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Canajun Finances Home » Cell Phone Contracts Two years (ONLY)

Cell Phone Contracts Two years (ONLY)

The CRTC made a good ruling for consumers (maybe not so good for the Wireless Companies, but if I wrote that I felt sorry for them, you’d know I was being incredibly sarcastic) ruling that Cell Phone contracts can only be Two Years in Length.

iPhone Blackberry
So now my wife’s iFruit is on only a 2 year contract? Nice!

To quote our friends at the CRTC:

Among other things, individual and small business consumers will be able to:

  • terminate their wireless contracts after two years without cancellation fees, even if they have signed on for a longer term
  • cap extra data charges at $50/month and international data roaming charges at $100/month to prevent bill shock
  • have their cellphones unlocked after 90 days, or immediately if they paid for the device in full
  • return their cellphones, within 15 days and specific usage limits, if they are unhappy with their service
  • accept or decline changes to the key terms of a fixed-term contract (i.e., 2-year), and
  • receive a contract that is easy to read and understand.

The cap’ing of the max charges is a very nice touch too. Wonder if this works with roaming charges in other countries?

The good news is that if you want a new iFruit ShoeFone or a Crackberry 2001, the longest you’ll be saddled with that technological marvel will only be two years. Honestly that is about the lifespan of these miniature portable computers, so I think the CRTC is in the right with this ruling as well.

Here is a link to the CRTC’s Wireless Code, you should read that over carefully as well.

Anybody with a new Three Year contract should be doing a happy jig as well, given it is now only a two-year contract. Wonder if the Wireless folks will attempt to “recoup their losses” in these situations with new fees? It should make for an interesting few months, that is for sure.

Feel Free to Comment

  1. So I got a new phone back in Feb 2013. So this thing comes in on 9 Dec 2013, so phones bought AFTER that get the 2 year deal?

    I wanted a 2 or even a 1 year deal. For a 1 year deal the phone was $729.00, and for a 2 year deal the phone was… you guessed it $729.00. Only when they had their three year deal did the phone drop to a reasonable price of $229.00. After 1 year my Iphone 3gs was a dog. After 2 years it was a dog with a roller skate strapped to it’s backside so it could get around. After three years, I threw the baby out with the bathwater when I completed my contract, terminated my contract with my carrier, deleted what was left on the phone when Itunes screwed stuff up AGAIN!!! and I ended my phone number. Biggest thing was hating apple for Itunes messing me up again!!! I lost all my contacts, un-replaceable phone numbers, and all my scheduling appointments. I DID NOT want another 3 year contract, but $729.00 for a phone???? Seriously???? It wasn’t even the latest generation phone!

    It is about time that the dominance of the cell phone companies is broken. We pay the highest for cell phone use around the world! time they realize they are supposed to be in service to us not the other way around!

  2. One day we will finally be able to get competitive prices on our cell phone contracts and even though there are loop holes in this one ruling it seems to be a move in the right direction.

  3. I need to read the details of those roaming etc “caps.” Does this mean you can have unlimited roaming with a max charge of $100? I highly doubt it. I think it means that the Telco will have to stop you using your phone after it reaches the $100 limit so you cannot be held responsible for paying more than $100. Which is frightening in a totally different way. I guess I’d better go do some reading.

  4. Yes – this is only in effect for contracts signed after December of this year. Current three year contracts are untouched by this.

    I detest phone contracts, we went with Koodo because they don’t have contracts. And while I agree with the sentiment that the telco providers need to be laid heavy on, there’s something a bit disturbing about the gov’t dictating contracts between companies and consumers when they’re doing it of their own free will. And it might have made sense a few years ago when there was no choice, but today you can absolutely get a phone with no contract.

    1. Canada is not a free market country (IMHO), so the CRTC legislating this is fine by me. The Government rules and regulations effectively created (or had a large amount to do with the creation of) these monopolies so the CRTC imposing the rules is fine by me too. If this was a free market I could go and get a phone in the United States and using one of their carriers.

  5. “have their cellphones unlocked after 90 days, or immediately if they paid for the device in full”

    Yes, but for how much? Rogers wants $50 to unlock my 10 year old Nokia flip.

    I haven’t seen the full text, but my guess is that there are plenty of huge holes to be exploited.

    1. The full text is in the link near the bottom of the post, but you can go other places to get your phone “legally” unlocked too (is my interpretation).

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