Some phone bills across Canada will appear to be $6.95 cheaper as Telus begins its plan to scrap the 'system access fee' for cell phone users.
With today’s announcement, Telus has joined Rogers Wireless who also dropped the once standard fee for many cell phone providers in the country.
The decision is now up to existing Telus customers who will have a choice of keeping their old plans or switching to one of these new ones.
Unlike Rogers who added a 'regulatory recovery fee' after they dropped the system access fee, Telus says it will not replace it with any others.
Although Telus won’t be adding any new fees, they will begin to charge more for existing fees.
This means, upon making the change, Canadian Telus users will save $6.95 from the scrapped fee, but will see an increase of $5 to their monthly service plans.
“We are listening to Canadians, who have told us wireless pricing can be confusing," said Telus’ chief executive in a statement on
CBC.ca.
Even though Telus and Rogers have said good-bye to the system access fee, Bell is now the last of the big-three cell phone providers in Canada to keep the fee in tact.
The system access fee is explained as a way of maintaining and upgrading networks along with a 75 cent charge for emergency 911 services.
The system access fee is leaving Telus and Rogers cell phone bills just in time for the addition of new cell phone providers to the Canadian market such as Globalive and Public Mobile.
Neither of these new providers are expected to carry the system access fee or an emergency 911 fee.
Telus will offer the new plans on November 5 and by doing so will begin to replace their current rates with their newly created
'Clear Choice' plans. Along with these changes, Telus is expected to eliminate many of the current plans and replace them with only
“a handful” of plans.
The changes are being made with the hopes it will make it easier for subscribers to understand and decipher a plan that is right for them.
