ARCHIVED - Telecom Commission Letter Addressed to Stephen Schmidt (TELUS)

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Ottawa, 13 February 2018

BY E-MAIL 

Stephen Schmidt
Vice-President - Telecom Policy & Chief Regulatory Legal Counsel
TELUS
Floor 8, 215 Slater St.
Ottawa, Ontario
K1P 0A6
regulatory.affairs@telus.com

Dear Mr. Schmidt:

RE: Revised Wireless Code implementation – Telus’ Part 1 application for an extension of time File No. 8665-T66-201710708

This letter sets out the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s determinations on Telus’ Part 1 application seeking an extension of time to implement certain requirements in Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2017-200 – Review of the Wireless Code (the revised Code).

In its application filed 16 November 2017, Telus stated it would be technically impossible to comply with certain requirements of section E (Bill Management) of the revised Code by the 1 December 2017 deadline. For this reason, it requested an extension to 31 March 2018 to implement these rules. Telus stated that all other requirements of the revised Code would be implemented on time.

The Commission considers that, due to the technical complexities associated with operationalizing the required changes to Telus’ systems, Telus has demonstrated that it is facing barriers that make it financially unreasonable as well as technically impossible to implement the specific requirements related to bill management reflected in sections E.1 (i), E.2 (iii and iv), E.3 (iii, iv and v) and E.4 of the revised Code by the required deadline. Extending the deadline to comply with these rules will provide Telus with sufficient time to make the necessary changes and upgrades.

Therefore, the Commission approves Telus’ request to extend its implementation of the revised Code from 1 December 2017 to 31 March 2018 for the following rules:

Until Telus has fully implemented the revised Code for all customers, the Commission expects Telus to credit or refund customers who complain to Telus regarding the rules set out in E.1-4 of the revised Code and who are legitimately entitled to a credit or a refund. In particular, the Commission expects Telus to credit or refund customers in any cases where Telus bills them for data overage charges or data roaming charges in excess of the respective caps, without first obtaining the express consent of either the account holder or an authorized user  accepting such additional charges.

The Commission reminds Telus that:

To ensure that Telus’ customers are aware of the delays and can seek recourse where appropriate, the Commission directs Telus to:

The Commission intends to monitor consumer complaints for any systemic issues arising from the delays in implementing the revised Code. 

Yours sincerely,

(Original signed by)

Claude Doucet
Secretary General
CRTC

Cc: distribution list
bell.regulatory@bell.ca; document.control@sasktel.com; jlawford@piac.ca;
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