Vancouver-based non-profit and consumer advocacy group, OpenMedia, has launched a new petition urging Canadian wireless carriers to drop data caps during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While numerous wireless carriers have agreed to waive home internet data overages and roaming fees and long distance charges, cellphone data overages still remain (aside from SaskTel offering no data caps until April 30).
“For hundreds of thousands of people in Canada currently social distancing, their cell phone data is now their primary lifeline to the outside world,” explains OpenMedia.
“Yet Canada has some of the lowest cell phone data caps in the world, leaving many people with very little access to the modern economy and their community during this crisis.”
OpenMedia also shares a chart detailing what Canadian wireless providers have done so far for customers during the COVID-19 pandemic, which you can check out below:
“Cell phone providers need to guarantee their connectivity now, ensuring that people in rural, indigenous and low income communities who either can’t access or can’t afford high speed home Internet can access their work, schools, government services, family and community,” adds OpenMedia.
The petition asks for your first and last name, email, postal code and wireless provider. The petition is hosted by OpenMedia and does not show a live count of how many people have signed it.
The organization says it aims to get at least 15,000 signatures by April 13, 2020, to deliver to the country’s largest cellphone providers.
