OTTAWA - The CRTC is slated to rule Thursday on requests by consumers groups and a small Toronto company to remove a long-distance access fee recently introduced by Telus Corp. (TSX:T), Canada's second largest phone company.
A spokesman for the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission says the decision on whether the new fee is illegal will be posted on the CRTC's website late Thursday morning.
Toronto-based Yak Communications (Canada) Corp., as well as the Consumers Association of Canada, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and the National Anti-Poverty Organization, have filed applications with the CRTC to have Telus drop the fee and reimburse customers who have paid it.
Telus, the biggest phone company in western Canada as well as the second-biggest in the country after Bell Canada, introduced the $2.95-per-month fee last fall to its traditional land line customers who don't have long-distance plans in Alberta and B.C.
Yak, which competes with Telus and other big telecom players in the residential long-distance, Internet access and home phone businesses, and the consumer groups say the fee is unfair to customers.
Telus has said the fee is not unlike a distribution fee charged by utility companies. The Vancouver-based telecom operator says it has invested more than $1 billion on its wireline network to improve service.
As well, Telus says, about 80 per cent of customers who are charged the $2.95 fee would benefit by signing up for a long-distance plan. Telus customers with long-distance plans pay a fee of $4.95 per month.
