Canadian Wireless Telecommunication

Last week we learned that the Canadian Wireless Telecommunication Association, Telus Communications, Bell Mobility and Rogers Communications are taking Nanaimo to court over its 911 call levy.

The levy imposed

The levy imposed by the city requires cellphone providers to collect 75 cents per month from cell phone clients to cover the cost of 911 service.

It's a little difficult to fathom why cellphone providers would object to playing a part in collecting fees for a service essential to its clients and vital to their cellphone infrastructure.

What's particularly galling about this move is that studies have found that Canadians are paying more for wireless telecommunication capability than most other jurisdictions.

Anyone who has looked at a cellphone bill lately will know that these companies have no difficulty in collecting various fees that remain or rather obscure and in part only thinly justifiable.

Surely executives at these companies don't think that cities should be providing 911 services to cellphone users for free.

I'm reminded of when voice over Internet protocol phone systems were introduced. Then people who went with VOIP found out the hard way they didn't have access to 911 services. I'm not suggesting that cellphone users will lose access to 911 if their 75 cents is not collected monthly, however if these miserly and irresponsible companies should win this case at once the taxes will be increased for all of us. Someone will have to collect that money and it will fall to local governments who cannot discriminate between who does and does not have a cellphone.

"It's impossible for us to collect the 75 cents because we don't know who all of our clients are who live in the region and we would have to create a unparalleled billing system just for Nanaimo." Please. Telus and the other companies are in the information research business and if it was going to serve their bottom line they would very quickly find a way to create a billing system for that monthly 75 cent fee.

The city is asking Telus

Hall goes on to say that the city is asking Telus and other companies to be tax collectors on their behalf. So? Like as not Hall has another good argument against the harmonized sales tax; businesses are not going to be tax collectors for the province.

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