It took a year but Bell Canada finally came to its sense and decided to kill a 0.5 cent/minute long-distance plan that took the bottom out of the market in Eastern Canada. The cheap LD was seen as a way for Bell to encourage more customers into bundle because you had to have at least two other services to get it. While Bell may have added 319,000 LD clients, the downside was that the already-eroding LD market (revenue, rather than minutes) got even worse. Meanwhile, Bell saw yet another source revenue take a beating. Perhaps the silver lining for Bell was the cheap LD may have kept some people from jumping to VOIP service providers such as Vonage and Primus Canada, which were hoping to use inexpensive LD as a major marketing issue. So who wins from Bell's decision? Bell comes out ahead because it gets to walk away from a program that was strategically questionable despite claims by management the plan achieved its purpose. VOIP SPs will be happy because they can get back on the LD message again. Another happy soul is Rogers CEO Ted Rogers, who can now launch cable telephony next month as a premium product because he doesn't have to worry about Bell's LD voodoo. Mea culpa: I was remiss in not pointing out that consumers on the $5 a month plan will be able to keep it. The offer is available until July 3.