Bell Canada’s Solo going head-to-head against Fido

Bell Canada president and COO George Cope said during the company’s annual business review conference in Toronto this week that if there is going to be a discount wireless brand in the market, then Bell will have one, too. The message underscored the venerable telecommunications giant’s new commitment to winning in the market and taking its fair share of new customers. Part of Bell’s strategy will be to reposition the Solo brand as a direct competitor to Rogers Communications’ Fido brand, a move that started about two months ago and will continue throughout next year. Cope said Bell needs to keep pace with its main rivals – Rogers and Telus Corp. – in terms of average revenue per user (ARPU), but perhaps more importantly the Montreal-based communications giant needs to do a better job of getting its fair share of gross additions. "We can’t have one competitor getting north of 40% of the gross adds," he said referring to Rogers. And this is where the Solo brand will play a critical role in the future, noted Cope, because the Fido brand is contributing a significant chunk of the gross additions that Rogers is capturing. Under the leadership of Wade Oosterman, president of Bell Mobility, the Solo brand will become identical to the Fido brand. "We have matched all the Fido pricing with the Solo brand, will be separate from the Bell brand so can maintain the premium brand position it wants in the marketplace," Cope states. Bell will concentrate on a number of areas to make the Solo brand more competitive with the Fido brand, according to the Bell Canada president. "We will open stores, we will access distribution that’s different, we’ll access products that different and we’ll go after a part of that share of the market that today Rogers is getting in gross adds," he said. "That’ll be a strategy we’ll execute on, have begun to execute on….You will begin to see in 2007." Going toe-to-toe with Fido in the pre-paid market is only part of a broader strategy aimed at improving the overall results of Bell Mobility. The one-time largest wireless operator in Canada has struggled the last couple of years as the broader company underwent a massive restructuring designed to improve the cost structure of BCE Inc. Bell Mobility is starting to perform better in the market and has made progress in improving ARPU and reducing churn. One of the key measures of success in the future will be getting the per-user revenue rate to levels similar to those of Rogers and Telus, a move that should result in the financial return projected, explained Cope. However, he added that this doesn’t necessarily mean wholesale price increases. "It comes from who you market to and the type of clients you attract. So we have to improve our mix of clients, we have to continue to drive data usage, clearly some targeted price increases, but move our branding and the quality of our network as what we’re selling," he said, adding that free phone offers have been removed from any marketing or promotional activities.

Bell Canada’s Solo going head-to-head against Fido

News | December 14, 2006

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