Telus wants the CRTC to scrap Canada's $100 data roaming cap, arguing the consumer protection is no longer necessary as more Canadians switch to travel plans with predictable roaming charges. While the carrier submitted its intervention to the CRTC back in mid-August, a closer look at the filing by iPhone in Canada reveals more about
  • brax@sh.itjust.works
    7 hours

    I don’t even understand why roaming or global long distance is a thing. I can go to a website in Australia and it doesn’t cost extra, I could also access a home network in Canada from a computer in Australia… Weird isn’t it?

    • bartleby1@lemmy.ml
      3 hours

      There’s a lot to blame for why pure IP hasn’t killed off calling and texting plans, but the biggest two I’d mention is Apple and Google, in that order.

      They have hugely profitable incentives and business motives to “keep phone numbers” relevant, especially for calls. Each could turn their native dialing app into a front end for FaceTime/Google Meet calling, and over time phase out numbers. But alas, instead they invest in stuff (like on device voicemail, hold assist, etc) to keep crappy telephone calling an important part of the tech stack.

      Plus their Apple and Pixel cell watches literally require a talk+text plan just to get data, essentially a reversal of the direction carrier plans were going (towards data only).

  • Zeppo@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    17 hours

    If it’s no longer needed, then how would it affect anyone to remove it? Hmm. Pretty suspicious

  • eightys3v3n@lemmy.caEnglish
    19 hours

    It’s no longer needed, because having it forced companies to fuck off with their bullshit. As soon as it goes away, things will get worse again. -_-
    I hope it stays or even gets further restricted. Like properly fucking the providers still trying to charge setup / cancellation / etc fees that are now deemed illegal in Canada.

  • Reannlegge@lemmy.ca
    18 hours

    Roaming should not be a thing while you are in Canada, does not matter who your provider is they all share infastructure somewhere in the series of tubes. Internationally I can understand why roaming is a thing but still the cap should be lower.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.caEnglish
      9 hours

      they all share infastructure somewhere in the series of tubes.

      Very little of that infrastructure is shared. Even less now that the agreement between Rogers and BellMTS is being unwound.

      Rogers, Bell, and Telus each have their own separate switching, RF network, transport and core networks. They do interconnect (otherwise you couldn’t call a customer on the other network), but that is a very “thin” connection at the edge of the networks.

      Sometimes they rent space for their antennas on someone else’s tower, or rent fiberoptic transport but that is not really “sharing” any more than your landlord is “sharing” with you.

      Source: happily retired from network operations/maintenance in one of the “big 3” phone companies.

      • FlareHeart@lemmy.caEnglish
        3 hours

        Except in Saskatchewan where only Rogers has built their own towers. Bell and Telus lease SaskTel’s infrastructure. Source: I work at SaskTel.

  • NarrativeBear@lemmy.world
    19 hours

    Telus has been losing money for sometime now, they just got a new CEO which has been looking at ways to bring the company back into profit.

    Looks like the new CEO sees profits are being lost to this cap.

    • Pyr@lemmy.ca
      18 hours

      Maybe they should stay out of the healthcare business. Blows my mind the a telecommunications company thought “hey, let’s be doctors!”

      Who the hell actually uses Telus health?

      • brax@sh.itjust.works
        7 hours

        My employer, sadly. But I think they were using whatever it was before Telus put their grubby hands on it.

      • unbanshee@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        15 hours

        I suspect their thinking was more along the lines of “better stake our claim for when healthcare gets fully privatized”.

  • ShaggyBlarney@lemmy.caEnglish
    19 hours

    I’m currently aboard in Vietnam with an esim that is working well enough. A medical emergency happened with our dog who is staying with a sitter. So it’s been a number of sleepless nights trying to get updates from the vet and on top of that we moved to an area with poor reception and had to juggle between my regular service provider (don’t have a travel plan setup with them so $10 per mb) and the esim. The good news is that my dog is recovering fine. The vet hosed us, but it’s nice that there is regulations to prevent the cell service provider hosing me as well.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.caEnglish
      18 hours

      Tangential: please consider pet insurance if you don’t have it already. The last thing you want to worry about is the cost of care, and vets are as mercenary as USA healthcare.

      (We have a dog and two inside-cats, and they’re all fully insured; and with my sister managing a vet hospital in another region, and the (anonymized) stories she tells, we wouldn’t have it any other way. )

      • grey_maniac@lemmy.ca
        5 hours

        Not to mention many vet franchises are managed by former German chemical company turned private equity with suspiciously no history between1937 and 1945.