Why Bell Has The Upper Hand Against Rogers When It Comes To Internet Access In Canada
Last week I posted a story about Bell rolling out fibre across Toronto and offering up 1 Gbit/s symmetrical speeds today, with faster speeds coming in the future. In that story, I said this:
Having symmetrical speeds is something that in the past was only found in business class Internet. The fact that Bell is bringing it to consumers is a big deal. And the fact that they’re the only ones thus far to do so has Rogers on the back foot as Rogers doesn’t offer fibre to the premises nor do they offer symmetrical speeds.
That got me a few emails over the weekend asking why Rogers can’t compete with Bell. Thus I decided to write a follow up to explain why Bell has the upper hand against Rogers in this regard.
First of all Bell is delivering fibre optic cable to the home. Meaning that it’s an end to end fiber connection which benefits you the consumer by delivering a low latency connection that’s capable of delivering very fast speeds. Low latency is important when you’re playing Call Of Duty online or having a video chat with relatives overseas for example because in the former case, you’ll be better able to pwn your opponents as there will be no lag for you to contend with, while in the latter case you will get a fluid video stream going in both directions which means that you get a better video chat experience.
Now contrast that with Rogers. They deliver Internet access by using a system they call “Hybrid Fibre” which means that the Rogers network is largely fibre optic cable. But the so-called “last mile” to your home is copper cable. The problem with that scheme is that copper cable can only handle so much bandwidth. Since Rogers is in the process of rolling out DOCSIS 3.1 across their network (at present they have DOCSIS 3.1 enabled on the downstream part of their Internet connections, but not on the upstream part of their Internet connections), that means that they’re capped at 10 Gbit/s downstream and 1 Gbit/s upstream as per this Wikipedia page. Bell is talking about speeds of 40 Gbit/s in both directions. Not only that, having the last mile over copper cable introduces latency to the connection. Sometimes as high as 30ms based on my testing with my own Rogers Gigabit connection. Some of the people in my condo who have the Bell product are getting latency as low as 5ms. Clearly, Bell has the upper hand from a technical standpoint. And that’s ignoring the fact that Bell is able to offer symmetrical speeds which Rogers can’t.
In order for Rogers to compete with Bell on this front, they only really have two choices. The first choice is to hope that a technology called DOCSIS 3.1 Full Duplex comes to market quickly and they can roll that out as that would give them a fighting chance with their current infrastructure. DOCSIS 3.1 Full Duplex would give them the ability to provide the symmetrical speeds that Bell does, which would level the playing field somewhat. The last time I checked it was still in the R&D stage, so that may not be an option as any rollout would be years away. Plus it likely wouldn’t solve the latency problem as you’re still pushing Internet over copper which introduces latency. Which brings me to choice number 2. Rogers will at some point have throw in the towel in terms of “hybrid fibre” and provide true fiber to the home for that last mile. While that’s not instant, it may be their best chance to compete with Bell. And Rogers has done this in a very limited fashion in some places in Toronto. Thus they know how to get that done. Whatever choice Rogers picks, they have to get it done quickly as Bell is on a full court press to take this advantage that they have from a technical standpoint and turn it into something that makes Rogers an afterthought when it comes to Internet access.
This will be interesting to see how this plays out in the months and years ahead. Because right now Bell has the upper hand when it comes to Internet access and Rogers is clearly on the back foot with no clear path to getting back on the front foot.
April 9, 2018 at 12:12 pm
However, in my case at least, Bell is NOT providing fiber optic cabling direct “to the home.” I was solicited by direct sales at my door (a third party sales company wearing Bell uniforms and having Bell ID – but that is another issue) and they were clear that the fiber optic cable goes to a HUB in the neighbourhood. (There has been no work done on my property, and Ii did not switch to their services.) Same is the case with a family member in another large city in Ontario – fiber optic goes to a neighbourhood HUB, not to the home. So, people need to be careful. It is way too costly for Bell to be delivering fiber optic to every house in Toronto or wherever. Perhaps if you are in a condo or apt building and Bell places the HUB in the building AND rewires the condo to have fiber optic cabling to each unit AND to each of the unit’s outlets, then the speeds claimed may be more representative of reality. However, if you want fiber optics from the HUB to your home, then you are going to pay for it…This appears to be mostly hype, smoke, mirrors, and misleading information.
April 9, 2018 at 12:41 pm
Here’s my commentary on that.
In my condo, they ran fibre to every unit over a year ago. On top of that, I have clients in the 416/647 area codes who have single family dwellings that had the same thing done to their homes anywhere from a year ago to more recently. So Bell appears to be on the level with their fiber to the home deployment. Also if you browse Reddit, you’ll find lots of examples of people who are getting exactly what Bell is promising.
One other thing, I did note in my original story that if Bell stays away from the sort of stuff that has gotten them into trouble recently, they can really make Rogers hurt. We’ll see if they do that.
April 10, 2018 at 8:06 am
[…] major reason why I haven’t switched from Rogers to Bell for my telco services. Sure Bell has a way better Internet offering than Rogers. And unlike Rogers they support the Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE, but their customer service is so […]
May 2, 2018 at 3:43 pm
[…] clear that Bell is being hyper aggressive here, and frankly I don’t blame them. They have a superior offering versus what Rogers can serve up. So why not take that advantage and run with it as hard as they can? As long as they don’t […]
May 9, 2018 at 12:38 pm
[…] you can sign up for their all fibre offering, they make life more and more difficult for Rogers as from a technology standpoint, they have the upper hand on Rogers. I fully expect these announcements by Bell to become more and more frequent so that they continue […]
May 23, 2018 at 9:20 am
[…] in Toronto, Orillia, And a couple places east of Toronto. Up until now the clear target is Rogers as they seemingly have no answer for what Bell has to offer. But today it seems that Bell has now turned its attention to Chatham-Kent which is about three […]
June 13, 2018 at 8:32 am
[…] that up to 4 Gbps both ways in the near future and 40 Gbps both ways within five years. This is why I’ve been saying for a while that Bell has the upper hand when it comes to Internet access in Canada. Any other telco who is […]
June 21, 2018 at 7:55 am
[…] reason that Bell won was their deployment of their Fibe Internet offering. An offering that I’ve said is going to push Bell to the front of the pack because competitors like Rogers have no way to match […]
August 1, 2018 at 3:16 pm
[…] to a press release that the telco put out today. Keep in mind that from a technical standpoint, Bell has a superior offering with their Fibre network which is so far beyond anything that arch rival Rogers can offer, it will be only a matter of time […]
August 7, 2018 at 12:53 pm
[…] I have previously mentioned, Bell has a distinct advantage over Rogers when it comes to their Internet offering. Now they are […]
August 20, 2018 at 1:57 pm
[…] has been putting the boots to Rogers when it comes to Internet access through their Fibe offering which is technically superior to anything that Rogers currently offers. Well, much as Bell promised, the telco is rolling out 1.5 Gbps downstream and 940 Mbps upstream […]
December 28, 2018 at 12:26 pm
[…] know anything about that. But what may be a long term issue for Rogers is the fact that their Internet offerings pale in comparison with what Bell Canada offers. And Rogers has no clear path to catch up to Bell. I think it’s safe to say that 2019 is […]
June 15, 2020 at 12:31 pm
[…] my look at Bell’s rollout of the fibre to the home service and coming to the conclusion that Bell had Rogers in a position where Bell would become the dominant Internet provider in Canada. Now while that article was written in 2018, and Bell has tweaked it’s speeds slightly so […]
August 21, 2020 at 3:56 pm
[…] both upstream and downstream channels. And I think that pressure from Bell is driving this move as Bell has the absolutely superior offering in terms of their gigabit service, as well as 1.5 gigabit offering which Rogers doesn’t even offer because they can’t […]
November 26, 2020 at 9:34 am
[…] only reason why I personally haven’t switched from Rogers to Bell. This despite the fact that Bell has a superior Internet product when compared to anything that Rogers offers. But I won’t switch to a superior product to get […]
December 31, 2020 at 8:59 am
[…] important when you are working from home as many of us are. You can find out why that is the case here. And it also didn’t help that during this pandemic where everyone is working from home, […]
February 4, 2021 at 2:51 pm
[…] is really going to further put pressure on Rogers who already trails them when it comes to the quality and speed of their Internet access. I will be watching to see how Rogers responds to this. Assuming that they […]
June 24, 2021 at 1:05 pm
[…] written previously about why Rogers is on the back foot when it comes to being an Internet provider versus Bell Canada. Now there’s one more reason […]
July 31, 2021 at 12:08 pm
[…] we get from Rogers was horrible. Specifically, TV, home phone and Internet. Not only that, Bell has as I’ve stated previously, a much better Internet offering than Rogers. Despite the fact that we have had issues with Bell in […]
August 17, 2021 at 9:05 am
[…] For example, I have been very critical of them not having Internet services that compete with Bell, or Telus for that matter when it comes to speed. But this transition to Rogers Ignite has been […]
December 31, 2021 at 10:22 am
[…] I tried to dump Rogers this summer when we wanted to lower our telco bill. But when Bell Canada, who I freely admit have world class Internet products that totally destroys anything that Rogers has…, absolutely made a mess of us moving to them because of their absolutely shambolic customer […]
January 18, 2022 at 1:43 pm
[…] rolling out fibre to their user base quickly or be left behind by Bell as from a tech standpoint Bell has the upper hand on Rogers. And based on this press release, they might be about to start doing […]
April 7, 2022 at 8:05 am
[…] while ago I wrote about Bell having the upper hand on Rogers when it came to the speeds of their Internet offering. And yesterday, they did something that will […]
July 18, 2022 at 9:21 am
[…] their poor customer service, they are reliable and offer a much better Internet product than Rogers as I’ve said previously. And to add to this, my wife’s workplace is not only transitioning their company cell phones […]
July 30, 2022 at 12:20 pm
[…] Which to be frank isn’t a company that has the best customer service, but as I’ve said previously, they have an Internet offering that destroys anything that Rogers currently offers. On top of […]
September 20, 2022 at 8:32 am
[…] Now whether you need these speeds or not is a completely different discussion. Which you can read here. But Bell clearly has delivered on something that they have announced unlike Rogers who simply announces stuff but doesn’t deliver it in any meaningful way that the vast majority of their customers can see. Which is why Bell is set to dominate residential Internet and make Rogers an after thought. Just like I’ve been saying for some time. […]
February 10, 2023 at 8:02 am
[…] been saying for a long time that Bell has a real advantage over cable companies like Rogers by getting fibre in as many places as possible and by having speeds that destroys anything that […]
May 4, 2023 at 12:30 pm
[…] that Bell is rolling out fibre to the home anywhere and everywhere it can. And the fact is that as I said years ago, and when I got Bell’s fibre product in my home, Bell’s fibre optic Internet products […]
September 6, 2023 at 1:51 pm
[…] few years ago, I wrote this article about how Bell had the upper hand against Rogers, and at the time I said […]
December 31, 2023 at 8:30 am
[…] that Bell was slowing down their fibre rollout for whatever reason. Something that as I have said previously was giving them a competitive advantage against Rogers. Now I wrote a story about this […]