System access fee

This article is about Canadian telephone charges. For UK charges for special-rate services, see Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom § Access charge and service charge.

The system access fee is a non-governmental surcharge imposed by most Canadian telephone companies on their customers' monthly bills.[1] Although it is normally charged for wireless services, Rogers Communications and the now-defunct Sprint Canada also charged its home phone customers a system access fee.

Price for the system access fee varies by carrier and date it was applied with Bell charging between Can$8.95 and $6.95. Rogers normally amounts to $6.95/month (the System Access Fee on Rogers Home Phone Services was $5.95/month,[2] but has since been merged to the base price). For example, if a wireless plan has been advertised at $20/month, the customer subscribing to it would actually be paying an unadvertised rate of at least $26.95/month, excluding other fees and government taxes.

  1. ^ "CBC Marketplace: Cellphone Secrets". Archived from the original on March 23, 2010.
  2. ^ "TheStar.com – Business – Rogers bumps up phone fees". The Star. Toronto.