The middle of December 2009 concluded what was expected to be the final round of Rogers/Fido local calling area reductions. Wrong.
Effective March 15, 2010, Rogers/Fido are further reducing Local Calling Areas across Canada.
Local Calling Areas (LCA) are invisible geographic boundaries that determine which calls are billed as local calls and which calls are billed as long distance calls. Your LCA is the geographic area in which you can make or receive phone calls without incurring long distance charges. In other words, they are billed as local calls.
For the areas listed below, your LCA has been or will be reduced. What is Rogers/Fido reason for the change? (emphasis added by yours truly):
The local calling area for the cities above will be changing effective the dates above to align with standard boundaries across the industry. These changes will provide you with clear boundaries of our local calling areas and may make your bill easier to understand.
…“may make your bill easier to understand“? The only thing that will be easier to understand is that your bill may be increased.
These changes, reducing your LCA, reduce the size of the area in which local calls are free. Now, depending on where you are, your once “local call†may very well be billed at a long distance rate. Translation: Higher Monthly Bill.
Also note, the LCA is not a part of the contractual agreement that customers may have signed, so these changes are technically “allowed”.
The examples below are based off the assumption that you live in Vancouver and you have a Vancouver number (but you can substitute any city):
Outgoing Calls
1.) If you are inside your LCA and make a call to a number outside your LCA, you pay long distance (you are in Vancouver and you are calling Toronto).
2.) If you are outside your LCA and make a call to a number that is inside the calling area that you are currently in, you do not pay long distance as this is consider a local call (you are currently in Toronto and are calling someone in Toronto).
Incoming Calls
1.) If you are inside your LCA and receive a phone call, you pay no long distance as this is consider a local call (you are in Vancouver and you are receiving a call from Toronto or Montreal or Halifax, etc).
2.) If you are outside your LCA and receive a phone call, you pay long distance (you are in Toronto and receive a call from Toronto or Montreal or Halifax, etc).
Call Forwarding
1.) If you are forwarding a call from your Rogers phone to a local number within your LCA, you pay no long distance as this is consider a local call (you are in Vancouver or another city and you are forwarding your calls to your home in Vancouver).
2.) If you are forwarding a call from your Rogers phone to a number outside of your LCA, you pay long distance (you are in Vancouver or another city and you are forwarding your calls to your friends house in Toronto).
Affected Areas
Below are the new coverage maps effective March 15, 2009. They are sectioned by Province. To see the map, click on your city:
British Columbia
Alberta
Quebec
Ontario
Greater Toronto Area
Additional cities and current local calling area changes can be found here:
