Letter #1 to Bell Canada

On August 3, 2010, I sent the following letter to the Manager of Development and Municipal Services at Bell Canada.  As of September 14, 2010, I have not received any acknowledgment, let alone a response to its contents.  I will be sending and posting my follow up letter shortly.  I will also be posting any responses received.

We are writing Bell Canada today to appeal for high speed internet access to be provided for not only our home, but also for our neighbourhood. We believe that this installation would not only be beneficial for us, but for Bell Canada as well. We ask that you consider our request and direct it to the person who can best establish a solution.



Background


We live at -- Parr Boulevard in the Township of Springwater, County of Simcoe. Our street alone contains 44 estate homes. The subdivision is bounded by Sunnidale Road (County Road 40) to the north, County Road 90 to the south, and is located between the City of Barrie (population 125,000) and the Town of Angus (population 10,212, including Canadian Forces Base Borden). Both communities are fully serviced with multiple high speed internet service providers.


I have attached an aerial photograph of the area taken in 2008. In this small overhead picture, there are at least 108 residences in the immediate vicinity as well as the Essa Transformer Station operated by Hydro One.


Also visible in this aerial photograph, is a Bell telecommunications facility located at 2129 Sunnidale Road – a mere 0.8km from the beginning of our street. We contacted Bell Canada and have been advised that a high speed dsl internet connection is not currently available to our home. To say that we are perplexed is an understatement. According to Bell Canada, our opportunities are:

• Dial-up service; or
• Bell mobile internet stick with speeds up to 7mbps (the advertised rate of up to 21 mbps is not available in our area due to obsolete tower infrastructure).

We have also contacted the County of Simcoe regarding their Rural Connections Broadband Program in conjunction with Bell Aliant (a Bell Canada company). We have been advised that if successful, the maximum speed for this service at our location is up to 2 mbps. A quick visit to the Bell website advises that this is the same maximum speed as dial-up service.


Given the above and after researching the coverage maps provided on the Bell Canada website, we ordered the Novatel U998 stick. To date, the service has been completely unacceptable. At best, we receive one bar of signal strength with a connection that lasts for 30 minutes. Typically, our service is intermittent, unreliable, and frustrating. We have contacted Bell Canada technical support (ticket #3000250) but to date, we have not received a reply or a solution.


In the year 2010, an internet speed of up to 2mbps is completely unacceptable. We live in a populated area adjacent to a Bell facility, Hydro One facility, and are located between an urban centre and a suburban area, both serviced with high speed internet providers. We have confirmed with Hydro One personnel that high speed internet is available at their site. A resident of our street was one of the trades participating in the construction of the 2129 Sunnidale Road Bell telecommunications facility and was told at the time that the facility would be able to service our street with high speed internet access. This unfortunately has not yet occurred.


What’s In It For Us?


We will not provide a large discussion as to why high speed internet is an important and integral service to a community as we are sure you are well aware of the benefits. But we would ask you to imagine your own life without high speed internet access at home for months on end. Think of what it is like to not have access for even one week. We can tell you that it is an isolating and frustrating existence.


As a result of this lack of service, our neighbourhood is denied opportunities that could benefit people financially, emotionally, and socially.


What’s In It for Bell Canada?


There would be numerous benefits to Bell Canada should high speed internet access be proved to Parr Boulevard. For example:

• By becoming the original supplier of high speed internet to the area, a loyalty pattern could be established by the 108 residents in the area. That is 108 accounts not held by Rogers, Telus, or any of the other emerging providers. People are generally lazy and typically do not switch providers once they are established.
• If high speed internet is provided to the area, there are further opportunities for Bell Canada loyalty by “bundling” other services (such as home phone, internet, satellite tv, wireless). Once residents establish that they can get a high speed connection from only one provider (Bell Canada), they may be willing to switch all of their other household accounts to Bell.
• If high speed internet is provided to the area, people may consider operating businesses from home at which time Bell Canada could also benefit from additional business accounts including phone lines, fax lines, cellular services, etc.
• From a revenue point of view, current high speed internet rates are approximately $45/month. That is $540 a year, per household. With 44 households on the street, there is a potential investment in Bell Canada of $23,760 per year. That is for internet service alone and does not include the potential for the bundling of other services and loyalty that could possibly be attributed to Bell Canada.

We understand the difficulties and cost of servicing rural areas, however, there appears to be an adequate population base and the proximity to an existing Bell Canada facility to support the infrastructure. We ask you to reconsider our neighbourhood-specific situation and ask that a solution be considered to provide a high speed dsl connection.

We would be willing to engage in any dialogue, correspondence, or meetings necessary to implement a strategy. We can be reached at ---.---.----. We thank you for your time and consideration.