Consumer
Information | Ongoing Issues |
Your Contract with the Telephone Company
Definitions
Terms of Service
Regulated Rates and Services (Tariffs)
Non-tariffed Services
Consumers' rights and responsibilities
Definitions
Competitive service provider: provider of telecommunications
services in competition with incumbent service providers (ILECs).
ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier): the telephone
company that was the original monopoly telephone company in your region (e.g. MTS
in Manitoba, Bell Canada in most of Ontario and Quebec) or a successor company
(e.g. Aliant in the Maritimes and Newfoundland, TELUS in most of Alberta and
British Columbia).
Tariffed charges: charges for telecommunications services
whose rates are regulated by the CRTC. This includes local service, 911, call
display and other calling features you may subscribe to.
Non-tariffed charges: charges for telecommunications services
whose rates are not regulated by the CRTC. This includes long distance, Internet
services, and wireless telephone service.
Terms of Service
Terms of service set out the basic rights and obligations of both the
telephone company and their customers and generally include the following:
- Obligation to provide service
- Customer liability for calls
- Deposits and Alternatives
- Payment Time Limit
- Limitation of liability
- Refunds in Cases of Service Problems
- Confidentiality of Customer Records
- Termination of Service
Terms of service for ILECs are approved by the CRTC and can be found in the
front pages of your telephone book. They are also available, along with other
tariffs from telephone companies directly or through
CRTC offices.
Terms of service for competitive service providers are not
approved by the CRTC and must be obtained directly from the service provider.
Regulated Rates and Services (Tariffs)
ILECs must also maintain "tariff" pages that describe every aspect of the
regulated service itself, including the conditions under which the service is
offered and any charges that may be associated with the service. Tariffs are
approved by the CRTC and they are available from telephone companies directly or
through CRTC offices. In addition, most ILECs also
offer electronic versions of their tariff pages. Links are provided below, by
company name:
Aliant Telecom -
Island Tel
MTT
NBTel
NewTel
Bell Canada
MTS
SaskTel
TELUS
Non-tariffed Services
Telephone companies that are regulated by the CRTC may offer some services
that are not regulated. Where sufficient competition to provide a service and
protect customers' interests exists, such as long-distance and wireless services,
the CRTC will deregulate and allow market forces to dictate rates and service
conditions. Tariffs do not exist for non-regulated services, but different terms
of service may apply. Check with your service provider for details.
In all cases, the CRTC maintains the power to intervene in order to safeguard
consumers from undue discrimination or breaches of confidentiality.
Consumers’ rights and responsibilities
Your rights
Consumers should check the Terms and Conditions of their contract with service
provider. If your service provider is an ILEC, its dispute procedure should be
set out in the introductory pages of your telephone directory. In general, ILEC’s
dispute procedure outlines consumer’s right to dispute charges on reasonable
grounds. If your service provider is not an ILEC, check the Terms and Conditions
you agreed to when you signed up with your service provider.
Under their Terms of Service, ILECs may not suspend or terminate local service
when a consumer does not pay non-tariffed charges such as long distance charges
(see Telecom Decision CRTC
2004-31 for
additional information). If your company is an ILEC and you pay only part of your
bill (for example, everything but your long distance charges) your ILEC is not
allowed to suspend or terminate your tariffed services, including local service,
as long as you have paid enough to cover all of your undisputed tariffed charges.
In this situation, the ILECs may use other legal means to try to recover the debt
they believe is owing, but they cannot cut off your local service.
Your responsibilities
Consumers wishing to dispute any amount showing on their telephone bill should
follow the dispute procedure of their service provider. Under the Terms of
Service of the ILECs, consumers who disagree with charges on their bill must
still pay the undisputed charges of the bill.
Date Modified: 2002-06-29 |
