The IT Nerd

Bell Canada is asking customers for permission to track everything they do according to the CBC. They would be tracking activities on their home and mobile phones, internet, television, apps or any other services they get through Bell or its affiliates.

Tailored marketing means Bell will be able to customize advertising based on participant account information and service usage patterns, similar to the ways that companies like Google and others have been doing for some time,” the company says in recent notices to customers. If given permission, Bell will collect information about its customers’ age, gender, billing addresses, and the specific tablet, television or other devices used to access Bell services. It will also collect the “number of messages sent and received, voice minutes, user data consumption and type of connectivity when downloading or streaming.” “Bell’s marketing partners will not receive the personal information of program participants; we just deliver the offers relevant to the program participants on their behalf,” the company assures customers.

The only good news is that this is an opt in program. But the bad news is that if you opt in, you get little to no compensation for increased risks to you privacy and security. That doesn’t exactly sound like a reason to sign up for this. And I suspect that once word gets around, many won’t. Which means that Bell may get more aggressive and make this an opt out program. After all, they’ve done that before though they had to back away from it when the heat got cranked up. But it would not shock me if they went to that well again.

This is truly a shake my head moment as I can’t believe that Bell would go down this road given the times we live in.

I’ve been saying for a while now that Bell 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 service for $84.95 a month. This price lasts six months and then jumps to $109.95 a month. If you’re in Ontario, you can get this now. Those in Quebec, Manitoba and the Atlantic provinces are in the coming soon category.

Now, other than the pricing strategy which to be frank drives me bonkers when teclos do that, Bell now has an Internet offering that is substantially faster than anything that Rogers offers. You have to wonder what the folks in red are going to do to counter what the folks in Blue have served up to the masses.

As I have previously mentioned, Bell has a distinct advantage over Rogers when it comes to their Internet offering. Now they are really starting to make life miserable for the guys in red. If you scan Bell’s quarterly earnings report, you’ll see this:

Bell today announced that Bell Fibe Internet speeds of 1.5 Gigabit per second (Gbps), the fastest available to the home in Canada, will launch this month in Ontario, followed by Québec, Atlantic Canada and Manitoba. Bell has already taken the top spot in PCMag’s The Fastest ISPs of 2018: Canada, delivering the highest overall Internet speed index ever recorded in Canada by the magazine and scoring more than 30% higher than our nearest competitor. Atlantic Canada’s Bell Aliant took second place while Manitoba’s Bell MTS moved into the top 10 for the first time. Bell’s fibre to the premises (FTTP) network is now available to more than 4.2 million homes and businesses in 7 provinces and continues to expand with the announcement of new all-fibre deployments in the communities of Oshawa, Clarington, Orillia, Chatham-Kent and Winkler.

Well, that’s going to freak VPs and C level execs over at Rogers as they have absolutely nothing that can compete against that, and from where I sit they have no real path forward to catch up. And keep in mind that Bell promises 5 Gbps speeds by next year, and 40 Gbps speeds in the future. Which means that if you’re Rogers, you should prepare your retentions department for an influx of calls as people ditch them for Bell and their faster speeds.

It sucks to be Rogers right now.

It’s clear that Bell is not slowing down when it comes to getting their Fibre Internet network into as many places as possible. I say that because the City of Winkler is next on the list according 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 before Rogers is a non-factor in the Internet game in Canada. The first customer connections should come “later this summer.”

I wonder who’s going to be next on Bell’s list to get their Fiber Internet offering?

PC Magazine has released their report on the Fastest ISPs in Canada, and Bell took the crown by a fair margin. Second was Bell Aliant which was just slightly ahead of Rogers. But both were behind Bell by fair amount.

The 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 that. And I fully expect that Bell’s advantage over their competition is only going to increase as they are aggressively rolling this offering out to everywhere they can.

I have to admit that switching to Bell is really tempting. If they could clean up their customer service issues, they would be free to take my money.

I’ve been monitoring the progress of Bells new all-fibre broadband network which has rolled out 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 hours west of Toronto in terms of its next place to roll out their all-fibre broadband network. It’s also the HQ of Teksavvy which for years has offered far more affordable Internet and home phone services than either Bell or Rogers has been able to.

Service will initially be offered to Chatham and then it will be expanding to Blenheim, Ridgetown, Tilbury and Wallaceburg and Bell promises that the first customer connections will be in the fall. It will be interesting to see how both Rogers and Teksavvy react to this. Particularly the latter as this has to be seen as a direct threat to Teksavvy.

If you’re Rogers, Bell must be making life miserable for you. First they rolled out an all fibre network in Toronto, then they rolled it out to a number of places east of Toronto. Now cottage country is going to get some all fibre love as Bell is rolling out their all fibre offering to Orillia which is north of Toronto:

Fully funded by Bell, the network deployment will include more than 260 kilometres of new fibre installation and employ local workers in design and construction. Broad availability of Bell’s all-fibre connections in Orillia is expected by the first quarter of 2019. 

“Bell’s investment will put Orillia among the top 10 per cent of communities across Canada for high-speed connectivity,” said Dan Landry, Manager of Business Retention and Expansion with the Orillia Economic Development Office. “The City of Orillia will now be able to provide businesses and residents with full confidence they will have true fibre connectivity as a resource.”

With every city that Bell adds to their list of places where 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 to make life more and more difficult for Rogers and leave them with no path to recover.