Can a Carrier Charge You for an eSIM? Canada's Regulator Says Maybe Not
News brief — June 12, 2026 — By eSIM Observer Staff
One of the quiet promises of eSIM is that switching carriers should cost nothing: there is no plastic card to manufacture, ship, or hand over a counter. This week in Canada, that promise collided with a carrier’s pricing strategy — and the regulator stepped in.
On June 9, Telus announced a mandatory $15 CAD SIM charge on all new activations, applying equally to physical SIM cards and eSIMs, replacing its previous $80 connection fee. The timing was pointed: the fee took effect June 11, one day before new rules from the CRTC, Canada’s telecom regulator, banned activation, connection, and cancellation fees that create barriers to switching providers.
The CRTC’s response came fast. In a June 10 letter to Telus, first reported by MobileSyrup, Scott Hutton, the commission’s vice-president of consumer, analytics and strategy, wrote: “A SIM card or eSIM is required for the delivery of the wireless service customers are purchasing. It would not appear that the SIM purchase fee falls under the exemption considered by the Commission for optional services and products.”
Telus’s defense is that a SIM — digital or physical — is a product, not an administrative fee: “The sale of a SIM product is not new,” the company said in a statement. Bell received a similar CRTC warning over a $40 “device handling fee” introduced as its own connection-fee replacement.
Why it matters: an eSIM is a software profile delivered over the air at near-zero marginal cost. If carriers can rebrand activation fees as “eSIM product” charges, the friction eSIM was designed to eliminate comes back as a line item on your first bill — and other markets’ carriers will be watching how Canada’s regulator rules. For travelers and plan-switchers, the outcome will help define whether eSIM keeps its core advantage: making carriers compete for you at zero switching cost.
We will follow up when the CRTC decides whether the fee stands.
Sources: CRTC letter as reported by MobileSyrup, June 10, 2026; MobileSyrup, June 9, 2026; The Canadian Press.