Bell Canada, commonly shortened to "Bell", is a major Canadian telecommunications company. Including its subsidiaries such as Bell Aliant, Northwestel, Télébec, and NorthernTel, it is the incumbent local exchange carrier for telephone services in most of Canada east of Manitoba and in the northern territories, and a leading competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) in the western provinces. In a majority of its service territory, Bell Canada's principal competition is Rogers Communications. Bell Canada currently services over 13 million phone lines.

Bell Canada is the main remaining asset of BCE Inc. (tsx: BCE, nyse: BCE), also known as Bell Canada Enterprises, a former conglomerate operating in a variety of businesses. BCE ranks number 224 on the Forbes Global 2000 list (2008 edition). In 2007, BCE accepted a purchase offer from a group led by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. The final terms of the agreement were settled in July, 2008, and George Cope was appointed CEO.

History

Historically, Bell Canada has been one of Canada's most important and most powerful companies, and in 1975 was listed as the fifth largest in the country.

Inception

Since the early years of The Bell Telephone Company of Canada, Ltd., it was known colloquially as "The Bell" or "Bell Canada." On 7 March 1968 Canadian law renamed The Bell Telephone Company of Canada, Ltd., as Bell Canada.

Competition and territory reduction

Bell Canada originally extended lines clear from Nova Scotia to the foot of the Rocky Mountains in what is now Alberta. However, most of the attention given to meeting demand for service focused on major cities in Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritime Provinces.

During the late 19th century, Bell sold its Atlantic operations in the three Maritime provinces, but acquired interests in all Atlantic companies during the early 1960s. It held interests in the parents of NBTel, Island Telecom, NewTel, and MTT. These four companies later merged into Aliant in the late 1990s, in which Bell continues to own a stake.

Independent companies appeared in many areas of Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime provinces without adequate Bell Canada service. Bell went on during the 20th century to acquire most of the independent companies in Ontario and Quebec. Quebec, however, still has large swaths of relatively rural areas served by Québec Telephone (later acquired by Telus) and Télébec as well as some 20 small independent companies. As of 1980, Ontario still had some 30 independent companies, and Bell has not acquired any; the smaller ones were sold to larger independents with larger capital resources.