The crtc decision announced on March 12 confronts two linked subjects: the regulator’s new prohibition on activation and modification fees, and the entrenched carrier practices—like $80 connection charges and other switching costs—used by providers. The comparison asks: will the ban remove the financial barriers that have discouraged customers from switching plans or providers?
Crtc decision amends Wireless and Internet Codes
The commission’s March 12 ruling amends the Wireless and Internet Codes to add protections that prohibit activation and modification fees and to limit early cancellation penalties; enforcement begins on June 12, 2026. The change preserves exceptions for “reasonable fees related to the physical installation of a telecommunications service at a customer’s premises” and for additional optional products a customer explicitly chooses, and it assigns the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services to administer the new rules.
Activation and cancellation fees at Rogers, Telus and Bell
Carriers have been charging connection and modification fees that industry observers have cited as high as $80 at several providers, and some companies have instituted per-service charges like a $20 human-assisted plan-change fee. The decision does not alter the treatment of financed devices where early cancellation typically equals remaining financing amounts, and the rule set explicitly allows installers’ labour charges such as for home fibre installations.
CCTS reporting, manual waivers and the timeline to June 12, 2026
Both sides converge on an immediate practical step: service providers can already manually waive fees while updating automated billing systems, a point the commission noted in its March 12 decision. That overlap reduces short-term harm from prohibited fees, since carriers may remove charges by hand before the new enforcement date of June 12, 2026, while the CCTS will report on related complaints in its annual and mid-year reports.
Where they diverge is scope and effect: the crtc ban targets fees whose main purpose is to discourage switching, but it leaves intact specific revenue mechanisms—installation labour charges and financed-device payoffs—that continue to influence switching costs. The regulator’s language blocks connection and modification fees but preserves the financing model that makes device payoffs equivalent to early cancellation in many wireless plans.
The structural reason for this partial sweep is operational: carriers will need to change billing systems to remove automated fees, a process the commission acknowledged by allowing manual waivers during the transition. That operational reality helps explain why the rule treats physical-installation costs and financed-device balances as distinct from the ‘‘junk fees’’ the decision aims to eliminate.
Finding: This comparison establishes that the March 12 ruling will materially reduce explicit switching charges like the $80 connection fees, but it will not eliminate all financial frictions—installation labour and financed-device payoffs remain. The next confirmed milestone that will test this finding is the enforcement start on June 12, 2026. If carriers manually waive prohibited fees and update automated billing systems by that date, the comparison suggests switching costs will fall noticeably; if they do not, many customers may still face non-fee frictions despite the ban.
