Today the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) finally unveiled their long-awaited “Wireless Code”, bringing some much needed change to the Canadian wireless industry. The Wireless Code addresses some of the biggest complaints Canadians have voiced about the wireless industry in our country, including hefty overage charges and contract cancellation fees.

First and foremost, the new Wireless Code will allow customers to “terminate their wireless contracts after two years without cancellation fees, even if they have signed on for a longer term”. While the code does not outright eliminate the standard 3 year contract, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the major carriers start pushing 2 year terms more. After all, it doesn’t make much sense to sign customers into a 3 year contract if they can just cancel after 2. This also means that the on-contract price of most phones is likely to rise as well, a minor and acceptable trade-off for most customers.

Under the new Wireless Code, data overage and international roaming charges will also be capped to help consumers avoid “bill shock”. Data overage fees will be capped at $50/month, while international roaming charges will be capped at $100/month. Carriers will be required to unlock devices after 90 days, or immediately if the phone is purchased outright (off-contract). Customers will also be able to return their device within 15 days of purchase if they are unhappy with their service.

Those are the biggest changes, but if you’re interested you can read the full text online. The new Wireless Code will go into effect on December 2nd, 2013 - however it will only apply to new wireless contracts, so if you’ve already got a cellphone, unfortunately these new rules won’t apply to you.

In response to the new Wireless Code, we received a comment from Bell addressing some of the new regulations.

“We can work within the new rules – Bell complies with virtually all of them now, such as alerting consumers on international data usage, or unlocking phones,” a Bell spokesperson told us, “Bell has always offered 1, 2 or 3 year contracts, and of course no customer is required to take a contract at all. Most have chosen 3 year contracts because of the big price reductions they mean on the latest smartphones. Restricting to 2 years means less flexibility for consumers so it remains to be seen how they’ll respond.”

[Source: CRTC]

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