Industry, Science and Technology Minister François-Philippe Champagne today shared a letter he sent to Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) chair and CEO Vicky Eatrides, asking the regulator to “look into” the recent trend of increasing international roaming rates across wireless carriers.
International roaming generates high costs for Canadians.
But Canadians rightfully expect and deserve a reliable and affordable telecom sector.
This is why I've asked the @CRTCeng to look into this matter on behalf of 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/iTLdGhrRpa
— François-Philippe Champagne (FPC) 🇨🇦 (@FP_Champagne) March 23, 2023
“As you may be aware, certain wireless carriers have recently increased fees charged to their customers for international roaming,” Minister Champagne wrote in his letter.
“This is part of a concerning trend to charge more for existing services broadly at a time when inflationary pressures are making it difficult for Canadians to pay their bills. The current increase in roaming fees is of particular concern, given that the long-run trend in other jurisdictions has been one of general price declines.”
Service providers across the Canadian wireless space have taken to frequently (and often quietly) increasing their international roaming rates. Just this month, Telus and flanker brand Koodo, along with Bell and its flanker brand Virgin Plus, hiked international roaming prices.
A recent government-commissioned study showed that Canadians still pay some of the highest prices for wireless and internet services in the world, and while wireless was an average of 2.6% cheaper in 2022 than in 2021, prices aren’t dropping nearly as quickly as in other countries.
Minister Champagne said in his letter that while he recognizes that the CRTC’s Wireless Code touches on international roaming fees, it “does not prevent service providers from increasing fees incurred for international roaming.”
“Increases to these types of ancillary fees add to the cost of a consumer’s bill beyond the main sticker price,” he continued. “In many cases, these fees are much less visible and are unpredictable or challenging for consumers to understand.”
Vicky Eatrides took over as chair and CEO of the CRTC from Ian Scott in January. In the weeks since, Ottawa has issued a new policy direction to the telecom watchdog, instructing it to focus on wireless/internet affordability, competition, and consumer rights.
With Eatrides at its helm, the CRTC has already lowered wholesale internet rates and launched a review of the internet market as a whole to increase competition and curb high prices.
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!
40 plus days trip to Italy this last fall. An experiment, I bought a 200 dollar unlocked phone before our trip and my wife brought her Bell mobile (both androids). Long story short, when I arrived I slipped a windtre mobile Sd card into my phone with unlimited talk text and un unholy amount of data for…..33 euros for the 40 days (including one top up due to time expiry on my “tourist” plan for 30 days). My wife’s bill from Bell? just over 400 dollars on top of her regular overpriced monthly fee plan and this after phoning and demanding they cut their usurious fees! To be fair my wife did have SMS international access (i.e outside the EU) connectivity where as I didn’t unless I used net based apps like messenger or what’s app. We’re getting royally screwed as Canadian consumers. There isn’t a govt except for the NDP that actually cares or would do something about this and it isn’t just cellphones. Canadians are lambs to the slaughter for big connected corps from banking to telcos to food. Enough