Breaking news from the obvious department... The CRTC
has announced today that 3-year phone financing violates Canada's Wireless Code — specifically the parts which effectively cap service contracts at 24 months.
After thinking about this
for more than a year, the government body at least came to the correct conclusion. In their words:
The Commission finds that device financing plans and wireless service plans are interrelated and together constitute a single contract between a WSP and its customers. Device financing plans are clearly an integral part of the wireless service contract, the main component of which is the provision of wireless services,
while the device financing plan is optional and subsidiary. Regardless of how WSPs characterize these plans, whether it is a device financing plan, a device subsidy, or otherwise, they share the same main characteristics.
Telco shills are no doubt already trying to spin this on Twitter, to the effect of "OMG, the government doesn't want you to have a nice phone!1!!" — as if buying a phone outright and unlocked somehow isn't an option?
Let's be real here, subsidized and overpriced hardware benefits the carrier, not you. Without it Canada's Big Three would have to compete solely on pricing and service... and none of them want that!
Source:
CRTC via
iPhone in Canada, Mobile Syrup
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Andrew Currie has been blogging about mobile phones since 2001, smartphones (depending on how you define them) since 2002 and smartwatches since 2014.
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