You are hereWhat is Bell Thinking? New Deregulated Long Distance
What is Bell Thinking? New Deregulated Long Distance
So, I received a flyer in my Bell residential bill the other day advertising Bell's newly deregulated long distance rate changes and plans.
Now that they've been set free by the CRTC they can set their prices however they wish - and it seems they're starting by making them confusing.
Charges based on actual distance between your origination and termination (well, except if it's a mobile you're calling?!), and that distance is in miles?! What the heck? I mean, not only are those rates high, but sheesh, miles?! Miles?!
Oh, wait, but if you flip pages you can find out that you can save a tonne of dough by going with one of their plans.
Now I mean, that $0/mth for 15 cents a minutes seems like a no-brainer now doesn't it?
Oh, but don't forget to look for the fine print too.
And you'll see that you need to throw on an extra $5.95 in network charge. So really, it costs you $5.95 to get 15 cents a minute, or an outrageous $10.95/month (corrected - Thanks DM) for 5 cents a minute. So really, they're not just confusing rates, but they're also expensive.
Anyway, I think I'll be switching to Yak for my long distance, and leaving Bell and their overpriced confusion in the rear-view mirror.
I mean, MILES, c'mon people, this is freakin' Canada - we measure distances in kilometres up here!!!
I'm still chuckling as I sense your outrage across the "miles" between is. This just seems insane, doesn't. I'd love to get a graph of the distance of all my calls delivered with my bill...would almost be worth it :P
This sort of thing is exactly why service providers like Bell will soon become nothing but bit pipes. But I'm sure I don't have to convince you about that :D
I agree Dave, that's insane. But people still use Sympatico even though they force you to rent a modem, so why not charge by the mile???
I was with "Guaranteed Proof" (through the CIBC) for a while, but got tired of paying the system access fee every month despite only making a few long distance phone calls (we mostly use Skype for long distance). But it's still nice to be able to pick up the phone and make a phone call without getting gouged :)
I switched over to RapidTel (http://www.rapidtel.com/longdistance/). It's 2.9 cents a minute in the US and Canada and you don't have to dial a prefix.
My LD phone bill last month was $0.54!!! Now that's more like it :)
- Andy
"You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension - a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into the Twilight Zone."
If you switch to another LD company and belong to a Bell Long Distance Plan (the kind that has a Network Charge), they'll even charge you a "Deactivation Charge". I believe it is for not giving them 30 days notice of cancellation. However, the charges (even for that month) are easily made up for the savings that you'd get from Yak.
And that would be $10.95/month for 5c/min, not $9.95 through Bell :)
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