Although it has not been widely report, Bell Canada
has ditched its digital bundle program, which means you no longer get a discount for buying two or more services. Bell said
the bundles "served their purpose" so there's no need to offer
broad-based deals. Strange, but I thought the whole idea behind bundles
was you got a a modest discount for being a good customer. Now, I can
understand making the bundle less sweet as Rogers
is doing but to totally eliminate them means Bell must rely on
the convenience factor. My take is that with 57% of Bell's
customers in Ontario and Quebec on a bundle already, the company
figures the market is close to saturation and it can do better
from a marketing and financial perspective by targeting specific
customers not on the bundle bandwagon. Of course, it's easy to
eliminate bundle discount or reduce their attractiveness when most of
your customers are locked into long-term contracts and/or don't have
much of a choice (i.e. more than two options) for services such as
high-speed Internet access and television. Another thing facing Bell is
it's probably squeezed as much as it can from operating costs so it has
to look for another ways to boost the bottom line - hence the chop to
the bundle discounts. Wonder if Bell's decision becomes a trend among
North American carriers and cablecos?
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Mark Evansthe blog - examines the world of telecom and technology from a distinctly Canadian perspective.the person - lives in Toronto, CA with his wife and three children, and works as director of community with PlanetEye Inc. 
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Bell Eliminates Bundle
by
Mark Evans
on Fri 23 Sep 2005 02:26 PM EDT | Permanent Link
Although it has not been widely report, Bell Canada
has ditched its digital bundle program, which means you no longer get a discount for buying two or more services. Bell said
the bundles "served their purpose" so there's no need to offer
broad-based deals. Strange, but I thought the whole idea behind bundles
was you got a a modest discount for being a good customer. Now, I can
understand making the bundle less sweet as Rogers
is doing but to totally eliminate them means Bell must rely on
the convenience factor. My take is that with 57% of Bell's
customers in Ontario and Quebec on a bundle already, the company
figures the market is close to saturation and it can do better
from a marketing and financial perspective by targeting specific
customers not on the bundle bandwagon. Of course, it's easy to
eliminate bundle discount or reduce their attractiveness when most of
your customers are locked into long-term contracts and/or don't have
much of a choice (i.e. more than two options) for services such as
high-speed Internet access and television. Another thing facing Bell is
it's probably squeezed as much as it can from operating costs so it has
to look for another ways to boost the bottom line - hence the chop to
the bundle discounts. Wonder if Bell's decision becomes a trend among
North American carriers and cablecos?
Comments
Re: Bell Eliminates Bundle
by
Jim Courtney
on Sat 24 Sep 2005 04:31 PM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link
Maybe it has to do with their inability to, or late implementation of, incorporate(ing) wireless billing into the bundle. While a relative signed up for the digital bundle in the summer of 2004, she was not able to receive a single bill for Internet/Phone/LD/Mobile until about May 2005 - and even then they could not get the order right without some additional phone calls to their service personnel. So the whole logistics of doing a bundle is too technically challenging for Bell.
During this period we also had to make several calls to their customer service personnel as they would randomly remove or change a service such that it was inconsistent with the original order. And the excuses they dreamed up!!! And you need to talk with a representative in each division to sort out the various services. From a billing perspective Bell should consider itself blessed that they cannot implement IPTV as soon as they had hoped. On the other hand I made one phone call to Rogers 18 months ago, was put onto their VIP service and have received correct bills for the past 18 months on their bundle plan with no need to call anyone for corrections. And they recently called me to reveiw my services; by the end of the conversation they had reduced my overall bill due to new features in their plan. Oh, and you make one call to someone who can handle all of Internet/Cable/Mobile/LD services. Sometimes it does not pay to look too deep for the motivation. Re: Bell Eliminates Bundle
by
Jim Courtney
on Sat 24 Sep 2005 04:31 PM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link
Maybe it has to do with their inability to, or late implementation of, incorporate(ing) wireless billing into the bundle. While a relative signed up for the digital bundle in the summer of 2004, she was not able to receive a single bill for Internet/Phone/LD/Mobile until about May 2005 - and even then they could not get the order right without some additional phone calls to their service personnel. So the whole logistics of doing a bundle is too technically challenging for Bell.
During this period we also had to make several calls to their customer service personnel as they would randomly remove or change a service such that it was inconsistent with the original order. And the excuses they dreamed up!!! And you need to talk with a representative in each division to sort out the various services. From a billing perspective Bell should consider itself blessed that they cannot implement IPTV as soon as they had hoped. On the other hand I made one phone call to Rogers 18 months ago, was put onto their VIP service and have received correct bills for the past 18 months on their bundle plan with no need to call anyone for corrections. And they recently called me to reveiw my services; by the end of the conversation they had reduced my overall bill due to new features in their plan. Oh, and you make one call to someone who can handle all of Internet/Cable/Mobile/LD services. Sometimes it does not pay to look too deep for the motivation. |
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