To the Editor,
I ran into a bit of a conundrum recently when making a phone call from my cellphone to a business I needed to contact and got no answer. I drove across town to the business and queried why I had not got a response to my phone call.
His comeback was that he and his employees were being charged incoming long distance on calls from foreign phones, in my case a U.S. number.
I would like to know how this is being allowed to happen. When a caller places a long distance call, depending on package, their provider puts all charges into effect at that moment. Why are Canadian cell phone providers being allowed to add costs to the incoming phone call? It is bad enough that Canadians get charged between 100 and 150 percent more for the same service as billed in other countries, but they now seem to be getting around the rules with the addition of these bogus billing models.
The government agency that is supposed to be preventing this type of over charge now seems to be completely complacent with it. The regulator has made it possible for the complete cellular phone system to be absorbed into two majors and this will not bode well for the customers.
Dennis Dalla-Vicenza,
via e-mail