The CRTC has approved changes to Bell Mobility’s national wireless roaming tariff, the rulebook that sets out how regional carriers can roam on Bell’s network when their customers leave home coverage. The regulator signed off on Thursday, and the changes take effect right away.
Bell filed the application on October 20, 2025, to bring its tariff in line with two earlier CRTC rulings on wholesale roaming. The first came in October 2024, when the regulator pushed Bell, Rogers and Telus to renegotiate roaming rates with smaller carriers instead of relying on fixed rates set back in 2018. At the time, the CRTC said the tariffed rates “may no longer be just and reasonable.” It noted the big three were charging an average of $13.78 per GB at wholesale, while their own customers paid an average of $7.21 per GB in 2022.
Under that framework, regional carriers and the national carriers have 60 days to strike a deal. If they can’t agree, the CRTC acts as arbitrator through what it calls final offer arbitration, picking one side’s proposed rate. The cost of seamless handoff, which keeps calls and data sessions from dropping when you move between networks, is also left to those negotiations.
In September 2025, the CRTC went further and forced Bell and Telus to open their full shared network to rivals. Regional carriers signing a roaming deal with either company now get access to the entire Bell and Telus network, not just one half of it.
Bell’s updated tariff adds the negotiation and arbitration clauses, defines new terms and clarifies the section on rates. The company said no rate changes were proposed, so the filing doesn’t set any new prices on its own.
One tweak came from Cogeco, which asked for a two-year renegotiation window when a carrier buys roaming and MVNO access together. Bell had originally proposed three years, but agreed to the change. The CRTC said letting carriers bundle both services in the same agreement will “improve competition between wireless carriers” and cut their administrative costs.
For regional players like Videotron, Freedom Mobile, Eastlink and SaskTel, this is mostly about leverage. Roaming is what lets a regional carrier offer coverage across Canada, and cheaper wholesale access is what makes room for lower prices. It’s the same playbook the CRTC used for MVNO access, which led to Quebecor’s MVNO rate win against Rogers in 2023.
Don’t expect your bill to change tomorrow, though. Any savings depend on what carriers negotiate next, and whether they pass those savings on to customers. Bell has 10 calendar days to issue its revised tariff pages.
Do you think cheaper roaming deals will lead to better plans from smaller carriers?
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