A worker assembles a Bell Canada billboardKevin Van Paassen
After being ordered to offer consumer rebates by the telecom regulator, BCE Inc.'s Bell Canada has done exactly that - while advising Canadians they would be better off to choose a larger rebate for Bell wireless or TV services.
Bell offered a $67 cheque next year or a $100 credit that can be used immediately for Bell's wireless or TV services, two hotly competitive market segments in which Bell is fighting for customers. For Bell Mobility wireless service, the rebate can only be used with a minimum two-year contract.
"Don't wait for your home-phone customer rebate cheque in the mail next year," Steve Bickley, senior vice-president of Bell's residential services division, wrote in a letter sent to thousands of homes. "This is a limited time offer."
In late August, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ordered telecom companies to send out roughly $311-million in rebates ranging from $25 to $90 to home phone customers. The money is flowing from the CRTC's deferral account, which accumulated about $1.6-billion in excess revenue from high prices mandated to subsidize competition.
Bell is in full compliance with the CRTC's order, which allows Bell to hand out credits to customers that are greater than any pure reimbursement for the original overcharges that Canadians paid. A spokesperson for the company said the rebates are being offered right before the busy holiday season, so that they could be of use to the people considering switching services anyway, or being given new devices as gifts.
But Bell's rivals, including Rogers Communications Inc., argued before the regulator that allowing Bell to win customers through mandated overcharges on consumers was an "anti-competitive marketing ploy."
The flexibility granted to Bell by the CRTC, and Bell's eventual use of it, has also angered consumer advocates such as Michael Janigan, executive director and general counsel for the Public Interest Advocacy Centre.
"They're acting like some guy selling a Slap Chop at the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition)," said Mr. Janigan. "It's not something you would expect from the country's largest telecommunications company."