The reason why the iphone 4 is not launching in Canada on June 24th is due to Quebec Bill 60 that becomes law on June 30th. Because of Bill 60, every carrier operating in Quebec will have to create new Terms and Conditions for their Quebec subscribers. This Bill will set rules on how carriers must deal with their Quebec customers.
Some of the new rules that Quebec customers will see
1)Starting June 30th, In a Quebec advertisement, carriers must display the full cost of the plan including SAF/911.GRRF fees in the price of their advertisement. Example $40 cityfido plan will be displayed as $40.40 plan.
2)Starting June 30th, Any Quebec customer who activates service with agreement or renewals their agreement must be provided a written copy that contains the cost for every service a carrier can charge this customer. The cost of these services can’t change for the duration of the contract.
3)Starting June 30th, no more 30 days notice. Quebec customers who wants to cancel their service will have their service cancelled immediately once the call ends with the CSR or if the customer ports out.
4)Starting June 30th, Quebec customers will not pay any administrative fees for non payment or rejected payment.
5)Starting June 30th, Quebec customers who want to cancel their service before the end of the term will be charged…. the hardware subsidy received x the number of month remaining divided by how many month is the agreement length. Example: say a Quebec customer got 16GB iphone 3GS for $199 on 3Y term on June 19, 2009. The retail price of 16GB iphone 3GS is $699. So this customer received $500 hardware subsidy from their carrier. Now this customer wants to cancel their line. This customer has 24 month remaining on their contract. (500 x 24 month) divided by 36 month = The ECF in this example will be $336.67 +tax.
These 5 rules are some of the new rules that will come into play on June 30th for Quebec customers.
To have a smooth Canadian iphone 4 launch, Apple and Rogers/Telus/Bell agreed to delay the the launch of the new iphone 4 because they didn’t want to create rules for 6 days that they would have to change on June 30th. So all parties agreed that it was in their best interest for all carriers to be ready for the new Quebec law without having a major iphone launch to deal with. Every CSR who handles Quebec customers, Store Rep in Quebec must be retrained on the new rules. I don’t think any carrier wants a CSR in a training class when thousand of customers are on hold waiting to speak with a CSR to see if they can qualify to get iphone 4.
If it wasn’t for this new Quebec Law, the Canadian iphone 4 launch would have been on June 24 like the Americans.
