Canadian Telecom Complaints Jumped 79%. Keep Better Records
Matthew Leo · Published October 23, 2026 · Canada Tech
Canada’s telecom and television complaints body received 53,195 complaints in 2025–26, a 79% increase from the previous year. It accepted 41,235 complaints, up 74%, and reported an overall resolution rate of 87.2% for concluded cases.
Those early figures came from the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services on October 15. The full annual report, including provider breakdowns and the issues consumers raised, is scheduled for January 13, 2027.
The available counts mean accepted complaints were roughly 77.5% of complaints received during the reporting year. That calculation does not show why the remaining complaints were not accepted, and it should not be used to rank providers. It does show why consumers should prepare their files before escalating.
Start with the provider
The CCTS requires consumers to give their service provider a reasonable opportunity to fix the problem first. Contact the provider, describe the issue plainly and state the outcome you want.
For example, “My September bill includes a $60 charge that does not appear in my agreement. I want the charge reversed and written confirmation that it will not recur” is easier to assess than “my bill is wrong.”
Ask for a reference number. If the conversation happens by phone, write down the date, approximate time and the representative’s name or employee number. If it happens by chat, save the complete transcript before closing the window.
Build a small evidence file
- Agreement: Keep the service agreement, critical information summary, promotion and any renewal notice.
- Bills: Save the bill before the dispute, the first incorrect bill and every later bill showing whether the problem continued.
- Provider contacts: Retain emails, chat transcripts, reference numbers and call notes in date order.
- Service evidence: For an outage or performance problem, record dates, durations, troubleshooting steps and appointment results.
- Promised remedy: Write down the exact credit, cancellation, repair or plan change offered and when it was supposed to appear.
- Your requested outcome: State the remaining remedy in one or two sentences.
Store copies somewhere other than the provider’s customer portal. Access can disappear after a cancellation or account dispute.
Check the next bill before closing the file
A verbal promise is not the same as a completed adjustment. When a provider offers a credit or plan correction, note the expected bill date and verify the amount when that bill arrives.
If the provider says a credit will take one or two billing cycles, preserve that commitment. The timeline helps explain why you waited before escalating and whether the promised resolution was completed.
When the CCTS can help
The CCTS is an independent, free complaint-resolution service for customers of participating phone, internet and television providers. The CRTC describes providers as being required to participate and fund the service.
A complaint may be appropriate after the provider has had a reasonable chance to respond and the issue remains unresolved within the CCTS mandate. Submit the smallest set of documents that clearly proves the agreement, disputed event, provider response and remedy still needed. A chronological one-page summary can make a large file easier to understand.
The CCTS warns that complaints requiring conciliation or investigation are taking longer than usual because of the volume increase. That makes a clear initial submission more useful, although it cannot guarantee a faster result.
For disputes involving new activation, plan-change or cancellation charges, Mapletechie’s guide to cellphone and internet fees banned in Canada explains which fees were removed and which charges may still appear.
What the 79% increase does not prove
The preliminary update does not identify the providers receiving the most complaints, the issues driving the increase or whether complaint rates rose after adjusting for customer counts. Those questions should wait for the January report.
What consumers can act on now is less dramatic: keep the contract, save the bills, document every conversation and verify every promised correction. When a dispute cannot be resolved directly, that record gives the provider and the CCTS something concrete to assess.
Tags: CCTS, Canadian telecom, consumer rights, billing disputes, internet service