Re: Impact will be on expensive phones
You can currently bring any unlocked phone to any provider, that won't change and they won't be allowed to refuse your hardware. Our corporate carrier contracts signed within the last two years had this new "hardware balance" fee which is slowly eroded each month (equalised over the term of the contract). If I cancel the line then I pay back the hardware balance for the discounted I received up front.
So obviously the Telco's knew this change was coming for some time now and are prepared for it.
It is about time this went into effect, I (for once) can praise the CRTC. Most people took a perfectly good phone locked to a carrier and stuck it in a drawer when they switched because they didn't know any better. Such a waste. Soon to be no longer a problem.