Canada's activation fee ban is here, some carriers aren't playing by the rules

https://mobilesyrup.com/2026/06/12/canada-activation-fee-ban-live-carriers-not-following-rules/

141 points · 22 comments · view on lemmy.world

22 Comments

NarrativeBear@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 78d (21 replies)

Could we also do this for ISPs, so many fees ranging from rental fees, upgrading fees and just generally shitty pricing and shitty deals

dom@lemmy.ca · 17 pts · 78d (15 replies)

Not to mention "locking ghe price in for year" but it still goes up 5$ every month. Fuck bell

NarrativeBear@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 78d (2 replies)

I always assumed just like a cellphone bill the price you "enter in with" is the "agreed price" and that contract can't change unless you cancel or switch to another plan.

dom@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 78d

Not with bell.

eezeebee@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 78d

Your cellphone bill only stays the same while under contract. After that it's also subject to rate increases whenever they feel like.

nik282000@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 78d (11 replies)

Im using Teksavvy, it's about $65 bucks for 40/10 dsl, no bandwidth limit, for the past 7 years. It's not fast, it's not cheap, but they don't block incoming, and they don't change the price. It's worth it to not have to deal with bell or rogers.

anguo@piefed.ca · 3 pts · 78d (8 replies)

You should check Teksavvy's current offerings, you should be able to get something much better at that price nowadays.

nik282000@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 78d (7 replies)

They have "promo" pricing for the first year but this is the base price. For a promo price of 70 bucks I can get 1000/30 but that means having to switch ISPs every year, some of which do not like users operating servers on home connections.

I actually checked the ISPs in my area a week ago to see if there was any better deals and after the first year I'm still on the cheapest usable plan.

anguo@piefed.ca · 2 pts · 78d (2 replies)

Oof. We're luckier than that in Montreal.

nik282000@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 78d (1 reply)

I'm on the edge of Hamilton, Ontario so despite being in the burbs I'm way closer to farmland than the city, and internet plans reflect that.

I would love to choose a faster plan but the 3 times a month that I would actually use a full 1000Mib/s down don't justify the extra $400-$500 a year on top of ~700 I already pay. I can better spend that on storage, memory, and media.

anguo@piefed.ca · 3 pts · 78d

Definitely. I'm at 60MiB/s down, but pay way less than you do.

kahnclusions@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 76d (1 reply)

I’m in Tokyo and pay $55 for 10 gigabit symmetric with unlimited bandwidth… wth Canada

I don’t expect Canada to have the fastest speeds way out in the countryside, but for the major cities there are no excuses.

nik282000@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 76d

We still have cell phone plans with limited numbers of sms/mms messages and limited call time. Canada is a backwater for technology.

NarrativeBear@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 74d (1 reply)

I'm loving the spreadsheet!!

nik282000@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 74d

The prices are pretty depressing for being in the most densely populated part of Canada.

tleb@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 78d (1 reply)

"not cheap" is an understatement, that's abysmal

nik282000@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 78d

See if you can find a plan for under 70 bucks regular price not the 1 year promo price. This is the cheapest internet connection in my area that does not require me to switch ISPs every fucking year.

LordCrom@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 78d (2 replies)

How about the fees associated with paper bills and not allowing auto billing too?

Th3D3k0y@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 77d (1 reply)

We accept pay by credit card or mailed check.

Credit card has a 5% fee when used. Check is a 3% handling charge in addition to postage.

Itsamelemmy@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 77d

Guess that's not just a US thing. How the fuck you going to charge me a fee to fucking give you money? Shit should be illegal. Mine just decided to raise the price by $10 instead and then say you could get a discount for signing up for auto billing of ... Yeah, $10. So auto bill or your bill is going up and we'll call it a discount.

Reannlegge@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 78d

Yes please, I live in one of the few if not only province that still has competition in regards to ISPs but I still feel nickel and dimed.

xploit@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 78d

IIRC it applies (at least for cancellations)