The Toronto Star reports that Bell has written to Industry Canada asking for a "spectrum fee holiday" that would suspend the millions of dollars the company pays in licensing fees for wireless spectrum. Bell said it was "too early to say what impact a change in government policy would have on Bell's customers but noted there hasn't been a direct link between the company's $8.95 wireless system access fee and federal spectrum licensing fees for years."
Bell Calls for “Spectrum Fee Holiday”
June 12, 2009
Share this post
4 Comments

Law Bytes
Episode 277: Kate Robertson on the Risks That Lie Behind Canada's Unexpected Signing of the UN Cybercrime Convention
byMichael Geist

June 22, 2026
Michael Geist
Search Results placeholder
Michael Geist on Substack
Recent Posts
From CCH to ChatGPT: How Canadian Copyright Law Played the Key Role in Deciding a Leading AI Training Data Case in India
Starting Over: Court Filing Confirms the CRTC’s Streamer Contribution Decisions Are Dead With a Full Online Streaming Act Reset to Come
The Name on the Window Was Enough: The Attacks on Kiva’s and the Normalization of Antisemitic Violence in Canada
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 277: Kate Robertson on the Risks That Lie Behind Canada’s Unexpected Signing of the UN Cybercrime Convention
A Surveillance Treaty in Disguise: The Trouble With Canada’s Quiet Decision to Sign the UN Cybercrime Convention

An interesting point
in the article is that what the wireless industry apparently collects from the SAF is 10 to 12 times what is paid to the government in spectrum fees. So, assuming that they passed on the savings, expect the SAF to go down to about $7.95.
When do consumers get a “nickel and dime fee” holiday from Bell, Telus and Rogers?
and were still traffic shaped why then
where is the so called investment at the back end to give canadians more bandwidth?
giving shareholders more cash wont solve issues and in time people will just say WHAT i can only download one movie? legal or otherwise wont do it and there goes 300-500 mill a month to bell.
note the size of a HD film is 30-40GB 50-75% of one month with bell canada…ALL for the amazing low price of 55-75$ and then you pay for the movie.
Technology making it cheaper and fattening bells pockets