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TELUS tosses SAF… intros “Clear Choice” rate plans
Effective November 5th, TELUS is getting of the System Access Fees (SAF) and the carrier 911 fees. Instead, they have introduced the “Clear Choice” rate plans and state that “The price you see is the price you pay”.
In addition, TELUS will also reduce the number of rate plan options and make it easier for customers to choose one that fits their needs. Darren Entwistle, TELUS president and CEO said “Clear and simple is at the heart of TELUS’ brand promise, the future is friendly. Nobody likes surprises. We are listening to Canadians, who have told us wireless pricing can be confusing. With TELUS’ Clear Choice plans, the price you see is the price you pay.”
TELUS gives an example of how it works (chart below): “Here’s a comparison of a typical current rate plan structure and one of our new Clear Choice plans, with the same number of included minutes and options. Commencing November 5, a $30 plan actually costs less than a $25 plan did, when you take away the Systems Access Fees (SAF) and carrier 911 fees plus, clients get voicemail!”
TELUS says “Existing TELUS clients can continue to renew on their existing rate plans or have the option to switch to the new clear and simple pricing at launch”.
In the FAQ section, TELUS says that:
Q. As an existing TELUS client, can I stay on my existing rate plan and remove SAF and carrier 911 fees?
A. No. The expenses covered by System Access and carrier 911 fees still exist, so you must continue to pay the fees while you remain on your existing plan. You have the option to change to Clear Choice™ rate plans as of November 5, but if you choose to do so, you will forfeit the benefits and features of your existing rate plan.
Q. As an existing TELUS client, can I continue to renew on my existing rate plan?
A. Yes, you can. Existing clients will continue to be able to renew their current plan as it exists.
In addition, certain provinces by law will still have to pay a regulated provincial 911 fee that TELUS is mandated to collect. Those provinces are: P.E.I (50¢), Nova Scotia (43¢), New Brunswick (53¢), Saskatchewan (38¢) and Quebec municipal 911 tax of 40¢.
More info here at TELUS
So… do you like the direction TELUS is heading? New network, new devices, NO SAF or 911 fees!
(Thanks to everyone who sent this in!)
Discussion
28 comments for “TELUS tosses SAF… intros “Clear Choice” rate plans”
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Are there any sneaky “Government Regulatory Recovery Fees”?
IMO, they should’ve added Call Display instead of VM.
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MSF should include EVERYTHING to talk/text/web on the phone for a defined amount of use.
Yes, removing SAF and 911 fees is the right direction. When all there is to add is GST, then that is where we want to be.
I agree with “joe” above, voicemail is useless to many, but everyone uses call display.
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What a load of cow pucks, they pretend to get rid of the fees but up the price of the plans instead. Gee thanks your so generous !!!
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TNSF Reply:
October 27th, 2009 at 10:56 am
So you’re complaining about paying less?
$30 is less than $32.70…
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J-M Reply:
October 27th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Some people will never be happy….there will always be something for them to complain about.
I’m not a big Telus fan, but I think these plans are a good idea.
These plans are the exact same plans Bell had 5 years ago….maybe Bell will bring them back!
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AngryChineseDriver Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
The problem is that there’s a price raise AT ALL.
This is not as bad as Rogers and their blatantly-misleading GRR fee, but Telus is still milking people for things that they SHOULDN’T have to pay because it doesn’t cost Telus anything.
However, it’s a free market and if Telus decides this is the way to go then so be it. I will be exercising my limited consumer power by switching to WIND (from Rogers) and encouraging others to do the same — no SAF/911, no fees for VM/CD.
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Clearly a reaction to WIND mobile’s imminent entrance to the marketplace.
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TNSF Reply:
October 27th, 2009 at 10:55 am
It is more likely a reaction to Rogers rather than Wind. Wind has no market power to force such a change.
Plus the changes just make sense.
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I guess this is slightly better… but they still have to get rid of 3 year contracts!
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I really don’t understand this BS of why they can’t slash it from every current existing plan.
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kmusky Reply:
October 27th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Cutting out the fees and not increasing prices to match would make for some unhappy shareholders. And the big 3 care more about their shareholders than their customers
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well its better than rogers, when they removed their SAF the overall cost of plans went UP by a few cents. Sure its only a few cents, but saving 2$ is much better than the slap in the face Rogers offers.
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I think this is great.
The complexity of the plans and options is one of the ways that the carriers have extracted money from their customers. Yes, it wastes time for everyone, but it results in customer errors which work in the carriers favour in several ways.
Anything that simplifies things is good for consumers so thank you Telus.
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Yeah, give me call display & no-answer-xfer instead of voice mail! How many voice mail boxes do I need?!
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It is still too much!
Let’s think about it:
Before:
$25+ SAF (100% profit for service providers)
IT SHOULD:
REMOVE SAF and make it $25 + .75 for 911= $25.75
INSTEAD:
Now they charge you “ONLY” $4.25 SAF ($25 + $4.25 +$.75) and they are making us a favour?
Telus is following Rogers; who is not charging you SAF anymore, only because Now they call it something else.
The ONLY good thing about this is that people will start to look at the final number and will be easier to compare plans from different operators, as opposed to your plan+ SAF+911+GST + PST.
$4.25 * 36 (3yr plan)= $153 pure profit for TELUS for EVERY 3yr customer, That is in addition to the “normal” profit from the plan. So if Telus gives you $150 discount on the phone they are 3 bucks ahead plus the profit on the plan and Data, plus billing errors.
Still expensive.
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When all companies advertise and charge what we pay – GST included!Then I’ll say Great.
Always think out of pocket dollars, Rogers new plans cost more. Telus at least a little less.
I’m still waiting for the American carriers – better service and much cheaper rates.
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The idea is that they are being upfront about what you pay instead of hiding it away in extra fees, the idea isn’t to just make it cheaper for you. That’s good news for anyone who isn’t familiar with cell phones and easily gets tricked by hidden fees.
Another key benefit here is they are bundling in Voicemail, something everyone wants and usually pays at least $5 extra for when it should always be included. Rogers just bundled some stupid crap like Call Forwarding or something which nobody cares about. This puts us one step closer to other countries where voicemail and call display are always standard features.
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the point that I make is that they are not really removing the fees but hiding them. If the SAF was truely removed the plan fee would not go up by $5, they are just being greedy and taking more money from you.
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I hate Rogers I hate Telus I hate bell, I hate them all, they all suck. I hope some day we get some real competition fighting for our dollar.
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What a lot of you are missing is that TELUS is ADDING a service and charging for that (Voicemail for $5). The SAF is taken off completely.
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Better than before, but not by much.
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It is a step in the right direction but “free Voice mail” is a red herring: it is worthless compared to call display.
The 911 fee, like all other fees that are not negotiable, should be built into the advertized price, along with the taxes. They do this all over Europe and it is time for us to catch up. Btw, let’s not forget that provinces that now call the 911 fee a tax, do so because the 911 fees collected by phone providers ($150 million/year) were stolen by them. They were never used to provide gps coordinates to locate accident victims.
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Come on people, you have to realize that most of the SAF was a pure fabrication. What was it used for? They just used it to pay for their operating expenses.
What would you expect, Piper975, that the companies start detailing:
- Fee for renting office space
- Fee for paying the utilities
- Fee for paying the employees’ salaries
- and so on?
At least they help leveling the playing field and making it easier for us to shop around and compare offerings.
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louc Reply:
October 27th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
So I guess overpricing the retail prices of their phones, voice plans and data plans is a bonus. Hell, I’ll pay the SAF fee’s just so their employees get paid and they can run their business, but don’t ask me to pay $600 for a phone that only cost $300 to make. Or $30 for only 500mb of data, especially when I only pay $20 more for my high speed internet at home, which is unlimited and at a faster rate.
It’s a joke that people find it okay that we’re being ripped off just so we can own a cell phone.
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Yan Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
I didn’t comment on their overall pricing. I agree that they are overpriced. The difference now is that we’re being honestly screwed, whereas before we were being deceitfully screwed.
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To Telus’ credit, they aren’t making up a new fee to replace the SAF like Rogers did.
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SAF should have never been broken-out as a line item by the carriers in the first place.
Telus’ move here is a good one as it adds value (free VM) while increasing transparency. Plus, this is a fair price for what they are offering. Contracts are a way to get a phone for free – you don’t like it, don’t sign one – pay full pop for your phone like you would a new TV, stereo, or other consumer electronics item and then see how you feel
Rogers’ new regulatory fee structure is a step in the wrong direction and makes them look silly relative to Telus.
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If there wasn’t a activation fee and sim cards were $1 or something, I would buy a telus sim as soon as their GSM network is ready and switch from Rogers.
But there’s no point paying $30 to save $2 a month when new entrants are just around the corner.
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