MPP David Orazietti’s Bill 133, the “Wireless Phone, Smart Phone and Data Service Transparency Act”, recently passed Second reading. The goal of the bill is to make wireless contracts easier to read, reduce cancellation fees, make contracts easier to understand, remove the expiry dates on prepaid phone cards and have the carriers to “unlock” devices when customers have fully paid for them.
Sound familiar? Quebec already has these practices in place (Bill 60) and Manitoba will be implementing a new cellphone law in 2012 that also sees some of the above actions implemented. New entrant Mobilicity recently sent a press release with a notice that they are fully backing Bill 133 and also once again slams the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA).
The release stated that “Mobilicity said it fundamentally disagrees with the CWTA’s ongoing position on consumer protection laws and fully supports the proposed legislation by Ontario MPP David Orazietti… Mobilicity CEO Dave Dobbin wrote, “To be perfectly clear, although we are a member of this association, we stand far apart from it on this issue. Unfortunately, as is sometimes the case, on this point the CWTA…has completely ignored the dissenting opinions of new entrants such as ourselves.”
The CWTA created the “Code of Conduct for Wireless Service Providers“ back in August of 2009 which most carriers signed and has a fundamental objective that ensures “customers have the information they need to make informed purchasing decisions”. In January of this year the CWTA’s submission on the Manitoba Consumer Protection Office’s Public Consultation Paper stated that Canadian “consumers are better served by open competitive markets and a self-regulated wireless industry with a strong Code of Conduct”.
Mobilicity is a boldly outspoken carrier, probably the most out of all of them. Just like all the new entrants they want to shake up wireless in Canada and give consumers fair pricing with no-contracts. Mobilicity “believes that this self-regulating Code of Conduct has proven completely ineffective in protecting consumers” and “strongly supports the need for greater protection of wireless consumers and is encouraging provincial governments to explore the introduction of consumer protective legislation similar to that in the provinces of Quebec and Manitoba.”
Source: Mobilicity
