Ending a Long Term Relationship With Bell

Ever since Bell offered DSL service in Canada I have been using its service for my trading need. Before that I was their lease line customer. Well, way back then the direct line hook up was just 56K. For those who are curious, the line was needed for access to FutureSource, a data service that is now part of the eSignal family.

Back to the DSL service with Bell. I have moved, upgraded, adding dual connections, etc. with Bell and never think of switching over to another service. First, although they are more expensive comparing to 3rd party ISPs, Bell’s uptime was good. Second, they usually offers faster service before the other ISPs so I can always upgrade quickly should my need for more bandwidth arise.

This past year, Bell’s DSL service is no longer competitive. It’s downtime is significantly higher even comparing to its 3rd party resellers. And the speed I paid for is not what I am getting as well. Worst yet, talking to support to resolve the speed issue points me to upgrade to their optical service and throw me to their customer service department. Bell’s optical service is not available for my location. I was bounced around like a pinball for so many times that I realized one important thing – maybe it is time to switch.

What I learned from my investigation is that Bell and the other dominating players are not upgrading their networks to the best technology available to keep their costs down. At the same time, as long as there is not enough competition, they price their services all at the same rate with very similar features (i.e. access speed, max traffic, etc.) so that there is no hostile competition to steal each others customers. Very much the practice of oligopoly.

Glad I finally give up on Bell. If you are using an ISP with deteriorating service, you should consider switching too.

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