Canada Banned Activation Fees. Here’s What Can Still Cost
Matthew Leo · Published August 12, 2026 · Canada Tech
Canadian telecom companies can no longer charge ordinary activation or plan-modification fees just because you start or change a cellphone or internet plan.
The CRTC’s prohibition took effect on June 12, 2026. It sounds simple, but the rule does not mean every one-time charge on a telecom bill is illegal.
The useful question is not what a fee is called. It is what the fee is actually for.
What Canada’s rule prohibits
The CRTC’s Telecom Regulatory Policy 2026-43 defines an activation or modification fee as a fee incurred because a customer activates a new retail telecommunications service plan or modifies an existing one.
The regulator amended the Wireless Code and Internet Code so those fees are prohibited.
The rule also targets other charges whose main purpose is to discourage customers from changing plans or cancelling a contract.
For wireless contracts without a subsidized device, the CRTC removed early cancellation fees as part of the same reform.
Physical installation can still cost money
The biggest explicit exception is reasonable physical installation at a customer’s premises.
If a technician genuinely has to visit your home, run a line, install equipment or perform work needed to connect the service, the CRTC allows reasonable installation charges.
That is different from charging someone $60 because an employee clicked “activate” on a wireless account.
The distinction is based on whether the provider is recovering a real installation cost rather than creating a financial barrier to switching.
Optional products and services can still have fees
The rules also allow charges for additional products or services that the customer explicitly chooses to buy.
The CRTC gives Wi-Fi configuration at a customer’s home as an example of an optional service. Extra equipment that is not required to deliver the telecommunications service can also fall outside the activation-fee prohibition.
This means a bill can still contain one-time charges after a new plan starts.
The provider should be able to explain what the optional product or service was, why it was not required to activate the plan and when the customer agreed to buy it.
Renaming a mandatory fee does not automatically make it legal
This is where the new rule becomes more interesting.
Before the prohibition took effect, the CRTC questioned Bell over a $40 “device handling charge.” Commission staff said a phone is required for the wireless service being purchased and warned that the charge could be considered a prohibited activation fee.
The regulator also questioned Telus over a $15 fee for physical SIM cards and eSIMs. CRTC staff noted that a SIM or eSIM is required to deliver wireless service and said the fee might fall within the activation-fee ban.
Rogers later received information requests from the CRTC regarding new fees after the prohibition took effect.
Those cases matter because they show how the regulator is looking at function, not branding.
A provider cannot necessarily take an activation fee, rename it “setup,” “handling,” “connection support” or “SIM preparation,” and assume the problem disappears.
A phone itself can still cost money
The activation-fee ban obviously does not make devices free.
If you buy or finance a new phone, you can still be charged for the device. The same applies to accessories, insurance and other genuinely optional products.
The harder question is when a provider adds a separate mandatory charge around that purchase.
If the fee exists because the customer is activating service and the product is necessary to make that service work, the CRTC may examine whether it is really an activation charge under another name.
What about SIM cards and eSIMs?
The Telus case gives consumers a useful signal.
CRTC staff explicitly said that a SIM card or eSIM is required for wireless service and may not fit the exemption for optional products.
That does not mean every dispute over a SIM-related amount has already been decided for every provider and every circumstance. It does mean Canadians should question a mandatory SIM or eSIM charge that appears when starting service.
Ask the provider to explain how the fee complies with the activation-fee prohibition.
Cancellation is more complicated when a device is financed
The new rules remove an important category of cancellation barrier, but they do not erase legitimate money still owed on a phone.
If a device was subsidized or financed, leaving the carrier can still trigger repayment of the remaining device amount according to the contract and Wireless Code rules.
That is not the same thing as a standalone penalty for leaving.
Before switching, check the remaining device balance separately from the service cancellation terms.
What to check on a new telecom bill
If you activate or modify a plan and see an unfamiliar one-time charge, look for these questions:
Was the fee triggered only because the plan was activated or changed?
Was a technician physically required at the premises?
Did you explicitly choose an optional product or service?
Was the item required for the service to function?
Did the provider explain the fee before you agreed?
If the charge appears mandatory and directly tied to starting or changing service, its label is not the end of the analysis.
Keep the offer you were shown
Save the order confirmation, contract summary, chat transcript or screenshot showing the price you agreed to.
This becomes useful if the first bill contains a fee that was not disclosed or if a sales representative described a mandatory charge as optional.
Start by asking the provider to remove or explain the charge. If the dispute is not resolved, the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services handles eligible consumer complaints involving telecom providers.
The ban is useful only if it survives creative fee names
The point of Canada’s activation-fee ban is to make it easier for customers to start, change and leave telecom plans without paying artificial tolls along the way.
Providers still deserve to charge for real products, genuine installation work and devices customers choose to buy.
What they should not be able to do is recreate a banned switching barrier one vocabulary change at a time.
The next few CRTC enforcement decisions will matter because they will show how aggressively the regulator intends to police that boundary.
For consumers, the rule of thumb is already clear: when a new fee appears, ask what you received for it. “That is just what we call the charge now” is not a very good answer.
Tags: Canada Tech, CRTC, Telecom, Explainer, consumer rights