Much to everyone's surprise (not) some major player's in the cell phone industry have introduced yet another fee on an extremely popular cell phone feature. Text messaging over the past 5 years has increased tremendously in popularity. Admittedly, I am an avid user.
While this increase doesn't immediately effect me since I was retarded enough to actually sign up for a million-year contract, a number of other consumers who opt out of signing a contract and buy their cell phones outright will soon feel the burden.
The fee is being implemented on August 8th for all incoming messages for Bell and Solo Mobile users. Undoubtedly when the fee is implemented, other wireless carriers in Canada will follow suit. These Canadian wireless carriers are copy-cats since U.S. carriers Verizon Wireless and AT&T Wireless launched similar fees. Emulating U.S. business practices is probably what bothers me most about this situation.
What brings peace and calm to my world of anger in this situation is an action brought about by the NDP. They have initiated an online petition opposing what they call the "text message cash-grab". Kudos to a political party that has successfully reacted to a situation they see numerous of Canadian citizens upset about! Truly refreshing.
I agree fully with this petition since cell phone usage rates in Canada are substantially higher in comparison to other countries. Furthermore, you'd think that with the advancements in technology reducing carriers actual costs, savings could be passed onto consumers but this is obviously not the case.
All in all, I'm already unhappy about paying the system access fee of $6.95 per month which, in my opinion, is robbery. I'm not looking forward to paying for these additional costs once my contract is expired. Perhaps I'll get rid of my cell phone altogether....a novel idea these days.
Until next time
P.S. I have a three-year contract...just feels like a million years when you hate the company
Sources for this blog provided by:
http://www.ndp.ca/page/6585
Every radio station and news report in CANADA
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6 comments:
I'm on a three year contract too, as a result of my poor dear misguided mother buying me a phone and a plan as a gift one year. Thanks, mom :)/:(
The text msg fee IS robbery. Cell phones are robbery. Rates are ridiculous and I wish I had HALF the gumption to boycott cellphone usage. Alas, it's impossible, as our social lives have become entirely dependent upon facebook and cellphones. How will I know where the party is if I don't have text messaging privileges? Without facebook I wouldn't know who's dating whom. But, without cellpones, I wouldnt have a cab service on speed-dial for when I'm not of the mind to remember the number.
Ay me, the trials and tribulations of being a young adult.
I am also a disgruntled bell consumer. I am happy to see the NDP raising light on this matter. It will also be interesting if the industry minister actually gets some results on this matter (he sent letters to both providers).
I find that many companies in North America use the same excuses to get away with charging us more than they need too. Since North American markets thrive on costs competition and price reduction, you would think major corperations would do more to give their customers the best deal.
If situations persists I am definitly looking for a different phone provider. Koodoo this Bell Bullies!
I heard about this issue on the news and I was really angry as well. I couldn't believe that they are actually going to start charging you when you receive a text. What if you didn't even want that person to text you? That is ridiculous!
I have Rogers and so far I know the service providers that actually are implementing these charges as of August are Telus and Bell. I don't think it's gone as far as Rogers or Fido yet. And I hope it won't be for a long time. My cell phone bill is already really high if they add these text messages charges, I probably won't have a cell phone anymore.
I really do hope that the petition that the NDP party goes through and these service providers realize what they are doing.
You would think that as technology is advancing so much they would figure out methods of making us pay less instead of more.
Canada needs to stop copying the U.S and become independent and its own country. We need to take control and stop being such a copycat. This is just getting out of hand now!
Following in suit with the three previous posts, and every other post to follow I'm sure, I completely agree with your opinion. It is absurd that we are being charged such high fees for cell phone service!
Unfortunately, I am with Rogers already, so I'm guessing I'm already being charged for incoming texts. It is not as bad as you think that I don't know what I'm being charged for; my parents pay for it.
However, I do wonder if people will start switching to other companies to avoid these charges when they come into effect. If so, perhaps the other companies will not copy Bell.
It would be nice to see cell phone companies be boycotted, however, due to the high dependance on cell phones, like roz stated, this will probably never happen.
I do not own a cellphone. But I know many who do. They were shocked to hear of the fees. One went as far as to say he wanted to get rid of the text service on his phone. A catch-22 here is you'll probably have to send a message to tell the service to stop sending messages (and certainly more than once). I'll bet the cell companies will put out some high end plan to include 'free' incoming text.
I think because of the rise of text messages, providers saw this as a great opportunity to basically cash in... From a business persective i think this is a great move in order to gain financial means.
dont get me wrong im not the biggest fan of text messaging because i find it extremely inpersonal and lacks many human components. But at the end of the day we have a choice... complain about the services and the charges that come along with it... or just dont use it
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