Just like telcos in the States, Canadian incumbents charge a universe of bogus fees that simply act to jack up the advertised price post sale. It technically should be a considered false advertising and a crime, but it's something regulators generally couldn't care less about. In Canada, one such fee has been the "system access fee," a fee of up to $9 a month -- charged for absolutely no valid reason. After criticism and lawsuits, some carriers phased out the fee -- only to replace it (like Rogers) with equally bogus "government regulatory recovery fee."

Now it appears that the fee has returned to bite Rogers, Telus and Bell on the digital posterior. Canada's Supreme Court this week refused an appeal by Rogers to have a lawsuit over such fees scrapped, meaning a class action lawsuit over the fees begun in 2004 can finally proceed:The fact it has taken eight years for anyone to do anything about these fees tells you plenty about just how serious government is about consumers getting ripped off by such junk fees. ISPs have simply changed the name of the junk fee to "regulatory recovery," claiming it directly offsets the nebulous costs inferred by regulation (ignoring the sweeping trend of deregulation). The case lawyers point out such garbage fees are quite profitable: in 2004 alone Canadian incumbent ISPs collected $863-million in system access fees, compared with the $126-million estimated to have actually been paid to governments.

The problem of course that aside from buying a few lawyers a new boat, nothing will really change here and companies will continue to charge bogus below-the-line fees. This is really something any regulator worth its salt would address as false advertising, and bogus fees are a prime example of how many regulators are asleep at the telecommunications wheel.