Rogers Eliminating System Access Fee, Replacing with Government Regulatory Recovery Fee

Starting October 5, Rogers (NYSE: RCI) will be eliminating the long-hated “System Access Fee” for new subscribers, which totals around $6.95 every month. The SAF will be replaced with what they’re calling the “Government Regulatory Recovery Fee”, which will range between $2.52 and $3.49 per line per mont, depending on provincial 911 fees. If that wasn’t good enough, existing customers can opt-in for the new recovery fee and be rewarded with free Call Forwarding, Call Manager and WhoCalled services (worth $11 monthly total). Now, why would Rogers do all of this? Maybe in the name of transparency, as some legislators are putting pressure on carriers to be more straightforward with Canadian consumers, and, in short, stop boning us with bogus fees. Although the variability of the fees does complicate things a little bit, it looks like in the end it will benefit subscribers, raise our low wireless penetration, and likely pressure Bell and Telus (NYSE: TU) to take similar steps.

UPDATE: So, this whole change isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It turns out that they’ll be jacking the price on all of their plans by $5 as well. For those with an existing plan, you’d basically be getting $11/month worth of services for about $1.50. Stick with the system access fee. For more information, hit up Rogers’ site.