Bell Canada facts for kids
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Formerly
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The Bell Telephone Company of Canada, Ltd. (1880–1968) | ||
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| Industry | Telecommunications | ||
| Founded | April 29, 1880 | ||
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| Headquarters | Verdun, Quebec, Canada | ||
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Area served
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Canada | ||
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Key people
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Mirko Bibic (CEO) | ||
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| Revenue |  CA$23.96 billion (2019) |
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Operating income
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CA$10.106 billion (2019) |
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| CA$3.253 billion (2019) |
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Number of employees
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 52,100 (2019) |
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Bell Canada, often just called Bell, is a big Canadian company that provides many ways for people to communicate. Its main office is in Verdun, Quebec, Canada. Bell helps connect millions of Canadians with phone services, internet, and TV.
Bell is a major phone company in Ontario and Quebec. It also offers services to businesses in western Canada. Its company, Bell Aliant, helps people in the Atlantic provinces. Bell also provides mobile phone service through Bell Mobility (which includes Virgin Plus). For TV, they offer Bell Satellite TV and Bell Fibe TV.
Some of Bell's main competitors are Rogers Communications and Telus. Bell Canada is a key part of a larger company called BCE Inc.. BCE also owns Bell Media, which runs TV channels like CTV Television Network. They even own parts of sports teams like the Montreal Canadiens hockey club!
Contents
History
Bell Canada has been one of Canada's most important companies for a long time. It is named after Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the telephone. He also helped start the Bell Telephone Company in the United States. From 1880 to 1975, Bell Canada was connected to the larger Bell System in the U.S.
How it Started
In the 1870s, Alexander Graham Bell, who was born in Scotland but lived in Canada, invented the telephone. This amazing device could send and receive human voices over a wire! He got a patent for his invention in 1876. Bell also patented it in Canada. He gave most of his Canadian patent rights to his father, Alexander Melville Bell.
For a few years, Bell's father and his friend, Thomas Philip Henderson, collected money from people who used telephones in Canada. These early users either had their own phone lines or paid a company to connect them.
In 1879, Bell's father sold his Canadian rights to a U.S. company called the National Bell Telephone Company. This company later became the American Bell Telephone Company in 1880. That same year, the Canadian part of the company was renamed "The Bell Telephone Company of Canada Ltd." Charles Fleetford Sise from Chicago became its first general manager.
The first telephones for Bell Canada were made by Thomas C. Cowherd and his son James H. Cowherd in Brantford, Ontario. They were friends with Alexander Graham Bell and even helped him with his early telephone tests. By 1914, The Bell Telephone Company of Canada had a special permission from the government to be the only company offering long-distance phone service in Canada. They served 237,000 customers!
People often called the company "The Bell" or "Bell Telephone." On March 7, 1968, a Canadian law officially changed its name to Bell Canada.
Growing and Changing Across Canada
Bell Canada expanded its phone lines from Nova Scotia all the way to the Rocky Mountains. However, they mostly focused on big cities in Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes.
Atlantic Canada
In the late 1800s, Bell sold its operations in the three Maritime provinces. Many smaller phone companies also existed there. Over time, these smaller companies joined together or were bought by three main provincial companies. Bell later bought parts of these Atlantic companies in the 1960s. For example, they bought Newfoundland Telephone in 1962.
In the late 1990s, these Atlantic companies merged to form Aliant, which is now called Bell Aliant. Bell Aliant still provides many services in rural areas of Ontario and Quebec that used to be run by Bell Canada.
Quebec and Ontario
In Ontario and Quebec, some independent phone companies started because Bell Canada didn't serve all areas well. Over the years, Bell bought most of these smaller companies. Today, some rural areas in Quebec are still served by other companies like Telus Québec and Télébec (which Bell Canada now owns).
Western Canada
At different times, the provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan bought Bell Canada's operations in their areas. They wanted to build better phone services across their provinces. Bell Canada's investment in these areas had not been enough for their growth.
Manitoba later privatized its phone company, which is now known as Bell MTS. Alberta also privatized its government phone company to create Telus. Saskatchewan still owns its phone company, SaskTel. In 2017, BCE Inc. bought back the Manitoba system, now called Bell MTS.
Northern Canada
Bell Canada started offering phone service in the Northwest Territories in 1958. However, another company called Canadian National Telecommunications (CNT) provided most of the phone service in Canada's northern areas (like Yukon and northern BC). CNT created Northwestel in 1979, and Bell Canada Enterprises bought it in 1988.
Changes and Competition
Historically, the Bell System had two main companies in Canada: Bell Canada (for phone services) and Northern Electric (for making phone equipment). In 1956, the Bell System in the U.S. sold its part of Northern Electric.
In 1975, AT&T (the main U.S. Bell company) sold its ownership in Bell Canada. This happened because Bell Canada had developed its own research labs and was ready to operate on its own.
Northern Electric later changed its name to Northern Telecom in 1976, and then to Nortel Networks in 1998. In 1983, a new company called Bell Canada Enterprises (now BCE) was formed. It became the parent company for both Bell Canada and Northern Telecom.
Between 1980 and 1997, the Canadian government removed many rules that gave Bell Canada a monopoly (being the only provider). This meant other companies could now offer phone services. Today, Bell Canada provides local phone service mainly in big cities in Ontario and Quebec.
In 2006, Bell and its former subsidiary Aliant reorganized. Aliant, renamed Bell Aliant Regional Communications, took over Bell's wired phone operations in many parts of Ontario and Quebec. In return, Bell took over Bell Aliant's wireless and retail services.
In 2007, the Canadian government allowed pay phone rates to increase from 25 cents to 50 cents. Bell increased its pay phone rates for the first time since 1981.
In 2009, Bell Canada bought the electronics store chain The Source. Bell has also been upgrading its network to use modern fiber optic technology for faster internet and TV services. In 2017, BCE Inc. completed its purchase of Manitoba Telecom Services.
Services
Bell Canada offers many different communication services to its customers.
Voice
Bell Canada provides standard phone service for homes and businesses. They also offer digital voice services for businesses.
Voicemail
Bell offers voicemail service for both home phones and mobile phones. If you have a Bell Prepaid mobile plan, you get a basic voicemail service for free.
Wireless
Bell Mobility runs a mobile phone network across all Canadian provinces. They also own Virgin Mobile Canada.
Television
Bell offers Bell Satellite TV, which uses satellites to deliver TV channels. They also have a mobile TV service called Bell Mobile TV. For home internet TV, they offer Bell Fibe TV and Alt TV. These services are available in many major cities and areas across Eastern and Western Canada.
Internet
Bell Internet provides fast internet service using DSL and fiber optic cables. Speeds can range from 500 kilobits per second (kbit/s) to 8 gigabits per second (Gbit/s), depending on the technology in your area. Fiber optic internet is much faster.
Bell started offering "Fibe" internet in 2010, which uses fiber optic technology to bring faster speeds. In 2022, Bell bought another internet company called EBOX. Bell plans to let EBOX continue to operate on its own.
Marketing
Bell Canada has used different ways to advertise over the years. From 2006 to 2008, they used cartoon beavers named Frank and Gordon in their ads.
Around the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Bell introduced a new logo and a simple ad style. Their English slogan was "Today just got better," and in French Canada, it was "La vie est Bell" (a play on words meaning "life is beautiful").
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
