TORONTO, Canada – Bell Canada, with one of the highest penetration rates of
Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) in North America, plans to further improve
the speed of its broadband Internet services. The company will implement a
network platform from Alcatel that is based on industry standards and will
allow Bell to benefit from a multi-supplier modem strategy. In place this
fall, this technology will enable Bell to offer both residential and
business customers higher speed Internet services with download speeds up to
3 megabits per second (Mbps) or 200 times faster than a regular modem with
the potential to reach 7 Mbps. As well, upload speeds will be improved to up
to 800 kbps.
John Sheridan, Vice Chairman, Bell Canada, provided further details on the
company’s investment of $1.5 billion over three years announced earlier this
year. “We are investing in leading edge broadband technology to further
strengthen our position against cable modems and offer higher speed options
to our residential and business customers,” said Sheridan. “Today’s
announcement reconfirms Bell’s commitment to be the national communications
leader in the Internet world.”
“We are expanding our partnership with Alcatel that began with our early
market trials of ADSL service in 1997 and continues today with business DSL
services,” – said Sheridan. “We will be well positioned to efficiently meet
the current and future needs of our residential and business customers by
providing a range of services with choice of speeds, pricing and features.
Higher speed access will continue to be a critical part of our Internet
strategy that is based on connectivity, commerce and content.”
Bell’s high speed Internet services are enabled by both DSL and optical
fibre technologies. Bell’s DSL services are always fast, never shared. With
DSL, customers enjoy a private, secure and dedicated access connection–an
essential feature for security- and performance-conscious customers–unlike
the cable modem shared service that is widely recognized as being less
secure and subject to speed degradation as all users in a neighbourhood
share the same connection.
With Bell’s DSL technology, customers can use any phone jack in their homes
or businesses. Customers do not need a second line–they can use their phone
line for calls or faxes while online to the Internet or their corporate
networks using DSL.
Bell’s high speed services are available in Toronto, Ottawa/Hull, Montréal,
Québec City, Barrie, Brantford, Cambridge, Cornwall, Guelph, Hamilton,
Kingston, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, North Bay, Peterborough, Port Credit,
Windsor, Chicoutimi, Legardeur, Lévis, Loretteville, Ste-Thérèse, St-
Eustache, Sherbrooke and Trois-Rivières. As part of Bell’s aggressive DSL
expansion program, many more communities will be announced throughout the
year. The goal is to reach 70% coverage of Bell territory before the end of
the year and 85% before the end of 2002.
Bell is the national leader for communications in the world of the Internet:
leading Canadian Internet service provider with over 800,000 Sympatico
customers nationally host of the most visited Canadian portal, Sympatico,
with more than 2.8 million unique visitors each month carrier of the vast
majority of Canada’s Internet traffic on its IP/Broadband network
North American leader in wireless access to Internet through Bell Mobility’s
Mobile Browser and Digital DATA to Go provider of Internet service via
satellite partner with leading companies such as Lycos Bell Canada provides
a full range of communications services, including wired and wireless local
and long-distance telephone services, Internet access, high-speed data
services and directories. Bell Canada, its telecom partners and subsidiaries
provide services through 13.6 million access
lines, including 11 million in Québec and Ontario. Bell Canada also provides
wireless service to more than 2.5 million customers through Bell Mobility.
Bell Canada is 80 per cent owned by BCE Inc. of Montréal and 20 per cent
owned by SBC Communications Inc. of San Antonio, Texas.
