During 2024 I was finally 'triggered' to complain to the CRTC regarding the performance of my rural Internet (the LTE service and 5G Internet). The CCTS handle these complaints and the communication between CCTS and myself was good, once the appointment of the Complaint Resolution Officer (CRO) actually occurred. My complaint was recorded as submitted on 29 June and the CRO came on stream 5 November. January 31 2025 saw the issue of the investigation findings report, which essentially concludes the CCTS process. My options are to accept, reject of appeal the report.
The CCTS determined that Rogers "fulfilled its obligations in its handling of the customer complaint" and that the customer is "free to explore their options with any other service provider due to the services not meeting their needs".
The above my be true but doesn't relate to the plight of many rural Canadians challenged by inadequate rural Internet service where 'choice' of provider isn't a reality.
It was stated in the report that download speeds ranging from 20Mbps (for my two services) and up is considered within standards. It further states that there are no guarantees of speed or service availability.
My own understanding of the ISP standard of operation is to maintain upto 80% of the quoted theoretical download speed. LTE is 25 Mbps while 5G is 100Mbps (based on my area of service). So I reject that statement from the CCTS.
The nuances here are many as I complained that the performance of Internet streaming of video rendered the content unusable due to buffering. This was not addressed in the report because I linked it to "inadequate bandwidth on the Rogers infrastructure". It means things work OK when the connection base is low but fails when the higher volumes occur. It's inadequate provision of network service which the CCTS claim is beyond their remit.
When it come to advertising, we all remember the rural fishing scene and the slogan - "We do our thing so you can do yours". If only Rogers would deliver on their promise with that! Again the CCTS claim false advertising is beyond their remit.
So there it is, the process has been followed and the outcome is unchanged for the consumer.
Regulation of the industry is a myth folks - I don't believe that Rogers (or the Telcos in general) have anything to fear.
