Bell finally ditches the SAF
Anyone that happened to look at Bell’s monthly rate plans in the past few days might have noticed something a little odd — each plan is now $5 more expensive. The reason for this isn’t greed (well, it is, sort of) but because Bell made like Rogers and TELUS and killed off the much maligned $6.95 per month System Access Fee (SAF) and E911 fee meaning that subscribers of the new plans will have an extra $2.70 in their pocket each month. The first of the Big Three to drop the SAF was Rogers, who on October 5th raised the prices of its voice plans by $5 and replaced the SAF and E911 fee with the Government Regulatory Recovery Fee (GRRF). The GRRF ranges from $2.58 to $3.11 depending upon the province once resides in. One month later on November 5th, TELUS officially dropped the SAF when it introduced its Clear Choice plans. Again, each plan was increased by $5, but there are no gimmicky fees meaning that TELUS customers on the new plans are paying $2 to $3 less per month. Those who are on the old plans are under no pressure to switch to the new, SAF-free plans.
Saying Rogers killed off the System Access Fee is true but misleading. They removed the SAF but added a “Government Regulatory Recovery Fee”. Granted, it’s not as high as the SAF was but you still aren’t paying the rate they advertise.
Same with Telus.
From: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/11/20/bell-canada-system-access-fee.html
The fading away of the system access fee began in March 2008 when Telus launched its discount brand Koodo without it. Rogers and Bell followed suit with their respective discount brands Fido and Solo, but all three companies kept charging the fee on their core services.
Rogers was first to pull the trigger on its core brand in September, but it added a new “regulatory recovery fee” that ranges between $2.46 and $3.46 depending on the province, and raised the base price of its plans.
Telus got rid of its fee and raised base plan prices last month, while MTS last week replaced it with a “wireless network charge” of $3.50 a month.
Bell removed their SAF and raised prices by $5 as stated in the article, this leads to a $2.70 savings. Sounds like Rogers clients now have the slowest HSPA network and just had a price increase with their strategy lol
Actually when Virgin launched Their post paid program with no SAF or 911 before Koodo was launched. So I think credit is due there. Mind you it was only a month before, still the first in Canada.
Sounds like having a cell phone in Canada just got a little easier.. yay?
telus also increased prices on all add-ons and data plans. the only way its cheaper without saf fees is if all you have is a base voice plan with nothing else. that 2 – 3 dollars cheaper gets eaten instantly as soon as you add call display or incoming texts. if you go data, then their plans start to get very pricey. i guess you gotta pay for all those acquisitions some how. on the otherhand it has gotten easier explaining the plans to customers when you tell them their total cost for each month, there’s no more, “how did it get so expensive?” at the end.
Mobile service in Canada is a bad deal at least compared to what’s offered by their neigbo(u)rs to the south. The US has offered included domestic long distance for at least the last seven years. Qanajuns also pay extra for such things as voicemail, caller ID, call waiting, three way calling etc. which have been included in US plans for years. Of course there’s no real competition in Canada so they get what they get. Let’s hope here in the US that T-Mobile and Sprint remain viable so our mobile providers can at least provide some value.
Another meaningless shuffle of the price plans. All that matters is the total price you have to pay for the features you get.
Granted having a one price for all plan makes comparison shopping a bit easier, but renaming and moving costs around is utterly smoke and mirrors.
As I have mentioned before, I don’t care if one of the line items on my bill is “resettlement fund for wayward aliens”, all I care about is the bottom amount on the bill.
This should be like Europe. The price you see in the ads is what comes out of your pocket, whether you’re buying a monthly cell plan or a meal in a restaurant where the price includes taxes and tip.
I’m on Rogers and the only fees I pay are $2.30