Bell Canada has given the finger to the Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). And while the finger is in the erect position it is also providing a free pseudo colonoscopy for those customers who want cheaper television service. The $25 skinny basic television package from Bell Canada is a travesty.
This ridiculous skinny basic offer offers Ontario households 26 channels—one of which is audio only and in French. To an English language household, you hardly expect that ten of the television channels being in French would be of paramount interest. There is no denying the importance of French but when less than 10 per cent of Ontario households speak French, there should be some common sense used.
What is particularly galling in this mix of channels is that the three major American television networks that have long been grandfathered into Canadian television services are missing. Since television antennas started to grow like weeds on southern Ontario roof tops back in the 1950s, we have had easy access to ABC, CBS and NBC. Maybe Bell has decided to be jingoistic now that the company owns CTV.
As typical Bell Canada customers, we called Rogers Cable to find out if that company is offering a better deal. Rogers at least recognizes that Canadians have an inalienable right to watch American television. By the time we had worked through the bluster of the cable sales person, we figured we could get a fairly decent offer of high speed Internet and a minimum TV package for less than $100 per month. That beats the current Bell offering that is costing us $125 per month and has been increasing regularly.
Mind you, it will be interesting to see how CRTC head Jean Pierre Blais handles this “screw you” from Bell Canada. If the Bell executives had thought this situation through to its logical conclusion they might realize that Blais is not the church mouse that they think he is. He has a responsibility through the government to Canadians to look after the interests of Canadian consumers. He makes a better friend than an enemy.
As for this household’s current predicament, we have been there before. We are going to have to pick our time to lower the boom on Bell. The last time we told Bell that we no longer wanted their service, equipment and rapacious pricing, the company harassed the household for the next two years to pay trumped up cancellation charges.
-30-
Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]