Unfair not waiving wireless data overages at this quarantined time

[Keeve]

Really dunno why   Fido  has  Synthetically and Sympathetically   waived many other fees  such as  long-distance  charges and local charges，long distance charges for wireless and wireless home phone customers for calls to anywhere in Canada between March 16th and June 30th, 2020，additional charge for data roaming or to call the phone number in the text message for postpaid customers until April 30th, 2020 etc.  I was  stuck at home where the WIFI was cut off and thus I was charged $95 for only  1.79GB not to mention I should have a 5 hour extra data usage and have been with FiDO since 2007. I believe people who are quarantined at home could have used more data and the carrier of Internet for FiDO should also given FiDO discounts. What FiDO could have controlled is only airtime?

[Cawtau]

Hello Keeve,

  Welcome to the community!

  Firstly, to clarify:

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@Keeve wrote:...additional charge for data roaming or to call the phone number in the text message for postpaid customers until April 30th, 2020 etc....

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  I don't think Fido waived additional charge for data roaming. They waived roaming fees for postpaid customers. Any additional data usage in excess of the customers' usual plan allotments would still be considered data overage. You can view what Fido has done to help keep people connected here.

  I understand some people might have reduced access to Wifi. However, I'm not sure how feasible removing cellular data limits would be. Current cellular bandwidth is vastly more limited than broadband bandwidth. The amount of information which can be transmitted via the airwaves without degradation is miniscule versus a fixed-line option. It's physics -- Shannon's Law (see here).

  Yes, the introduction of 5G is supposed to increase cellular bandwidth. However, the majority of people do not have access to that network. In addition, Fido does not intend on offering 5G for their customers.

  Already, there are people who have complained that their broadband internet speeds have slowed since the removal of data caps. A surge in cellular data usage could cripple the networks.

  I understand SaskTel might have removed data caps for their customers. However, SaskTel has one tenth the customer base of the other Big Three providers. Furthermore, they need to consider the additional customer usage from all of the flanker brands as well since they use their same respective networks. That's a lot more people sharing that limited bandwidth.

Hope this helps 😀

Cheers