New subscribers looking to sign up with Telus are set to pay more for a SIM card, as the company has noted in an internal document (via MobileSyrup) the price is set to increase from $15 to $20, a 33% price hike, starting October 17th.
Back in August, Telus doubled the price of SIM cards for their prepaid wireless brand, Public Mobile, with prices jumping from $5 to $10, matching the cost of a SIM from their flanker brand, Koodo Mobile.
Telus reiterates they will not charge a ‘connection fee’ like rivals Rogers and Bell, which impose $25 for customers to activate a new smartphone (Rogers adds a $10 SIM cost on top).
With the CRTC set to impose free cellphone unlocking and a ban on the sale of locked cellphones in Canada starting December 1, some would see this extra cost as one way to possibly make up for lost revenue.
Rogers and Telus have started to unlock phones free of charge for some customers, while all iPhones sold at Best Buy already come unlocked.
Want to see more of our stories on Google?
P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!
They can’t charge to unlock phones anymore…have to claw back lost revenue from somewhere else.
It’s not lost revenue. They locked the phones in the first place. Technically, it’s called fraud.
Not really. If you knowingly buy it locked, and or give full disclosure available to the public, it’s “technically” not fraud. IF they tell you it’s unlocked, and it’s not, now that’s fraud because you are not getting what you paid for. Anyhow, its good the CRTC is banning that BS practice and there is nothing they can do about it lol.
Although Rogers officially charges for SIM cards, I’ve never paid for one. I’ve needed to replace my SIM card a couple of times since being with Rogers and each time, I just go into a Rogers store and ask them for one and they hand it to me. They have never asked me to pay for it.
Their SIM card fee is excessive. To the best of my knowledge, these things are quite cheap and they are heaping a lot of profit on top of them. If they want to charge a connection fee, they should do that and not hide it in the sim card fee.