At its recent business review conference, BCE announced that this spring its various subsidiaries would be hiking the fees for various products:
- Long-distance monthly network charge: $4.50 (up from $2.95).
- Bell Sympatico High Speed monthly subscription: $46.95 (up from $44.95).
- Bell ExpressVu access charge: $5.99 (up from $2.99).
We don’t subscribe to satellite TV but we are customers of Sympatico High Speed and I am not very happy about the price hike. If any reader has a recommendation for a good DSL service in the Ottawa area, please do leave a comment. I would be interested in exploring competing options.
If you are a Bell customer for long-distance, it is now doubly important to shop around. Long-distance phone service is a commodity subject to cutthroat competition and there are plenty of companies offering rock bottom per-minute charges. There is just no reason to keep paying a monthly fee.
At our household, we have been Yak’s residential long-distance service for a couple of years now. Yak, which charges no monthly fees or minimums and 3.5¢ per minute for calls to Canada and the United States, would be a good choice for long-distance service.
Related: Frugal Focus recently discussed how much legacy long-distance was costing him and how he switched providers.
FD: Though I am not a fan of their products, I do own shares in BCE (TSX: BCE). Sadly, I do think that most people never bother to check their phone bills and will keep paying monthly fees, so my dividends should be safe.
