Bell not giving in on $5 community calling fees, despite customer complaints

Bell Canada customers in Newfoundland and Labrador who pay into plans that allow for unlimited long distance calling to a neighbouring community are not about to get any relief.

And that's not going over well with customers like Arthur Williams of North West River.

"I call St. John's. I called Rigolet for nothing. But I still pay $5 to call Happy Valley-Goose Bay," said Williams, who says Bell should reimburse him and many others for what he believes are years of unnecessary charges.

The telecommunications company says the plans are "permanent" and in full compliance with the CRTC, the organization that regulates broadcasting and telecommunications in Canada.

"This process was identified as a permanent change to our network and to local calling service in these communities," Bell wrote in a statement to CBC News.

Bell customers with landline telephone service in some 40 communities — from Ramea on the south coast to St. Lunaire-Griquet on the tip of the Northern Peninsula, and Red Bay, St. Lewis and North West River in Labrador — pay a $5 monthly fee for what's called a community calling plan, avoiding long distance charges on calls to a larger, neighbouring community.

Businesses pay slightly more.

That's despite the fact phone companies like Bell now offer a variety of packages, allowing unlimited long distance calling throughout Newfoundland and Labrador, and sometimes across Canada.

While Bell would not do an interview, it defended the community calling plans, saying they were initiated at the request of local governments.

"It is itemized on customers' bills so they know exactly what their local service includes. Without community calling, all customers would be required to pay long distance charges for what were previously local calls."

Bell said the fee is part of the local service charge for customers and "not part of a long distance plan."

Adds up to a lot of money

Arthur Williams said people in North West River have been paying the fee since the 1980s, after residents started complaining about long distance charges for calls to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, which is roughly 35 kilometres away and is a regional hub for central Labrador.

The phone company implemented the fee following a majority vote by customers in the community, and according to Bell, the same was done in more than three-dozen other communities.

"It was wonderful in its day," said Williams. "It was $5 a month and we could call unlimited to Happy Valley-Goose Bay."

But things have changed.

Williams has a plan that allows him to call anywhere in Canada for a monthly flat fee. And he recently purchased a cellphone plan that allows him unlimited long distance calling in the evenings and on weekends for $25 per month.

Yet he still pays $5 every month for a calling plan to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, and he's not happy about it.

"We live in a very expensive community. Five dollars don't sound like much, but you add it up. Five dollars a month since in the '80s. That's a lot of money," he said.

"I could take the $5 and give it to my granddaughter. She would appreciate it more than this big company."

'Double-dipping,' says Campbellton council

Williams' frustration is not new.

Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador passed a resolution more than seven years ago, calling on Bell to initiate a vote in all communities to determine whether customers still want the community calling plans.

"With the many options for long distance calling plans available to residents, our members feel it is time to readdress this issue," the organization wrote in a Dec. 13, 2010, letter to Bell.

And in 2016, the Town of Campbellton in central Newfoundland called on Bell to remove the plan, calling it "double-dipping" because most customers were availing of flat-fee, long distance calling plans.

Bell rejected the lobby, saying if the plans were removed residents and businesses that do not have long distance calling plans "would incur more costs than the current monthly fee they are charged to be included in the calling area."

'Agree to disagree'

A spokesperson for Municipalities NL said the group and Bell are no longer debating the issue.

"None of the answers we've received address the fact that most people get cheap or free long distance in their packages anyway, so it doesn't matter if they are in the same local calling area or on opposite ends of the country," CEO Craig Pollett wrote in an email.

"Back in 2010 we dealt with it to the point that we simply had an agree-to- disagree position with Bell and as it isn't a direct municipal responsibility, we're limited in how much time we can spend on it."

Bell declined to provide the overall number of customers paying the fee, and a spokesperson said she's not aware of these plans being charged in any other province.

"This was done at the request of communities in NL specifically," Bell explained.