Dear JOHN,
People in Canada are furious. While telecom giants like Bell are spending millions on advertising telling us weāre all āIn This Togetherā1, theyāre collecting hundreds of millions of emergency COVID aid from our government, and paying it back to their stakeholders through increased dividends. And all the while, theyāve been further hiking their rates for basic Internet access they charge us during COVID-19.2
Weāre calling for it to stop. Over 13,000 of us have already told the Big 3 they need to #PayItBack and return the public funds they turned into extra dividends. But it isnāt the first time our Telecom oligopolies have ripped us off, and it wonāt be the last.
Will you donate and help hold them to account?
This is a particularly low point, but only the latest in a history of abuse of Canadian customers and outright lying to their customers and the public.
So we thought weād take a walk down memory lane and remind ourselves of 10 other times Canadian Telecom ripped us off over the past 10 years:
- In 2020, Telus was censured by Ad Standards Canada, after they falsely claimed that it was a āmythā that Canadians pay some of the highest wireless prices in the world.3
- In 2019, Bell tried to attack our privacy protections in Canada by seeking to have VPNs (a type of privacy software) banned during NAFTA agreements.4
- In 2018, Bell asked employees to astroturf a public consultation in support of website filtering and censorship.5
- In 2018, the CRTC had to order Telus to stop blocking cell phone traffic to Canadaās north.6
- In 2018, Rogers Call centre employees blew the whistle on high-pressure sales tactics as well as lying and misleading customers to make sales targets.7
- In 2018, Bellās door-to-door sales reps were found to be misleading the public on price and speeds.8
- In 2015, Bell was ordered to pay a penalty of $1.25 million after Bellās staffers posted fake reviews online without disclosing that they worked for Bell.9
- In 2015 the Privacy Commissioner ruled that Bell violated federal privacy laws by tracking customers’ online activity in order to create profiles for advertising companies. A $750 million class action lawsuit was then brought against them.10
- In 2011, Bell was fined $10 million by the advertising bureau for advertising prices that it refused to honour.11
- In 2010 Rogers was sued by the Canadian Government for misleading ads by their subsidiary Chatr. They were subsequently fined $500k for their practices.12
Oof! Can you believe that track record? And thatās only a Top 10!!
Since our founding in 2004, OpenMedia has worked to go toe-to-toe with these Goliaths, calling them out on their abuses of the public purse, workers, and elderly customers who are vulnerable to unseemly sales practices. We fight for affordable high-speed access to a Canadian Internet that is open and surveillance free.
Sometimes we win, and sometimes we donāt. Weāre outspent, outstaffed, and out lobbied by the Big Threeās deep pockets. But with your support, we have helped change the market in dozens of ways over the years against the odds. Weāve helped to mainstream wholesale Internet, and made the introduction of mobile wholesale MVNOs ā smaller companies who lease access to market infrastructure and add competition and choice ā a real future possibility for Canada.13 Last year, we helped accelerate the governmentās plans for broadband rollout to rural communities during COVID-19. Together, our communityās united voice helps make Telecom policy better in Canada.
Today Canada needs affordable internet access for everyone more than ever; connection is a human right.Ā
If you canāt give, please know that we appreciate you just the same! If you havenāt done it already, you can sign our #PayItBack petition, which demands that Big Telecom pay back the Covid Emergency Relief funding.
Thank you so much for all that you do.
Sincerely,
Matt at OpenMedia
