This is difficult to believe but the CRTC - Canada's telecom regulator - has unveiled a new regime that will give consumers credits on their bills if their telephone carrier provides sub-standard service. The QoS system, which will be retro-active to 2002, is based on 13 criteria, including whether repair appointments were met and whether out-of-service trouble reports were cleared within 24 hours. The CRTC said from 1998 to 200, ILECs provided sub-standard service, and it is not "convinced pressure was sufficient to ensure telephone companies would meet the approved Q of S standards."
You can bet Bell, Telus, Aliant, etc. are going to be royally pissed. It's hard enough being an ILEC these days - what with the emergence of VOIP and competitors piggybacking on high-speed networks - without having to worry about regulators dinging yor for late repairmen, business offices that close five minutes early and complaints that take longer than a day to address. This is just another example of the CRTC taking too much of a hands-on approach to cater to the whims of consumers. Without a doubt, it's an anti-carrier, anti-business decision that makes you question the regulator's role/relevance in a fast-changing industry.