Bell Canada
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Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell
Its subsidiary
Bell Canada's principal competitors are
]Bell Canada is one of the main assets of the holding company BCE Inc., an abbreviation of its full name, Bell Canada Enterprises. In addition to the Bell Canada telecommunications properties, BCE also owns Bell Media (which operates mass media properties including the national CTV Television Network) and holds significant interests in the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey club and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, owner of several Toronto professional sports franchises.[8][9] BCE ranked number 301 on the 2021 edition of the Forbes Global 2000 list.[10]
History
Historically, Bell Canada has been one of Canada's most important and most powerful companies and, in 1975, was listed as the fifth largest in the country. The company is named after the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, who also co-founded Bell Telephone Company in Boston, Massachusetts. Bell Canada operated as the Canadian subsidiary of the Bell System from 1880 to 1975. However, unlike the other regional Bell operating companies, Bell Canada had its own research and development labs.
Inception
In the mid-1870s
For a few years, the senior Bell and his friend and business associate Reverend
In 1879 Bell's father sold his Canadian rights to the
The first supplier of telephones to Bell was a company established by
Since its early years The Bell Telephone Company of Canada, Ltd. had been known colloquially as "The Bell" or "Bell Telephone". On March 7, 1968, Canadian federal legislation renamed The Bell Telephone Company of Canada, Ltd. to Bell Canada.
Competition and territory reduction
Bell Canada extended lines from Nova Scotia to the foot of the
Atlantic Canada
During the late 19th century, Bell sold its Atlantic operations in the three Maritime provinces, where many small independent companies also operated and eventually came under the ownership of three provincial companies. Newfoundland and Labrador joined Canada with several private companies, and a government operation that was transferred to the control of Canadian National Railways.
Bell acquired interests in all Atlantic companies during the early 1960s, starting with Newfoundland Telephone (which later was organized as
In the late 1990s, Newtel, Bruncorp, MT&T and Island Tel merged into Aliant, now Bell Aliant which owns many services in rural areas of Ontario and Quebec formerly owned by Bell Canada.
On January 1, 2011, Bell acquired xwave from Bell Aliant for $40 million, an information technology company offering sales and services in Atlantic Canada.[21]
Quebec and Ontario
Independent companies appeared in many areas of Ontario, Quebec and Maritime provinces without adequate Bell Canada service. During the 20th century Bell acquired most of the independent companies in Ontario and Quebec, most notably the purchase of Nexxlink Technologies, a Montreal-based integrated IT solutions and telecommunications provider founded by Karol Brassard.[22] Alongside the acquisition of Charon Systems, Nexxlink now operates today as Bell Business Solutions—a division of Bell Canada.[23] Quebec, however, still has large swaths of relatively rural areas served by Telus Québec (formerly Québec Telephone, later acquired by Telus) and Télébec (now owned by Bell Canada via Bell Aliant) and by some 20 small independent companies. As of 1980, Ontario still had some 30 independent companies, and Bell has not acquired any; the smaller ones were sold to larger independents with larger capital resources. Cellcom Communications is the largest franchisee of Bell Canada, currently operating 25 Bell stores in both Québec and Ontario regions.[24]
Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan
At separate times, the three Prairie provinces acquired Bell Canada operations and formed provincial utility services, investing to develop proper telephone services throughout those provinces; Bell Canada's investment in the prairies had been scant or insufficient relative to growth, and all three had various local telephone companies. The Alberta government's Alberta Government Telephones Commission and Manitoba Government Telephones purchased the Bell operations of their provinces in 1908. Saskatchewan's Department of Railways, Telegraphs and Telephones, established in June 1908, purchased the Bell operations on October 1, 1909; all three provinces' government operations eventually acquired the independent companies.
Having achieved a high level of development, Manitoba moved to privatize its telephone utility and Alberta privatized
British Columbia
British Columbia, served today by Telus, was served by numerous small companies that mostly amalgamated to form British Columbia Telephone, later known as BC Tel (the last known acquisition was the Okanagan Telephone Company in the late 1970s), which served the province from the 1960s until its merger with Telus. (The amalgamations produced one anomaly: Atlin is surrounded by the territory of Northwestel, implying that the company that established service there was acquired by a company serving territories further south.)
Northern Canada
Although Bell Canada entered the Northwest Territories (NWT) with an exchange at
Northern British Columbia, northeastern Ontario and the James Bay region of northern Quebec were served by independent companies, though Bell Canada eventually provided service in more far-flung reaches of Ontario and Quebec, acquired ownership interests in companies serving large swaths of northwestern Quebec and northeastern Ontario, and in Northwestel.
Divestiture and deregulation
The Bell System had two main companies in the telephone industry in Canada: Bell Canada as a regional operating company (affiliated with
As part of the consent decree signed in 1956 to resolve the antitrust lawsuit filed in 1949 by the United States Department of Justice, AT&T and the Bell System proper divested itself of Northern Electric in 1956.
In October 1973, AT&T and Bell Canada signed an agreement stating that AT&T would no longer furnish Bell System communications and research to Bell Canada. AT&T's at-the-time chairman John DeButts explained that the main reason for this was because Bell Canada had developed its own research and development lab (Bell-Northern Research), making Bell Canada ready to serve its Canadian landline customers on its own. As a result, AT&T divested Bell Canada on June 30, 1975.
Even though Bell Canada had been divested, it was allowed to participate in Bell System projects which could be completed shortly after its divestiture date.[5][27][28][29]
Northern Electric renamed itself Northern Telecom in 1976, which in turn became
Bell Canada acquired 100 percent of Northern Electric in 1964; starting in 1973, Bell's ownership stake in Northern Electric was diminished through public stock offerings, though it retained majority control. In 1983, as a result of deregulation, Bell Canada Enterprises (later shortened to BCE) was formed as the parent company to Bell Canada and Northern Telecom. As a result of the stock transaction used by Northern Telecom to purchase Bay Networks, BCE ceased to be the majority owner of Nortel, and in 2000, BCE spun out its share of Nortel, distributing its holdings to its shareholders.
Between 1980 and 1997, the federal government fully deregulated the telecommunications industry and Bell Canada's monopoly largely ended. Bell Canada currently provides local phone service only in major city centres in Ontario and Quebec.
In July 2006, Bell and former subsidiary Aliant completed a restructuring whereby Aliant, renamed
On April 30, 2007, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced its decision to allow pay phone rates for Bell Canada, Telus, Bell Aliant, SaskTel, and MTS Allstream to increase from 25 cents to 50 cents, starting as early as June 1. The CRTC also permitted local rural rates to increase by the lesser of the annual rate of inflation or five percent, and removed price caps on optional rural services, such as call display and voicemail.[31] On June 2, 2007, Bell Canada increased the cost of a local pay phone call to 50 cents when paid in cash and one dollar when paid by calling card or credit card,[32] Bell's first increase in pay phone rates since 1981.[31]
In 2009, Bell Canada purchased electronics retailer
Bell has deployed
On March 17, 2017, BCE Inc. completed its acquisition of
Criticism
Bell Canada has faced controversy and scandal. In late 2011, Bell Canada admitted to a policy of
In May 2017, the email addresses of 1.9 million Bell customers were stolen, along with the name and phone numbers of 1.7 million customers.[35] Then in January 2018, there was another data breach affecting about 100 thousand Bell customers.[36]
Bell Canada's mobile phone services has been criticized for monopolistic practices, including during its acquisition of MTS.[37]
Services
Bell Canada provides many different types of telecommunications services.
Voice
Bell Canada provides standard
Voicemail
Bell Home Phone and Bell Mobility provide voicemail service as an optional feature for residences and businesses. Bell Prepaid customers, however, receive a basic voice mail at no additional charge. The complimentary voice mail can store five messages of one minute each, for up to five days.
Wireless
Television
Formerly known as ExpressVu,
Internet
Bell began offering Fibre-to-the-node Internet access to some subscribers in 2010. Bell markets this service under the name "Fibe".[39] Many urban Fibe regions can access all speeds up to and including 50+mbps down and 15+mbps up but some rural Fibe regions can only obtain 16 Mbit/s down and 1 Mbit/s up. Non-Fibe regions are limited to legacy DSL technology, supporting speeds of up to 7 Mbit/s down and 1 Mbit/s up. Bell Canada has now rolled out Fibre to the Home services to certain subscribers across Eastern Canada, this service can provide guaranteed download of 3 Gbit/s and upload speeds of 3 Gbit/s. In August 2019, the company announced it would cut roughly 200,000 households from a rural internet expansion program after a federal regulator lowered wholesale broadband prices that major telecom companies can charge smaller internet providers.[40][41]
In a press release issued February 24, 2022, Bell announced that it has acquired Internet service provider EBOX. Bell wishes to keep the brand and the activities of EBOX and let the company continue to operate independently while remaining based in Longueuil.[42]
Legacy
Bell previously offered Bell Home Monitoring, also known as Bell Gardium.
Bell Canada also previously offered cable television services in the United Kingdom via Bell Cablemedia plc (a joint venture with Jones Intercable and Cable & Wireless plc)[43] from 1994 until 1997, when Vidéotron first sold its UK operations to Bell Cablemedia, after which Bell Cablemedia and the UK operations of NYNEX Corporation merged with Cable & Wireless plc to form Cable & Wireless Communications.[44]
Marketing
Bell Canada created the Frank and Gordon beavers to advertise its products from 2006 to 2008.
Coinciding with its advertising campaign as part of its sponsorship of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Bell introduced a new logo and minimalist ad style, with the slogans "Today just got better" (with emphasis on the suffix "er") in English Canada and "La vie est Bell" (a pun on "La vie est Belle" — French: life is beautiful) in French Canada.[45] The font used in Bell's marketing is a custom typeface known as 'Bell Slim', by Canadian typeface designer Ian Brignell.
Historical financial performance
The financial performance of the company is reported to shareholders on an annual basis. The unit (except where noted) is millions of Canadian dollars.
Year | Revenue | Net Income | Total Assets | Employees |
---|---|---|---|---|
2010[46] | 18,069 | 2,165 | 39,276 | 50,200 |
2011[47] | 19,497 | 2,574 | 39,426 | 55,250 |
2012[48] | 19,975 | 3,053 | 40,968 | 55,500 |
2013[49] | 20,400 | 2,388 | 45,384 | 55,830 |
2014[50] | 21,042 | 2,718 | 46,297 | 57,234 |
2015[51] | 21,514 | 2,730 | 47,993 | 49,968 |
2016[52] | 21,719 | 3,087 | 50,108 | 48,090 |
2017[53] | 22,719 | 2,970 | 54,263 | 51,679 |
2018[54] | 23,468 | 2,973 | 57,100 | 52,790 |
2019[4] | 23,964 | 3,253 | 60,146 | 52,100 |
See also
- American Telephone & Telegraph, AT&T, an earlier parent and successor to American Bell
- Bell Centre, a hockey arena in Montreal
- Bell Mobility, the division of Bell Canada which sells wireless services in Canada
- Bell System, the Bell Telephone / AT&T-led companies which provided phone services
- Bell Telephone Memorial, a large monument honouring the inventor in Brantford, Ontario
- Bell Tower, an office tower in Edmonton
- International Bell Telephone Company, the Bell Telephone's early European division
- List of largest companies by revenue
- List of public corporations by market capitalization
- List of telephone operating companies
- List of United States telephone companies
- National Bell Telephone Company, the very earliest parent company
- Place Bell, an office tower in Ottawa
- Telephone Pavilion (Expo 67), also known as the Bell Telephone Pavilion
- Thomas Cowherd, who helped establish Canada's first telephone factory
Notes
- ^
Bell had originally asked Boston manufacturer processes for a number of months,[16] and then returned to Brantford to both produce and further develop Bell's telephone models. The Brantford plant's first shipment of 19 telephones to Hamilton was made the same year on December 23, 1878.[16] Among Cowherd's designs was a transmitter fitted with a triple mouthpiece allowing three people to talk, and sing, simultaneously. James Cowherd's untimely early death due to tuberculosis was noted in major technical journals and led to the closure of the Bell Systems' manufacturing supplier in Brantford. Telephone production later resumed in Montreal, eventually leading to the creation of Northern Electric in 1895, later renamed Northern Telecom and then Nortel.[11][17][18]
A Brantford Expositor article later noted of the historic factory building's demise: "[In 1992 Brantford] City officials and heritage committee members... learned that a building that once housed the first telephone factory in the world had been approved for demolition. The embarrassing oversight came to light too late to stop wrecking crews, who were already tearing down the aged building at 32 Wharfe St.... The building, where equipment for Alexander Graham Bell's first telephone was made, had even been pictured and written about in a city-printed brochure about the great inventor. A plaque erected by [the] Telephone Pioneers of America heralding the building's significance had been stripped from the structure in the mid-1980s and given to the Brant County Museum".[19]
References
- ^ "Bell Canada Enterprises :: History from Graham Bell until Today » BCE". Archived from the original on April 15, 2016. Retrieved April 2, 2016.
- ^ “Contact Us.” Contact Us | BCE Inc. Accessed February 25, 2021. https://www.bce.ca/contact-us.
- ^ "George Cope appointed to the boards of directors and as CEO of BCE Inc. and Bell Canada" (Press release). BCE. July 11, 2008. Archived from the original on July 21, 2008. Retrieved July 11, 2008.
- ^ a b c d e "2019 Annual Report" (PDF). Retrieved February 3, 2021.
- ^ a b "Bell Canada (and other Canadian telecommunications companies)". Archived from the original on June 11, 2019. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
- ^ "Corporate headquarters". Bell. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
- ^ "Contact Us." Bell Canada. Retrieved on August 24, 2009.
- ^ [1]Bell, Rogers now official owners of MLSE at the Wayback Machine (archived January 11, 2013)
- ^ The Canadian Press (December 9, 2011). "Bell to keep Canadiens stake". CBC.ca. Retrieved December 9, 2011.
- ^ "BCE on the Forbes Global 2000 List". Forbes. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
- ^ a b c
Collins, Larry; Prevey, W. Harry (ed.). Electricity: The Magic Medium, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Canadian Region, 1985, p. 4, ISBN 0-9692316-0-1.
- ^ Surtees, Lawrence (2000). "Bell, Alexander Graham". Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. University of Toronto/Université Laval. Archived from the original on March 2, 2009. Retrieved March 5, 2009.
- ^ Patten, William; Bell, Alexander Melville. Pioneering the Telephone in Canada, Montreal: William Patten, 1926.
- ^ "About BCE – History". BCE Inc. Archived from the original on October 27, 2010. Retrieved September 24, 2010.
- ^ a b Babe, Robert E. Charles Fleetford Sise in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography (online ed.), University of Toronto Press. 1979–2005.
- ^ London Free Press, October 3, 1953.
- ^ Reville, F. Douglas. History of the County of Brant: Illustrated With Fifty Half-Tones Taken From Miniatures And Photographs Archived April 19, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Brantford, ON: Brant Historical Society, Hurley Printing, 1920, p. 322. Retrieved from Brantford.Library.on.ca on May 4, 2012.
- ^ Nortel Networks (2008). "Corporate information: Nortel History – 1874 to 1899". Nortel Networks. Archived from the original on September 30, 2009. Retrieved September 1, 2008.
- ^ Ibbotson, Heather. City Has Lost Many Historic Buildings, Brantford Expositor, April 5, 2012.
- ^ Sharpe, Robert; Canadian Military Heritage Museum. Soldiers and Warriors: The Early Volunteer Militia of Brant County: 1856–1866 Archived July 17, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Brantford, ON: Canadian Military Heritage Museum, 1998, pg. 80, ref. citations No. 142 & 143, which in turn cites:
- F.A. Field. "The First Telephone Factory", The Blue Bell, January 1931. Retrieved April 22, 2012.
- ^ "Bell completes acquisition of xwave". www.bce.ca. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
- ^ "Bell Canada to Acquire Nexxlink Technologies Inc" (Press release). BCE, Inc. December 9, 2004. Archived from the original on December 27, 2012. Retrieved April 2, 2013.
- ^ "INDUSTRY CENTER – INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES". Yahoo! Finance.
- ^ "Bell Canada Franchisee". Archived from the original on April 5, 2019. Retrieved April 27, 2015.
- ^ a b Jackson, Emily (March 17, 2017). "Bell MTS deal closes, kicking off $1-billion investment that brings 4G to Churchill, Manitoba". Financial Post. Retrieved March 17, 2017.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7735-2052-3.
- ^ Todd, Kenneth P. Massey, David (ed.). "A Capsule History of the Bell System". American Telephone & Telegraph Company. Archived from the original on July 11, 2008. Retrieved June 28, 2008.
- ^ The Porticus Centre (2007). "Bell Canada (and other Canadian telecommunications companies)". The Porticus Centre. Archived from the original on May 11, 2008. Retrieved June 28, 2008.
- ^ Nortel Networks. "Northern Electric — A Brief History". Nortel Networks. Archived from the original on July 12, 2008. Retrieved June 28, 2008.
- ^ Bell Aliant (2010). "Fact Sheet". Bell Aliant. Archived from the original on May 29, 2008. Retrieved February 4, 2010.
- ^ a b "Hello? The 50-cent pay phone call is coming". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. April 30, 2007. Archived from the original on February 18, 2008. Retrieved December 14, 2007.
- ^ "Bell's pay phone price increases to 50 cents Saturday". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. June 1, 2007. Archived from the original on December 21, 2007. Retrieved December 14, 2007.
- ^ Dana Flavelle; Chris Sorensen (March 3, 2009). "Bell buys 756 electronics stores from The Source". Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. Retrieved March 7, 2016.
- ^ a b Rita Trichur (June 16, 2018). "Bell to stop 'throttling' Internet traffic". The Globe and Mail. Phillip Crawley. Archived from the original on June 16, 2018. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
- ^ Braga, Matthew (May 15, 2017). "1.9 million Bell customer email addresses stolen by 'anonymous hacker'". CBC News. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
- ^ Omar, Mohamed (January 25, 2018). "Bell Canada Data Breach Could Be 'Stepping Stone' To More Fraud, Espionage: Expert". HuffPost Canada. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
- ^ Klass, Benjamin; Winseck, Dwayne. "Why Bell's Bid to Buy MTS is Bad News" (PDF).
- ^ "Phone service | Small Business | Bell Canada".
- ^ "Bell Fibe". Archived from the original on July 6, 2011. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
- ^ Bickis, Ian (August 19, 2019). "Bell scales back rural internet plans after CRTC decision on rates". CBC.
- ^ "Bell Canada cuts FWA rural broadband plan". Mobile World Live. August 20, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
- ^ "Bell acquires Longueuil-based Internet provider EBOX". newswire.ca.
- ^ "Bell Cablemedia PLC - Overview, Competitors, and Employees". Archived from the original on March 31, 2022. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
- ^ "Cable & Wireless Plans Merger With Nynex, Bell Canada Units". www.wsj.com. October 23, 1996. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
- ^ "Bell to launch its new national brand tomorrow" (Press release). BCE, Inc. August 7, 2008. Archived from the original on August 10, 2008. Retrieved August 7, 2008.
- ^ "2010 Annual Report" (PDF). Retrieved December 28, 2018.
- ^ "2011 Annual Report" (PDF). Retrieved December 28, 2018.
- ^ "2012 Annual Report" (PDF). Retrieved December 28, 2018.
- ^ "2013 Annual Report" (PDF). Retrieved December 28, 2018.
- ^ "2014 Annual Report" (PDF). Retrieved December 28, 2018.
- ^ "2015 Annual Report" (PDF). Retrieved December 28, 2018.
- ^ "2016 Annual Report" (PDF). Retrieved December 28, 2018.
- ^ "2017 Annual Report" (PDF). Retrieved December 28, 2018.
- ^ "2018 Annual Report" (PDF). Retrieved April 28, 2019.
External links
- Official website
- BCE Inc. website
- Bell Telephone Company of Canada – public historical documents
- CRTC chart of Bell Canada's assets
- Bell Canada pixel art ad campaign
- Bell Telephone Company of Canada (from Bell System Memorial)
- Operator. May I help you?: Bell Canada's 125 Years – Bell Canada's origins (illustrated with many early photographs)