Canada’s telecom watchdog delivered a major win to Canadian consumer advocates today when it announced that as of Dec. 1st, 2017, telecoms will no longer be able to carrier-lock phones or charge carrier unlocking fees. It’s also a sign that Canada’s Liberal government is fulfilling some of the promises it’s been making about improved telecom legislation since October 2015.
That being said, it’s important to put the CRTC’s recent announcement into perspective, in order to figure out precisely where this ruling came from and what it could mean for Canada’s wireless future. First, some context It’s necessary to address two important numbers: $37.7 million CAD and approximately $7 billion.
The first figure is how much carriers earned in unlocking fees in 2016 and the second figure is roughly the total combined revenue for Rogers’ and Telus’s Q1 2017 and Bell’s Q4 2016.
Read more at MobileSyrup.com: What the CRTC’s ban on carrier unlocking fees means for Canadians
Sameer Chhabra – Mobilesyrup – June 15, 2017.
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