TekSavvy today urged Canadians to visit paylesstoconnect.ca to voice their support for a historic CRTC decision to lower Internet prices. Canada’s Big Telcos, such as Bell and Rogers, petitioned the federal cabinet to cancel the decision and hike Internet prices instead. The Big Telcos’ price hike petitions are open for public comment until February 14.
The CRTC’s decision lowered the wholesale rates Big Telcos charge small ISPs, like TekSavvy. The CRTC found Big Telcos broke its rules and fabricated costs to inflate their rates for competitors, keeping prices high for Canadians. During its 4-year rate-setting process, the CRTC condemned the Big Telcos’ Internet rate-fixing as “very disturbing”, lowered their rates and ordered them to repay overbilled amounts back to March 2016 (estimated at $325 million).
The Government of Canada stood up for telecom consumers by directing the CRTC to promote competition, affordability and consumers’ interests. Following the CRTC’s decision, TekSavvy immediately began passing the benefits on to consumers, lowering Internet bills and upgrading services for hundreds of thousands of customers – until Big Telcos halted the CRTC’s decision in court. The Big Telcos have since filed numerous appeals to overturn the decision and thwart any benefit to consumers or competition.
Visit Paylesstoconnect.ca to make your voice heard.