The big telcos’ various fees for services like “device handling,” “device setup,” shipping and SIM cards are legitimate customer charges, they argued in separate letters to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The regulator had asked the companies to explain the fees, suggesting they violate a recent policy against spurious fees that make it more difficult to change cellphone plans or providers. (The Logic)

Talking point: Telecom providers are allowed to charge customers for optional services when there’s a direct cost to provide them, such as configuring a Wi-Fi network at a new user’s home. All these qualify, the telcos’ letters say—Bell’s device-handling fee when a new customer buys a cellphone, for instance, is “incurred as a result of purchasing a physical product, which is a separate commercial transaction from the activation of a wireless service plan,” Bell argued, and will keep billing customers for it. The CRTC has threatened formal regulatory action to enforce its policy.