| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Internet Service Provider |
| Founded | November 29, 1995 |
| Headquarters | Montreal, Quebec |
| Products | xDSL, WiMax and dial-up |
| Parent | Bell Canada |
| Website | Bell Internet |
Bell Internet, originally and frequently called Sympatico, is the residential Internet service provider division of Bell Canada. It was affiliated with MSN. As of June 2009, Bell Internet had over 2 million subscribers in Ontario and Quebec and was the largest ISP in Canada.
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Sympatico was launched on November 29, 1995. Originally a national service operated jointly by Canada's incumbent local exchange carriers and operational run as a content portal by MediaLinx, the companies other than Bell[1] (including Aliant) have since retreated to their own brands.
Starting in Summer 2003, Sympatico tried to differentiate its service from its competitors by adding value-added services. This meant the launch of Radial Point's (formerly Zero Knowledge) suite of antivirus, firewall and anti-spyware services. Although a fee was originally required, this is no longer the case, as Bell now provides the service at no extra charge for DSL customers. In 2004, Sympatico added a wireless modem-router hardware upgrade and Microsoft's MSN Premium software to its portfolio. In Summer 2007, Sympatico packaged its Security suite and wireless home networking modem together with its high speed offering as Sympatico Total Internet.[2]
Bell Sympatico changed its name to Bell Internet on August 8, 2008, in conjunction with the Today Just Got Better rebranding. Bell subsidiaries NorthernTel, Télébec and Northwestel continue to brand their Internet services as Sympatico, and users receive an @ntl.sympatico.ca, @tlb.sympatico.ca, or @sympatico.ca email address, respectively.
In September of 2009, Bell and Microsoft Canada have decided to rename the Sympatico.msn.ca website to simply Sympatico.ca instead. Microsoft continues to provide free Bell-branded Hotmail accounts to Bell subscribers.
On January 3, 2012, customer advocacy blog Stop The Cap! reported that Bell lowered its bandwidth caps in Ontario and Quebec for all of its Fibe services, except for Fibe 6 and Fibe 7 which remain unchanged. All plans affected now have 10 GB less usage than before, except for the Fibe 25 plan in Ontario, which was lowered by 25 GB instead. It should be noted that Rogers Hi-Speed Internet offers 60 GB with its 12 Mbit/s plan, which is 1½ greater than what Bell offers with its Fibe 12 plan.
When Bell started its DSL Internet service, then known as Sympatico, it simply offered one DSL modem, which connected to only one computer. Later, it added more models with routing and wireless LAN capabilities built-in, eliminating the need to purchase additional hardware. Customers previously had to pay extra for such capabilities. Today, both of these features are standard in both all-in-one devices Bell lends to its customers. The most common device is the 2Wire 2701HG-G, which features the 802.11g wireless standard. Fibe 25 customers and those with the 7 Mbit/s upload speed upgrade must use another 802.11n-capable device instead, which also bundles a superior DSL modem.
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While Bell Internet mostly sells digital subscriber line (DSL) service, they also offer dial-up service to businesses and grandfathered residential customers. This legacy technology uses a telephone modem to provide Internet access.
Bell's digital subscriber line (DSL) services are based on ADSL and VDSL2 technology. The main differences in both equipments vary from the speed of signal, its length and its ability to overcome the noise of a phone line. Except for very few grandfathered customers, Bell has monthly data transfer limits for all of their tiered Internet services. Both downloads and uploads count towards the limit. The following Bell Internet services are only available in Ontario and Quebec, and availability varies by region. Fibe services can only be used where fiber-to-the-neighbourhood (FTTN) technology is deployed.
As of 3 January 2012[update], Bell offers the following DSL services:
| Service[3] | Speeds | Monthly bandwidth limits | P2P throttling[4] | Over Usage Charge | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Download | Upload | Ontario | Quebec | Starts at | Ends at | ||
| Essential (QC only) | 500 kbit/s | 500 kbit/s | — | 1 GB | 18:00 256 kbit/s | 01:00 | $2.50/GB |
| Essential Plus | 2 Mbit/s | 800 kbit/s | 2 GB | 5 GB | 16:30 512 kbit/s [note 1] | 02:00 | |
| Performance[note 2] | Variable | 1 Mbit/s | 25 GB | 60 GB | $2/GB | ||
| Fibe 6 (ON only) | 6 Mbit/s | — | |||||
| Fibe 7 (QC only) | 7 Mbit/s | — | 60 GB | ||||
| Fibe 10 (QC only) | 10 Mbit/s | — | 60 GB | $1.50/GB | |||
| Fibe 12 (ON only) | 12 Mbit/s | 40 GB | — | ||||
| Fibe 16 | 16 Mbit/s | 65 GB | 80 GB | $1/GB | |||
| Fibe 25 | 25 Mbit/s | 7 Mbit/s | 100 GB | 90 GB | |||
These are services offered by Bell Internet in addition to DSL services, either for free or at additional costs:
Bell previously offered Portable Internet and Rural Internet services in select rural regions, similarly to what Rogers Communications offered.[5] These services used the Inukshuk Wireless network. Bell is discontinuing these offerings. Customers are encouraged to use Bell Mobility Internet services instead, which generally offer a much lower bandwidth cap.
Bell Entertainment was a bundle offer which included Bell Fibe TV service and 25 Mbit/s "Fibe" DSL. It was only available in some parts of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). Customers can now add any DSL Internet plan to their Fibe TV service. Despite being an IPTV service, Bell does not charge usage-based billing for Bell Fibe TV.
Bell Internet has been criticized for its bandwidth cap, its involvement with Cybertip.ca, its throttling of bandwidth, and other reasons.
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