TekSavvy has announced the launch of a new website called paylesstoconnect.ca, which encourages Canadians to “Speak up. Pay Less.”
The website allows Canadians to easily send a pre-populated letter to your Member of Parliament, asking to lower internet and cellphone bills.
TekSavvy explains the purpose of the website, which allows Canadians to “voice support for a new directive from the Government of Canada, which orders the CRTC to lower Canadians’ internet and cell phone bills with policies that promote real consumer choice.”
This proposal from the CRTC is open for public comment until April 8, 2019.
“Our mission is to bring Canadians real choice at a fair price – that’s hard to do when a handful of giant telcos game the regulatory system to shut out competition,” said Marc Gaudrault, TekSavvy’s founder and CEO, in a statement. “So when the federal government stands up for consumers, we think it’s important to inform the public and offer online tools that make it easy for them to have their say.”
TekSavvy argues the 50 Mbps Internet speed cap is “hampering” their business in Ontario and Quebec, while the company also advocates opening up the wireless sector to more competition.
“TekSavvy fought and won the right to offer unlimited Internet to Canadians who were trapped paying for metered ‘usage’. If the CRTC allows real consumer choice for wireless, TekSavvy wants to be able to bring unlimited cell phone plans too,” added Gaudrault.
“While the CRTC allowed TekSavvy to offer unlimited Internet, the big carriers inflated the wholesale rates for Internet ‘usage’ – in some cases by over 1300%. These unfair rates nearly drove smaller ISPs out of business and kept retail prices high for consumers,” explains TekSavvy.
The company argued in a filing with the CRTC today “large carriers overcharged ISPs more than $300 million that would have otherwise been passed on as savings to customers or invested in new infrastructure.”
TekSavvy says “the CRTC has not set final rates or refunded the overbilled amounts.”
