Why Did Bell Double The Modem Lease On Their High Speed Service?

My monthly bills from Bell Canada have been increasing steadily yet I haven’t added any new services. The biggest change was with my Internet services. Back in March I was paying $45.95/month for unlimited DSL service and $2.00/month for a modem lease.

This month my modem lease has almost doubled to $3.95/month. I still have the same modem. The speed of my service hasn’t increased. So how does Bell get away with doubling the rental of a modem?

I called Bell and they gave me a lame explanation about upgrades to infrastructure to maintain the same quality of service and yadda, yadda, yadda. That has nothing to do with rental of a cheap little modem so I asked the customer care specialist why the Bell High Speed service part of my bill didn’t increase instead. How can I be charged more for a modem that has sat in my house for two years and not been replaced?

No answer.

I told the customer care specialist that I was going to buy a modem and return the one I was leasing. Why would I want go from paying $24/year to $47.40/year for a modem lease? I’m sure I can find a modem at Tiger Direct or a computer store on College Street for less than $50.

To my surprise, the customer could care less specialist said that Bell would still have to charge me $3.95/month for a modem lease with my Internet service! If Bell had buried this service increase in the Bell High Speed portion of my bill I would probably let it go.

I’m going to file a complaint with the CRTC and find out if anyone else has dumped their modem lease successfully.

Posted in Technology at 9:42 AM