RSSEnraged Canadian subscribers sue wireless providers over SMS fees
By Jacqueline Emigh | Published August 5, 2008, 12:38 PM
Unhappy wireless subscribers in Canada have socked Telus and Bell Mobility with class action lawsuits over their intentions to begin charging users for incoming SMS/MMS text messages, a practice already common in the US.
Up to this point, incoming text messages have been free to wireless customers in Canada. But Telus and Mobility have come under fire for saying they will begin to levy a 15 cent fee for each incoming message on customer accounts that don't have text messaging plans. Since so many incoming text messages are spam, many Canadian users are enraged over the proposed fee. The main organizers of the two class action suits, Telus subscriber Natalie Martin and Bell Mobility customer Eric Cormier, are arguing their case on the grounds that the providers are trying to "unilaterally change" the terms of contracts with cellular customers which are already in place. Both lawsuits were filed in July. Bell plans to introduce the new fees on August 8, and Telus on August 24, according to an account in Canada Free Press.
Rogers Wireless, the other major mobile services provider in Canada, has not announced any plans to tack on extra fees for incoming texts.
By and large, major US wireless carriers do charge customers for inbound text messages. But reportedly, all of them with the exception of T-Mobile USA -- the American arm of German-based Deutsche Telekom -- also provide a workaround solution of sorts in offering the option of turning off all SMS messaging -- both incoming and outgoing -- on the accounts of individual customers.
Accordingly, a group of US subscribers filed a class action suit against T-Mobile last winter.
"T-Mobile refused to disable the texting feature on its customers' accounts, even when the customer has no interest in sending, or more importantly, receiving, text messages," according to the suit filed in the US. Also in the US, wireless subscribers have waged class action suits against wireless providers such as Sprint and Verizon Wireless over early termination fees (ETF). As previously reported in BetaNews, in losing a lawsuit in California last week over ETFs, Sprint was ordered by a judge to pay $18.3 million to subscribers.
The CRTC:
"We do not regulate the Internet"
"We kiss the asses of Bell and Rogers"
"Whatever they want, we rubber stamp"
"When we're not doing that, we sit with our thumbs up our asses and our minds in neutral"
"We have no justifiable reason for our existance"
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|The CRTC generally does nothing - i have on more than one occasion reported abuse of telemarketing, Cellular service, Telecoms service and they just send back a satndard "we are going to sit on our thumbs rather than do anything to protect the consumer as per our mandate" response. They are hopeless and need replaced
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|I filed a complaint with the CRTC and this is what i got as a response:
"...While we are monitoring the situation, you should be aware that the CRTC has generally forborne from the regulation of cellular services. As a result, the CRTC does not regulate the rates nor the business practices of cellular service providers due to the competitive nature of the service."
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|My boyfriend lives in England. Text messaging has helped keep our relationship alive and well for a year and a half now. I don't know why text messaging hasn't caught on here as it has in the UK and on the Continent. Mobile providers who claim that they create too much of a load on the transmitters for incoming texts to be free are lying. Why is North America so backwards in this way??
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|"Since so many incoming text messages are spam, many Canadian users are enraged over the proposed fee."
Wait what? I've had a cell phone for 10 years, and I've only received 1 spam message and that was 3 or 4 years ago.
I've never once heard about a text spam problem in Canada.
Though that being said, I think the incoming fees are bogus, glad I ditched telus years ago, yay rogers.
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|This could be a real problem for small business. For example, independent couriers that rely on cellphone technology. It's tough enough with gas prices, add this to their operating expenses may break the bank. They do receive a lot of spam messages on a daily bases.
Unless there are exemptions for business, I can see this getting ugly.
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|Wait, what? You get charged to RECEIVE an SMS? What the hell!?! I knew the US had that weird thing where you pay to receive phone calls, but paying to receive SMS too? That's just crazy!
Why doesn't just the caller/SMSer pay, like everywhere else? Makes far more sense...
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|Who does the sender pay if he has a Telus phone, sending to his friend with a Bell phone? ... If he pays Telus, Bell just had to send a text message free of charge.
Sorry but we live in a capitalist country. Service providers are not here to make people's lives happy, they are here to make their shareholder's as much money as possible (it's even their legally binding fiduciary duty to do so!)
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|I have 3 cell accounts in Canada, and I get anywhere from 3 to 15 spam messages everyday. The same providers who want to charge for these messages have gateways that anyone can use to send messages to mobile numbers totally free of charge an anonymously.
You can even script an advertisement and give the script a range of numbers and it will send to all the numbers. no errors for phones that are not text enabled. They just don't get their messages.
Starting in Sept of this year in Canada you can have your name placed on a don't call list that keeps you from getting annoying calls etc from marketers. The problem being it's only in Canada. All of my telemarketer calls come from other countries and they do not have to abide by the rules.
Just another fine example of a government that has been steadily failing its people.
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|Why do you think it's the government's job to take care of you? Why is it up to them to set prices? Are we not in a capitalist country? Let the markets decide. If you don't like being charged for text messages, change providers.
We should have smaller government and less regulations. We the people make the rules by choosing where we spend our money
Nothing is free in life. Not sure why you'd not only expect, but DEMAND free services.
Tomorrow, we'll be suing grocery stores for not giving away it's food for free.
And by the way, it's not that easy to send SPAM messages "for free" on cells. - If it was, EVERYBODY would be getting HUNDREDS per day....as much as email spam.
- And the spam messages you DO get, you won't get charged for. - Read a bit more carefully next time.
The rest of the world charges for text messaging, just like any other service. Stop and think for a minute about your rationale...you are asking for a service and you do not want to pay for it!
The only good point these people have is that they already have contracts setup, and changes in pricing breaks it.
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|Think of this scenario, You have an argument with a friend, to annoy you he sends you tons of text messages, you would be charged for something that is someone elses fault. What about messages sent in Error?
The You send it, you pay for it option is a much better deal.
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|Betanews missed the fact that T-Mobile USA has a free SMS spam filter on the My T-Mobile website. Since most people in the USA have internet access easily available to them incoming spam SMS shouldn't be a problem for T-Mobile subscribers at least. Now if only other mobile phone carriers both in and out of the USA could follow suit.
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|Actually TMobile now allows you to turn of text messaging.
http://support.t-mobile....root/public/tm23533.htm
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|Customers...angry....turning....green....
Images of millions of cell subscribers "hulking out" over SMS fees.
*laughing*
I'd pay to see that.
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|Just greed that shouldn't be allowed since the sender pays to send it.
It's like if i bought a stamp and sent you a letter and the post office charges you again for the stamp when you get the letter.
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|Quiet. Don't give them any ideas... [smiles]
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|there are free ways on the web to send text messages which cost the sender nothing, just do a search for "free text messaging". i dont pay for a txt message package and I'd be pissed if I got txt message spam. I never have though.
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|That would work in a world with only ONE service provider. There's only 1 post office.
If someone buys a stamp at post office B and sends it to post office A and then post office A has to deliver it to the customer, shouldn't post office A be paid? If not, they'd go out of business pretty fast.
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