Telus asks CRTC to allow phone financing beyond two years, up to four
Key points
- Telus has asked the CRTC, Canada's telecom regulator, to let carriers finance phones for longer than two years, including a four-year option.
- Under the current Wireless Code, the early cancellation fee on a subsidized phone must fall to $0 by month 24. Telus wants that limit removed, or at least raised to 48 months or longer.
- Telus says a $999 phone costs $41.63 a month over 24 months but $27.75 over 36 months, and that it typically offers financing at 0% interest.
- Telus also wants the same flexibility for tablets and smartwatches.
- The catch, which Telus acknowledges, is that longer financing only works if carriers can charge a cancellation fee past month 24, so leaving for another carrier could cost customers for longer.
- The CRTC's public hearing on the consumer protection codes starts November 30 in Gatineau. Nothing is decided.
The request was made in a Telus filing to the CRTC in August, as part of the regulator’s review of the consumer protection codes that include the Wireless Code. It is a position put forward for the hearing, not a plan Telus has rolled out.
It also revives an old fight. The Wireless Code arrived in 2013 and ended the era of three-year contracts by making cancellation fees hit $0 after two years. Rogers and Telus later tried 36-month financing but pulled it when the CRTC asked carriers to stop.
Telus argues other carriers are already working around the limit. It points to Rogers Bank’s 36 and 48-month 0% Equal Payment Plans on a Rogers credit card, and to Bell’s Flex Option, which Telus says stretches financing to 48 months. Both are listed on the carriers’ own websites. The same filing also asks the CRTC to scrap the $100 roaming cap.
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