MONTREAL — Bell Canada has begun the rollout of its 700 MHz wireless services across the country and will announce “in the next month or so” the communities across Canada, representing 96 or 97% of the population that will be able to use it by the end of 2015, BCE president and CEO George Cope said Monday.
The network upgrade, which will make use of the $565 million worth of spectrum Bell bought in this year’s auction, is just one of many improvements to the company’s services that Cope spoke confidently about in a speech to the Canadian Club of Montreal. The speech had no earth-shattering announcements, but it did have plenty of numbers, showing where Bell has improved over the past few years and how Canada’s largest telecommunications and media company will get even bigger.
It was a speech that highlighted “how important Quebec is to Bell” (18,000 of its 55,500 employees, $1 billion in taxes paid, $48 million annually in sponsorships in this province).
Cope brought up a slide showing “yesterday’s Bell” — last place in wireless market share growth and a reputation for poor customer service. But he said Bell has since repatriated call centres to Canada, responds more quickly to service calls and it’s open on weekends. All this has helped increase customer satisfaction, according to independent surveys. “We will put our service levels up against any of our competitors and win,” Cope said.
Cope also bragged about a recent ranking of average Internet speeds from Netflix that has Bell Fibe and Bell Aliant FibreOp at the top of the list (though he didn’t mention that the older Bell and Bell Aliant DSL service are lower down).
For all its sectors combined, Cope noted that Bell spent $16 billion on technological upgrades in the past five years, including the launch of the Nimiq 6 satellite, the rollout of its fibre-optic network, upgrades to its wireless network, and business services like data hosting and broadcast management.
Numbers helped Cope take aim at some common perceptions of the Canadian wireless industry, as well. He noted Canada’s major carriers spent $11 billion in capital expenditures in the last five years, that mobile download speeds are the second-highest in the world behind Denmark, according to the OECD, and that Bell has higher profit margins than large U.S. carriers, even though it has a larger geographical area to cover and lower monthly bills per subscriber.
Not that all the news was rosy. “One area I don’t think we should be proud of” is the price of international roaming, he said. But Bell has responded to complaints from consumers and the government with rate reductions, including 50% in the United States, and by introducing travel passes that users can buy to save money when travelling internationally.
Cope noted the loss of National Hockey League rights to rival Rogers and said he was “no doubt disappointed, but from a strategic perspective you can see our assets going forward, and we’ll maintain that leadership position.” He showed a slide of the sports teams and leagues that CTV, TSN and RDS carry rights for, including some regional NHL games, plus CFL, MLS and NFL and major events in other sports.
“Once the youth caught on that it was Bell writing the cheque, it really caught on.” – George Cope
Unmentioned during Cope’s speech is that despite improvements to service, Bell’s wireless operations have dropped behind Telus to become the third-largest in Canada by number of subscribers. Though Cope did note that Bell saw 38.4 per cent of net postpaid wireless additions in 2013. That number is a huge improvement from a paltry 12% in 2007. It’s now equal to Telus and well ahead of number one Rogers in terms of wireless growth.
Cope’s speech ended with Bell Let’s Talk, a campaign to raise money and reduce stigma about mental illness that has seen $67 million donated since it launched in 2010. Because money raised is tied to the number of calls, text messages, tweets or Facebook shares the campaign gets, Bell doesn’t know in advance how much money it will give away, Cope said. “We start every year a little more terrified” of how viral the campaign will get. “We have no idea when the day starts whether it’ll be 110 or 130 million” messages, he said. “It’s one of our weakest budget areas, but we’re really proud of it.”
Discussion of Let’s Talk’s success also led to one of the speech’s more light-hearted but telling moments.
“Once the youth caught on that it was Bell writing the cheque, it really caught on,” Cope said, prompting laughter from the crowd.
Asked afterward if Bell has a strategy to appeal more to young consumers, Cope pointed to the Virgin Mobile brand, which is focused on youth, but added that “we have to play to all segments” of the population.
Photo by Steve Faguy
