Rogers was first to do it with Telus following suit just a couple of weeks ago, and from the looks of it, Bell is going down the same route. What are we talking about? It’s the ditching of System Access Fees (SAF) from the monthly cell phone bill.
Based on a leaked internal Bell document acquired by The Mobile Ninjas, the Canadian carrier is scheduled to launch new plans on November 20th that will no longer come with SAF charges. We don't have a copy of the said document, but here’s a quote from the said leakage highlighting the important parts of it:
Effective November 20th, 2009 Bell Mobility will be launching new pricing for all existing postpaid plans & will no longer be charging the $6.95 system access fee. Review the job aid for more details.
Details about the new pricing scheme are pretty scarce at the moment, but if they are to follow Telus' Clear Choice approach, Bell subscribers might just need to pay the exact amount of the plan they subscribed to with no additional hidden charges. They could also emulate Rogers and just implement a new fee (in Rogers’ case, the Government Regulatory Recovery Fee) in lieu of the SAF, but this is pure speculation on our part.
It’s still anybody’s guess as to what Bell will actually do, but with November 20th just a stone’s throw away, we’ll find out much sooner than later.
[source]