Bell will fold EBox into Distributel: Bell CFO

BCE Inc. is planning to maintain recently acquired Distributel Ltd. as a standalone company, but will incorporate it with its other fresh acquisition, EBox Inc., and will treat them both as part of the incumbent's "value segment." Bell chief financial officer Glen LeBlanc made the comments at the BMO Capital Markets Media & Telecom Conference in Toronto Tuesday, and added that he expects regulatory approval for the Distributel acquisition will take three to five months. LeBlanc said that the value segment of Bell's brands – such as Virgin and Lucky – are targeted at customers who want to spend less in exchange for slower speeds, which are generally capped at 100 Mbps download speed and 10 Mbps upload. "We think that these acquisitions can help accelerate that space, and it's an important space in Canada, albeit not our largest segment by any stretch," LeBlanc told investors, adding that because only about two per cent of Distributel's customers are outside Bell's footprint, there will be minimal implications of the acquisition in western Canada. The Bell executive also said that the company plans to make the case to the Competition Bureau, who must approve the Distributel acquisition, that there remains a robust marketplace for wholesale-based ISPs in Canada. "We'd like to point out to the regulator that the regime makes it fairly easy. We have a wholesale access rate regime in place. So I think the barriers to entry to allow new entrants or someone else to enter this market are fairly simple," LeBlanc said. "Consolidation in our industry continues to be a reality on this wholesale front, and I don't think that in any way reduces competition when you see the number of players that still exist, including the largest one" in TekSavvy Solutions Inc. Cogeco Inc. CEO Philippe Jetté, for his part, said that wholesale rates are too low when asked about the recent spate of acquisition. "We always look at building a healthy business by organic growth," he said. "We have not looked, really, on the retail side, because we're a network builder." "There is a problem. The problem is that internet wholesale rates are too low," he said, adding that the CRTC has not included any adjustment for inflation in its costing model. — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca

Bell will fold EBox into Distributel: Bell CFO

News | September 13, 2022

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Bell will fold EBox into Distributel: Bell CFO

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