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Wireless Carriers Now Draw Majority of Telecom Complaints

11:55 am on October 28, 2010 | Category: Telecom Services, Wireless

For the first time ever, wireless carriers are accounting for more than half of the consumer complaints received by Canada’s Commission for Complaints for Telecommunications Services.

Cell phone providers were the target of 52% of the 3,700 complaints received during the 2009 to 2010 monitoring period, the government watchdog reported. Bell Mobility received the most complaints (1,428), followed by Telus (657), and Rogers (540). New market entrant, Wind Mobile, was subject to only one complaint.

The majority of consumers who complained were upset over billing errors, contract disputes, and so called “number portability,” which (in theory) allows users to switch carriers while keeping the same phone number. Most of the number portability complaints involved issues of double billing, where customers were charged by their previous and new provider simultaneously during the course of the switch.

The Commission for Complaints for Telecommunications Services deals with consumer complaints regarding local and long distance telephone carriers, wireless carriers, and internet service providers.

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