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When a subsidized device is provided as part of the contract, for fixed-term contracts: The early cancellation fee must not exceed the value of the device subsidy. The early cancellation fee must be reduced by an equal amount each month, for the lesser of 24 months or the total number of months in the contract term, such that the early cancellation fee is reduced to $0 by the end of the period. for indeterminate contracts: The early cancellation fee must not exceed the value of the device subsidy. The early cancellation fee must be reduced by an equal amount each month, over a maximum of 24 months, such that the early cancellation fee is reduced to $0 by the end of the period. Doesn't the second part there refer to tab systems? If so, even those will be limited to 24 months, so they shouldn't be able to just work around it like that.
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# ? Jun 3, 2013 19:05 |
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# ? May 21, 2024 16:40 |
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Meep posted:When a subsidized device is provided as part of the contract, Yep, sounds like they're really aiming to make sure there's no fee/commitment after 2 years, regardless of what path the carriers go. edit: The side effect of this might be crappier subsidies, or we might get everything we have now only with 2 year contracts just like our neighbours to the south.
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# ? Jun 3, 2013 19:07 |
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Yeah hopefully this ends up causing our pricing to fall in line with the US, instead of our current insanity where a Galaxy S4 costs $450 on a 2 year contract with Fido. $200 on a 2 year contract has been the norm for that phone in the US, and I think I've seen sales already where it's been as low as $150. Most likely we'll end up with pricing somewhere in-between, where we pay an extra $50-$100 for a top end phone for the privilege of being Canadian.
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# ? Jun 3, 2013 19:34 |
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If carriers are sucessfully held to two-year contracts (I think they might weasel out of it by arguing tabs aren't contracts/committments). Then we'll see them raise either rate plans and/or the upfront costs of the phone. Fido sells the Galaxy S4 for $450 on a two-year contracts as a current example. Going forward, it's pretty likely high-end phones will end up being $300+ on a two-year plan.
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# ? Jun 3, 2013 19:59 |
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Squibbles posted:Oh and most providers with a tab system such as Koodo allow you to build up your tab if you don't currently have one. Koodo lets you build up to $150 in positive tab credit so next time you go to buy a phone your tab hit won't be as bad if you end up leaving early. That only becomes helpful if you have an expensive plan, though. My plan only costs me $25 a month, so it would take five years to get to a positive tab.
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# ? Jun 3, 2013 21:22 |
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The Dark One posted:That only becomes helpful if you have an expensive plan, though. My plan only costs me $25 a month, so it would take five years to get to a positive tab. Yeah, though I think some of the providers now have a 3 year limit or something where if your tab is still negative after 3 years they wipe it out. Which basically amounts to a 3 year contract I guess :p Also if you already own your own phone when you join a provider that has a tab plan then eventually you'll get a cheaper upgrade I suppose. Though now Koodo has that thing where they discount you by 10% if you opt out of the tab system I think?
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# ? Jun 3, 2013 21:50 |
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Not so fast guys, regulating Canada's telecom industry is a terrible left-wing plot that does nothing but hurt poor average Canadians and their freedom of contract
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# ? Jun 4, 2013 06:44 |
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burf posted:Not so fast guys, regulating Canada's telecom industry is a terrible left-wing plot that does nothing but hurt poor average Canadians and their freedom of contract Oh my god the is so strong. The icing on the cake. Trying to tie the CAW to this, really? Fuckin' auto unions gonna raise your cellular bill! less than three fucked around with this message at 07:21 on Jun 4, 2013 |
# ? Jun 4, 2013 07:08 |
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burf posted:Not so fast guys, regulating Canada's telecom industry is a terrible left-wing plot that does nothing but hurt poor average Canadians and their freedom of contract That Gurney article is just...
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# ? Jun 4, 2013 13:24 |
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http://mobilesyrup.com/2013/06/04/industry-canada-denies-telus-spectrum-license-transfer-mobilicity-deal-not-moving-forward/ Huh, looks like the Mobilicity sale is likely dead in the water, as the government denied the spectrum transfer to Telus.
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# ? Jun 4, 2013 13:45 |
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Zarkov Cortez posted:That Gurney article is just... Who are these idiots who write these things? Gurney Bio posted:Born in Toronto's Leaside neighbourhood, Matt has a B.A. and M.A. in military history. His hobbies and interests include classic rock music, golfing, cursing the Toronto Maple Leafs and, as all those who know him can attest, he is a shamelessly devoted fan of the original Star Trek series and the Civilization computer game franchise, to which he has already devoted far too much of his life. He loves reading, and typically alternates between serious non-fiction works on the issues of the day and trashy novels about the end of the world. He also enjoys beer. He does not play an instrument, and sort of regrets that. oh
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# ? Jun 4, 2013 14:03 |
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burf posted:Not so fast guys, regulating Canada's telecom industry is a terrible left-wing plot that does nothing but hurt poor average Canadians and their freedom of contract I can only assume that's a piece of propaganda paid for by the big-3. No one is actually this stupid. The best part is his bleating that a BlackBerry whatever is $349 on a 2-year contract and $99 on a 3-year, and that this is somehow due to legitimate financing reasons and not a concerted effort to push everyone into 3-year contracts and thus reduce churn and competition. Hell, just a brief survey of the contract norms from the UK, Germany, and even the USA destroys his entire piece. Lexicon fucked around with this message at 14:45 on Jun 4, 2013 |
# ? Jun 4, 2013 14:12 |
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Well this looks promisingWind Mobile mulls offer for Mobilicity posted:Wind Mobile would like to open talks to buy Mobilicity in a bid to create a fourth national wireless competitor, CEO Anthony Lacavera said Wednesday. Intersting development. Not only do Wind's original owners want it back, they also want to bring in Moblicity, enabling a 4th players in the monopoly. Could this be the begining of better cell rates and such ?
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# ? Jun 6, 2013 21:37 |
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bunnyofdoom posted:Well this looks promising I don't really get how buying Mobilicity will suddenly make them a huge player. They both share very nearly the same coverage and cities I think so the only real change would that it would increase their total number of subscribers. I'm not sure that even both of them combined would be enough to put much of a dent in the big 3/their subsidiaries. Also apparently Public Mobile just got bought by another equity firm apparently?
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# ? Jun 6, 2013 21:52 |
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Getting all of Mobilicity's spectrum would help. That's probably the biggest value for WIND out of the deal. It's going to take a long time for anyone other than the big 3 to gain any traction in the market, there's no deal in the short term that will turn them into a big player.
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# ? Jun 6, 2013 22:18 |
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bunnyofdoom posted:Could this be the begining of better cell rates and such? Oh! Oh! I know the answer to this!
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# ? Jun 6, 2013 22:25 |
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Martytoof posted:Oh! Oh! I know the answer to this!
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# ? Jun 6, 2013 23:11 |
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Uh, guys, didn't you hear that Canadians actually want to pay higher cell rates? Geez, the Big 3 are only doing what we want!
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# ? Jun 6, 2013 23:15 |
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CLAM DOWN posted:Uh, guys, didn't you hear that Canadians actually want to pay higher cell rates? Geez, the Big 3 are only doing what we want! Why, just today when a cowoker asked my opinion on which US talk/text/data vacation plan to use I recommended the 200mb over the 50mb because it's really unfair to Rogers that she pays so little for her monthly bill. They have to eat too.
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# ? Jun 7, 2013 00:22 |
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A lawsuit came in... or three. THE COMMISSIONER OF COMPETITION v. ROGERS COMMUNICATIONS INC. THE COMMISSIONER OF COMPETITION v. GLOBALIVE WIRELESS MANAGEMENT CORP. ETC. THE COMMISSIONER OF COMPETITION v. SHAW COMMUNICATIONS INC.
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# ? Jun 7, 2013 02:47 |
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I would be much more excited if Mobilicity were to buy Wind than the other way around.
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# ? Jun 7, 2013 02:55 |
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eXXon posted:I would be much more excited if Mobilicity were to buy Wind than the other way around. At this point I just want someone in BC to start offering coverage outside of the lower mainland. Mobilicity or Wind I don't care which.
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# ? Jun 7, 2013 03:01 |
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BGrifter posted:At this point I just want someone in BC to start offering coverage outside of the lower mainland. Mobilicity or Wind I don't care which. WIND has service in Victoria, but it's not "official" yet.
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# ? Jun 7, 2013 03:05 |
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BGrifter posted:At this point I just want someone in BC to start offering coverage outside of the lower mainland. Mobilicity or Wind I don't care which. I was pretty drat thrilled to get unlimited data traveling in Vancouver. It would have been nice to have the same in Victoria too. Good for people travelling between Vancouver and Victoria too, although drat it takes a while to get between ferry terminals and downtown.
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# ? Jun 7, 2013 03:05 |
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less than three posted:WIND has service in Victoria, but it's not "official" yet. Yeah unfortunately I'm in Kelowna which might as well be Mars as far as Wind and Mobilicity are concerned.
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# ? Jun 7, 2013 03:07 |
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edit: wrong thread
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# ? Jun 11, 2013 16:30 |
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So I still have about $-12 (negative twelve) left on my "bill" with my old carrier (TELUS). I don't know how it ended up this way because I made sure to pay the exact amount on my last bill. Am I able to get it back or is it lost forever?
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# ? Jun 15, 2013 01:26 |
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Mak0rz posted:So I still have about $-12 (negative twelve) left on my "bill" with my old carrier (TELUS). I don't know how it ended up this way because I made sure to pay the exact amount on my last bill. Am I able to get it back or is it lost forever? Bell sends you a refund after 90 days to your credit card (if that's how you pay normally) or cheque. Not sure about TELUS.
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# ? Jun 15, 2013 04:00 |
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I suppose anything is better than Wind/Mobility ending up with the big 3. Here's the full text because of the Globe's paywall:The Globe and Mail posted:Verizon Communications Inc. is looking at a move into Canada’s cellular telephone business, one of several possible new entrants whose arrival would salvage the federal government’s ambitions for a fourth wireless player across the country. I haven't heard good things about Verizon in the US but they can't be worse than Rogers, Bell and Telus right? Right!?
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# ? Jun 17, 2013 16:50 |
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I don't like Verizon, but I hope this would actually mean some sort of shakeup among the big three. The other alternative is that Verizon takes Wind and just falls into line with what the big three are offering here which would be an unmitigated disaster. I don't see that happening since Wind is already established as a somewhat better alternative, but....
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# ? Jun 17, 2013 16:56 |
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Sweet now we can go back 5 years and have the carrier logo on our home buttons like they do in the US. [http://gizmodo.com/5954713/ugh-verizon-plastered-its-logo-on-the-samsung-galaxy-note-ii-home-button] In all honesty it'd probably be a good thing for competition.
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# ? Jun 17, 2013 16:57 |
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Martytoof posted:The other alternative is that Verizon takes Wind and just falls into line with what the big three are offering here which would be an unmitigated disaster. I don't see that happening since Wind is already established as a somewhat better alternative, but.... Does Verizon use the same frequencies as Wind here? If so they could leverage that as lower roaming rates for their customers in the States. Marty: did you figure out what happened with Rogers regarding suddenly have more data? Just a glitch in the app/site?
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# ? Jun 17, 2013 17:37 |
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WienerDog posted:Does Verizon use the same frequencies as Wind here? If so they could leverage that as lower roaming rates for their customers in the States. Pretty sure T-Mobile is the only provider that uses the same frequency as Wind/Mobilicity (AWS).
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# ? Jun 17, 2013 17:40 |
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If a foreign entrant that was much larger than the big three entered then they would obviously like the ARPU in Canada but probably wouldn't collude to the same extent as the big three. So I imagine things would improve on the pricing front. It would be a minor revenue source for Verizon so shareholders wouldn't have such a tight grip on their balls. Also you can imagine that plans that work in both Canada and the US without roaming would appear.
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# ? Jun 17, 2013 18:01 |
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Shofixti posted:I suppose anything is better than Wind/Mobility ending up with the big 3. Here's the full text because of the Globe's paywall: Telenor was great when I was in Sweden and Denmark. I'd be happy for them to come in as a 4th.
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# ? Jun 17, 2013 18:02 |
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WienerDog posted:Does Verizon use the same frequencies as Wind here? If so they could leverage that as lower roaming rates for their customers in the States. Verizon still uses CDMA in the States so I wouldn't expect any synergies there (though if they DO buy in in time for the 700 auction they may be able to use the same LTE frequencies as they do down south). An utterly perplexing thing about the public debate about our telecoms is that people latch onto a foreign player investing into the market as some sort of panacea. What exactly do we imagine Verizon or Telenor doing that Orascom or VimpelCom (who are part-owned by Telenor as the G&M points out) couldn't have done if they chose? The problem is no longer "competitors can't access foreign capital", the problem is that the foreign capital wants to compete without spending too much money, and until I see evidence to the contrary I expect any new foreign entrant will be more of the same. edit: my pie-in-the-sky panacea is structural separation between infrastructure and services but I will settle for regulators with actual teeth and a government that isn't determined to defang them. Dallan Invictus fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Jun 17, 2013 |
# ? Jun 17, 2013 18:59 |
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WienerDog posted:Marty: did you figure out what happened with Rogers regarding suddenly have more data? Just a glitch in the app/site? I don't know when it happened, but I came upon a scrap of paper in my filing cabinet that had 2gb data something something unintelligible scribbled on it, so apparently at some point I actually had talked to Rogers and gotten myself a bigger data plan somehow. My parents are on my account as a family plan, and I think I made some changes a while ago and I must have just straight up forgotten I got better data out of it. That or I was drunk
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# ? Jun 17, 2013 20:41 |
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loving finally LTE is available in Winnipeg! Granted I'm on 3G now inside the hospital but it was cool peering down and seeing the indicator up top.
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# ? Jun 17, 2013 21:33 |
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I like how that article mentions the Huawei equipment security concerns while the fact that Telus and Bell are also fully invested in Huawei systems flies under the radar.
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# ? Jun 18, 2013 07:57 |
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# ? May 21, 2024 16:40 |
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Anyone else on Koodo prepaid (in Toronto) suddenly just get LTE reception? I've been on 4G since I signed up (which is already plenty fast) but since yesterday, my signal has been showing up as LTE. That said, I didn't get around to setting up my voice mail until the night before that. Maybe my account was in some kind of weird state?
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# ? Jun 18, 2013 18:01 |