Gillian Shaw
Sun
Telus Corp. is dropping its controversial system access and carrier 911 fees for its wireless customers, the company announced Tuesday.
It’s a move that appears aimed at making Telus‘ wireless offerings more competitive as it rolls out its new 3G+ network Nov. 5 and takes on Rogers’ dominance in the iPhone market with the addition of Apple’s popular smartphone to its lineup. The company is also adding voicemail as a standard feature on all its plans.
While the changes will only save a few dollars a month on wireless phone bills, the added fees have irritated wireless customers and dropping them is seen as a plus in marketing wireless services. The access and carrier 911 fees add $7.70 to the average Telus wireless bill, and voicemail is $7 as a stand-alone feature and not part of a bundle of services.
The company also announced that it is launching “clear and simple” pricing for both new business and consumer wireless rate plans. Existing Telus customers will have a choice of keeping their old plans or switching to one of the new ones.
Telus has declined to reveal plan pricing details for the Nov. 5 launch of its new network and the iPhone, saying it is closely guarded competitive information.
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