Telus ordered to pay refunds to some customers

CATHERINE McLEAN,  Globe and Mail Update

Telus Corp. must refund some customers who were forced to pay a network-access charge, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ruled on Thursday.

The federal telecommunications regulator said Telus “improperly” slapped a monthly fee of $2.95 on customers who did not use its long-distance network. Customers who did make long-distance calls won't receive the rebate.

“When applied to customers who did not make any long-distance calls, the monthly fee was equivalent to an unauthorized increase to the residential local service rate,” CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein said in a statement. “We will use our powers whenever necessary to uphold the interests of consumers of telecommunications services, particularly in instances when companies impose unauthorized charges.”

Telus introduced the charge shortly after the CRTC started deregulating the local-phone market in many cities throughout Canada in the second half of last year. The CRTC said nearly half a million customers throughout Alberta and British Columbia started seeing the $2.95 monthly charge pop up on their phone bills in November.

Telus levied the fee on customers because they hadn't signed up for a long-distance plan, either with Telus or another provider. They were forced to pay the fee even if they didn't make a long-distance call on the Telus network or used a dial-around service. The only escape was to subscribe to the company's Call Guardian service, which doesn't permit long-distance calls.

The CRTC doesn't regulate long-distance rates. However, it viewed the Telus charge as a way of increasing local phone rates. In areas that have been deregulated, there are still price ceilings in place. And in areas that are regulated, Telus can only charge rates that the CRTC has approved.

Telus is examining its options, according to spokesman Shawn Hall. “We're obviously very disappointed with the decision.”

He added that “the fee was applied for a tangible and highly-valued service, access to our long-distance network, one of the best networks in the world.”