This week the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development confirmed what Canadians have been saying for years: that we pay some of the highest prices for some of the worst cell phone service in the industrialized world. The new data was released on Monday and supports many of the findings from OpenMedia.ca’s community-driven report, Time for an Upgrade.

The U.S. National Security Agency has been in hot water for the last few weeks, as whistleblower Edward Snowden exposed a massive online spying system that has been vacuuming up huge amounts of communications data from U.S. and foreign citizens. Over half-a-million people have rallied against the warrantless spying, and demonstrations are taking place on the ground today.

This is exactly what we at OpenMedia.ca were afraid would happen. It looks like we’re about to see new texting charges imposed on our telecom bills for no reason. Telus has already sent a message to customers announcing an arbitrary new fee on text messages that cross the Canada-U.S. border. It’s a cash grab and everyone knows it, but we can stop Big Telecom’s new fees if you raise your voice now.

Last year telecom giant Bell unleashed a new $3.4B plan to take control of Astral Media, one of Canada’s largest media companies. Canada has one of the most highly concentrated media systems in the industrialized world, and this deal would only make this situation worse by giving Bell a monopolistic share of the media market.