Canadian consumers will soon be able to switch their wireline or wireless service providers a bit more easily through new rules passed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
Under the new rules, service providers will need to make all of the necessary steps to transfer over to a new competitive provider within two business days for a wireline service, while wireless service providers only have a half hour window of time to transfer a customer to another provider.
As has been the case in the U.S. market, Canadian consumer right lobbyists have railed against unnecessary delays and charges consumers had to face when they tried to switch their services from the likes of incumbent providers like Bell Canada (NYSE: BCE) and Telus (Toronto: T.TO).
In the event that a competitive provider and an incumbent have to coordinate a service transfer, the CRTC now requires service providers to retain a Customer Service Group (CSG) function. This CSG function will prevent a service provider from sharing confidential customer information (customer name and address, services taken, date of the request and date transfer date) with their sales and marketing groups as they transfer a customer account.
If a customer decides to handle the disconnection process themselves, the incumbent service provider can offer that customer another service package in an attempt to retain that customer.
For more:
- TeleGeography has this article
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