Message from
the President and CEO President and Chief
Executive Officer
BCE Inc. and Bell
Canada
Message from our CEO
Delivering best-ever connectivity to more Canadians
At Bell, our purpose is to advance how Canadians connect with each other and the world, and today we are providing more Canadians than ever with the best in communications technologies while always prioritizing customer service and support for the communities we serve.
Bell is a technology services and media leader. Our sophisticated networks and services – among the fastest in North America – are foundational, enabling millions of Canadians to connect as never before.
Achieving this new height is the direct result of our consistent focus on six, purpose-driven strategic imperatives – build the best networks; drive growth with innovative services; deliver the most compelling content; champion customer experience; operate with agility and cost efficiency; and engage and invest in our people and create a sustainable future.
In step with our 2022 accomplishments and the positive environmental, social and economic changes driven by our leading ESG and Bell for Better actions and commitments, today Bell is uniquely positioned to deliver more than ever for consumers, businesses, innovators, communities, our team members and shareholders.
Unparalleled reach and reliability
At the outset of COVID-19, Bell chose to accelerate investments in our broadband, wireless and core networks to help Canadians address and recover from the pandemic. Since 2020 and through the end of 2022, Bell has led Canada’s communications industry with capital expenditures of $14 billion, including a historic high of $5.1 billion in 2022.
Supported by these investments, Bell today delivers advanced broadband services to millions of urban and rural homes and businesses throughout our service footprint in Atlantic Canada, Québec, Ontario and Manitoba. This includes the addition in 2022 of 854,000 new customer locations with access to Bell pure fibre. We also launched multi-gigabit services – including Bell Gigabit Fibe 8.0, North America’s fastest Internet when introduced – as well as the new Giga Hub with Wi-Fi 6E to best connect multiple devices in a single location. And we continue working with all levels of government to deliver fibre to many remote areas, including Indigenous and northern communities.
Bell’s 5G wireless network is currently available to more than 80% of Canadians in all 10 provinces. We also launched Bell 5G+ in 2022, which currently reaches 38% of the national population, providing even faster and more responsive connections.
Prioritizing customers
At Bell, we know that Canadians rely on us to keep them connected. We continued to exceed 99.99% reliability across our networks in 2022, and when extreme events like Hurricane Fiona put our services to the test, the resiliency of our core networks and the tremendous efforts of Bell team members made a massive, positive difference for customers.
In 2022, Bell led all national service providers in significantly reducing complaints to the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services, our seventh consecutive year of improvement. We also continued to develop our award-winning MyBell, Virgin Plus My Account and Lucky Mobile My Account apps, delivering more real-time information and capabilities than ever as part of initiatives that help make it easier for customers to do business with Bell.
Always at the forefront of developments in communications technologies, in 2022 we launched Bell Ventures to support early-stage growth companies developing new solutions that harness the power of our networks. We also built on our partnership with Amazon Web Services to launch Bell Public MEC with AWS Wavelength, a multi-access edge computing service that unlocks more opportunities for Canadian businesses to adopt augmented reality/virtual reality, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and advanced robotics to innovate faster and push boundaries like never before.
And we delivered more compelling content, viewable anytime, anywhere for English- and French-language audiences over our innovative digital platforms, including the newly launched TSN+ streaming product, as well as iHeartRadio and Crave, Canada’s only direct-to-consumer bilingual streaming service.
Investing in communities and our team
Our ESG and Bell for Better initiatives are cornerstones for building a more sustainable and resilient future, and Bell Let’s Talk has been critical to growing support for mental health. As part of the most recent annual Bell Let’s Talk Day, we announced $10 million in additional funds for mental health – our largest commitment ever on Bell Let’s Talk Day – and adjusted our focus to highlight meaningful actions community-based mental health organizations are taking across Canada every day.
Bell team members also know that our commitment to community extends to the workplace. As highlighted with our new Employee Value Proposition launched in 2022, today we offer more opportunities than ever for team members to grow and succeed. Our Bell for Better and diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging initiatives – including our strong focus on gender parity, BIPOC representation on teams across the country, learning and skills development and a more accessible work environment – reflect values we are proud to build on.
On behalf of all Bell team members, thank you to all our stakeholders for your ongoing support – together we are driving important changes forward as we advance how Canadians connect with each other and the world.
