A company can still offer three-year deals if it wants to, but they are no longer permitted to enforce those deals with cancellation fees. They would be three-year deals in name only, therefore no company offers them, and consumers have fewer options than they did before. One result of this regulatory change: higher up-front prices for your new phone.

The end of price-gouging, restrictive agreements, and disrespectful customer service will come only when all key decision makers -- not just the CRTC, but also Industry Canada, the Competition Bureau, and even MPs -- realize that Big Telecom's control over Canada's digital future has gone too far.