GATINEAU, Que.—Some cellphone companies are either passively or actively violating Canada’s wireless code of conduct and the rules need to be tightened and enforced, consumer groups told a hearing on Monday, Feb. 6.
While consumer complaints have dropped since the code came into effect in 2013, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre told the review that wireless users need greater controls put in place so they don’t suffer from “bill shock.”
“Certain wireless service providers have ... knowingly or unknowingly avoided or violated or attempted to change clear wireless code requirements, and have not largely been stopped. This must change,” advocacy centre executive director John Lawford told the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
The CRTC review comes amid calls for greater parental control over household cellphone data charges and clearer rules governing wireless service cancellation fees and how caps on data overage fees should apply.
Speaking on behalf of the Consumer Association of Canada, the National Pensioners Federation and the Council of Senior Citizens Organizations of British Columbia, PIAC told the regulator that, in some cases, wireless providers offer data and voice as optional services, despite stipulations in the code that key services be clearly spelled out in wireless contracts.
