Bell Rolling out Network Charge to More Customers

To understand this, we need to have an educational talk about the two kinds of Bell phone service. There are two types of "local phone" service in Bell territories:

Bell "Home Phone" and Bell "Residential Line". They're essentially the same service, running over the same equipment and equally reliable, but it's how they're billed and regulated that varies greatly. (Summary: Bell Residential Line = okay, Bell Home Phone = bad).

(Actually there are three, there's also Bell Digital Voice).

Bell Residential Line

This is the service where the pricing is actually regulated by the CRTC, ie: the government. If Bell wants to raise the service cost, they have to make an application with the government, and provide reasoning. I'm pretty sure it's a rubber stamp, but it seems to actually keep rates relatively low, maybe Bell is more reasonable when dealing with their regulator.

You'll have trouble finding proof that this service even still exists on Bell's website, even though 90% of the country is still on it.

In other words, this is grandma's telephone service. 10 years ago, it was the only service available, so you may still be on it too. Chances are, if you're paying around $21.48 for basic phone service with touch-tone, you're on this plan.

But Bell complained to the government and said that because of all of the competition from the cable companies, they shouldn't have to sell you Residential Lines at such a low price. So the government said, okay, you don't have to sell this government regulated service for new customers in areas with enough competition, and Bell Home Phone was born.

I should be clear here, that if you have a Residential Line, you can continue on it, so it's only unavailable to NEW customers* in most areas. Your entire block could have "Residential Lines", but if you moved in a year ago, a Home Phone may have been your only Bell option*.

Bell Home Phone

Bell Home Phone is an "unregulated" service. Essentially, Bell can sell you whatever they want, at whatever price. They can give you a good rate if you bundle, and a terrible one if you don't, if they want to. They can change the price whenever they feel like it, without having to make an application to the government. They can give you a free trial of a service and hope you forget to remove it. They can charge near criminal interest rates if they want. They can lock you into a 17 year contract. You lose valuable consumer protection from the government. So, you can see why this sucks, because Bell has you by the Bells ;)

The Bell Network Charge: Residential Service

If you were on Bell's Residential Line Service, the network charge was essentially as I wrote in this article: If you had a long distance plan through Bell (which was a bad enough idea itself), you also paid a "Network Charge" of $7ish/month. If you switched to Yak or some other reasonably priced competitor, you paid no such charge, because Bell couldn't force it upon you, since their prices were regulated by the government. They mind as well have named it "Bell Long Distance Plan: Charge #2: $7ish / month". They can do this because the long distance charges are unregulated, they can charge whatever monthly fees they want, and name them whatever they want.
Conclusion: Bell doesn't have you by the Bells when you deal with someone else for Long Distance. So go with someone else!

The Bell Network Charge: Bell Home Phone

With Bell Home Phone, Bell can charge you whatever they want for whatever they want. They could limit you to 1 hour of calls between 4:30PM and 2:30AM because that's when people actually use their phone if they wanted to (they kinda did that for internet access).
So, now that they realized that everyone left Bell for Yak or others for Long Distance, they decided, "Hey, why not charge people for having long distance from someone else"? And the network charge's reach was extended.
Now they want to charge a Network Charge for having a long distance plan other than their own, negating the savings from Yak or other competitors.

It's also confusing, because with old-fashioned Bell service, you pay a network charge for having a Bell Long Distance plan, with Bell Home Phone, you DON'T pay (or do you?) a network charge for having a Bell Long Distance plan.
[The wording on this Bell.ca page has changed from when this article was first written. It's unclear to this site if you can avoid the charge by moving to Yak or other Long Distance providers]

The workaround for Bell Home Phone

If you ask Bell, they'll give you the solution of changing your Long Distance to Bell. Don't do this.
Remember how I said that Bell didn't have to sell you the old-fashioned phone service in most areas? Well, they still have to sell this "wholesale" service to other providers that compete with Bell. So, instead of dealing with Bell Home Phone, go with a company like Teksavvy that will sell you the old-fashioned Bell service, with decent long distance pricing too. Teksavvy's internet service is impressive too (I use it). It's not digital phone service and it's not internet phone service, it's actually the same reliable service that you'd have from the old-fashioned Bell Service, only cheaper, and with better customer service.

If you're switching from Bell Home Phone, watch out for deactivation charges, as Bell wants you to stay with them for another 30 days (or more!) after you've figured out they suck. What did I say about Bell Home Phone having you by the Bells?

VoIP (ie: internet phone) phone service is also an option, but I personally feel it's not quite there yet for the average person.