A View on View :: Bell's VOIP Trials

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Bell's VOIP Trials

by Mark Evans on Fri 10 Dec 2004 01:07 PM AKST | Permanent Link

Despite Bell's coyness about its Internet telephony plans - which were only
disclosed with its chief marketing domo Alek Krstajic spilled the beans to
the Financial Post last month - the carrier is already conducting consumer
trials of the technology. Perhaps buoyed by a few holiday party drinks, a
Bell employee gushed the service is "great". This should scare the heck out
of Vonage, et al - particularly if the CRTC decides to let Bell and other
incumbent carriers compete on a level playing field when it comes to
Internet telephony.

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Re: Bell's VOIP Trials

by Anonymous on Fri 10 Dec 2004 05:19 PM EST | Permanent Link

Do you not have to have a POTS line with Bell to get Sympatico high speed internet? Then how will VOIP with Bell work - will I switch from Sympatico to Rogers and then sign up with Bell for VOIP? Bell loses revenue that way. Could I tell them that I want to keep Sympatico high speed and switch my POTS line to VOIP? While this keeps customers away from Vonage it cannibalizes Bell's exisiting business. I just signed up with Vonage and their service costs me $20 for what bell charged about $60. If Bell switches all of their existing lines to VOIP then they will lose $40/month per residential customer - what will that do to their stock price?

Re: Re: Bell's VOIP Trials

by Mark Evans on Sat 11 Dec 2004 07:27 AM EST | Profile | Permanent Link

Thanks to the CRTC, you don't need a local line from Bell to use Sympatico high-speed service - but you still need a local line from Sprint, for example. If you want to use Vonage, you will need Internet access from a cableco, or have a local line and DSL.

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