Telus proposes changes for home phone customers in Quebec

Telus wants to end its Pay-Per-Use (PPU) billing option for ‘three-way calls’ and ‘call-back’ for residential customers in Quebec.

In a filing with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the telco says the billing option will only apply to phone services delivered over copper facilities. At fiber locations, the features will be available through a residential bundle.

Telus says it plans to introduce a new platform for home phone services over fiber facilities in the province. It will add new residential customers to this platform in November and migrate existing customers next year.

“Due to the limitations of the new platform, it will not have the ability to apply PPU consumption charges,” the applications state.

Telus says that demand for PPU has fallen by 26 percent between 2019 and 2021. The number is likely to continue to fall, given the use of housing packages.

The changes will not affect customers using bundles or enterprise customers. Existing customers can continue to use the PPU option until their service is migrated to the new platform.

The same new system will also result in Telus moving away from the ‘call screen’. The service, which allowed customers to divert 12 phone numbers to a standard recorded message, will be replaced by ‘call control’.

Telus says call control is “more economical” and is free for all customers, while Telus charged non-bundled customers for its call screen feature. Customers will be able to block 25 calls under Call Control.

The two service changes will take effect on November 7, pending approval by the authorities.

Customers can provide comments on the CRTC’s website until October 24.

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Source: CRTC