texts offering an extra GB with three days to make a decision. If I am staying with Rogers, might as well but need to think about it. With tax I pay $67 with 6GB and it is supposed to go up $10 in September when I lose a discount. Don’t think I can get that type of data that I need at any other big carrier for cheaper.
Rogers does notify you. I get notifications all the time when I approach and go over my buckets. Could be that your plan is old and may not have them built in.
You could also use your phones built in data tracker to notify you.