Bell Fibe TV

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This article is about the service offered in major cities in Ontario and Quebec. For the similar service offered by Bell Aliant in Atlantic Canada, see FibreOP.
Bell Fibe TV
Company typeSubsidiary of Bell Canada
IndustryTelecommunications
PredecessorBell Entertainment Service
FoundedSeptember 13, 2010
Headquarters
Montreal, Quebec
,
Canada
Area served
Canada
ProductsIPTV
ParentBCE Inc.
WebsiteBell Fibe TV

Bell Fibe TV is an IP-based television service offered by Bell Canada in Ontario and Quebec. It is bundled with a FTTN or FTTH Bell Internet service, and uses the Ericsson Mediaroom platform.

Bell Fibe TV officially launched on September 13, 2010 and is currently available only in select areas of Ontario and Quebec. Service will gradually be expanded and it is expected that Fibe TV will be available to nearly 5 million households by the end of 2015.[1]

History

Bell began researching for a new television solution in 2004 in order to penetrate into urban markets where building owners restricted the installation of satellite dishes. The launch of Bell ExpressVu for Condos (VDSL service) proved to be ineffective since that service did not allow for customers to benefit from HD programming and PVR options. In 2006, after much research was done, Bell started testing a new technology called IPTV in Toronto, Quebec City and Montreal with Bell employees using the ADSL platform. In October 2007, Bell finally launched a pilot project of IPTV branded as Bell Entertainment Service in select areas and buildings of Toronto. Most of the features that are now available with Fibe TV were offered with Bell Entertainment Service. Some key traits of Bell Entertainment Service were internet and TV charges being billed as one service, "White Glove" customer service and media sharing. After finalizing testing for the new IPTV service in the following years, Bell finally rolled out a contained launch in Toronto and Montreal under the "Fibe TV" brand name in June 2010 followed by an official launch later that year in September.

Availability

Bell Fibe TV is currently available in select areas of Ontario and Quebec with ongoing expansion in both provinces. limited in specific neighbourhoods in London

Ontario Quebec
Almonte1 Gatineau
Amherstburg
Carleton Place1 Montreal
Guelph Quebec City
Kingston Sherbrooke
Kitchener
Ottawa
Toronto
Mississauga
Niagara
Waterloo
Windsor
Greater Sudbury

1Fibe TV in Almonte and Carleton Place is only available in areas that are served by FTTH.

Hardware

Bell Fibe TV receivers are manufactured by Arris formerly Motorola. The three models that are currently being offered to subscribers are the whole home PVR (VIP 2262), wired HD Receiver (VIP 2202) and wireless HD Receiver (VIP 2502). The HD Receiver can only view programming and does not contain a hard drive, however it is able to record and access recorded programs through the networked whole home PVR.

The PVR includes an internal 500GB and 1TB hard disk drive for recording programs. The PVR and wired HD receivers can be connected to the network through either a coaxial cable or Category 5 cable and the wireless HD receiver connects using 5 GHz 802.11n.[2]

Features

Features of Bell Fibe TV include the following:

  • Whole Home PVR: a brand name also used by many of Bell's competitors. It describes a system where all receivers in a household are connected together via a local network. This allows viewers to record, pause and playback content from any room in the house. Fibe TV PVR's can store up to 150 hours of HD (300 hours of standard) content.
  • Fibe TV On Demand: a VOD service with over 1000 titles, including movies & TV series
  • Ability to search for programs by title, cast members, or a simple keyword search. The electronic program guide has 14 days worth of listings and allows viewers to customize the display to show their favourite channels.
  • Picture in picture browsing and channel surfing: viewers can watch one channel and browse other channels or channel listings.
  • Changing channels happens with virtually no delay compared to satellite service.
  • For every standard definition channel subscribed to, customers receive the HD version (when available) at no extra charge in Ontario. Since the programming options are different in Québec, HD channels are included in "The Basic" package but need to be selected separately for any "A La Carte" option.
  • TV based apps such as Facebook, Twitter and The Weather Network

Channels

Bell Fibe TV provides over 500 channels including all major Canadian and US networks, popular specialty services, PPV, sports packages, over 85 international services and over 115 high-definition channels.[3] Key services include:

Internet service

Bell Fibe TV requires a Bell Internet subscription. The speed listed for the Internet connection remains unused for the television service. For example, the Fibe 175/175 plan actually has 200 Mbit/s symmetric bandwidth. Of this, 175 is dedicated for Internet usage, while up to 25 is set aside for TV.

With the 25 Mbit/s dedicated bandwidth, it is possible to watch or record up to four channels simultaneously but only up to three in HD. So to view four channels one of them must be in SD.

References

  1. ^ "Bell Canada | Bell Fibe TV launches in Toronto and Montréal". Newswire.ca. 2010-09-13. Retrieved 2013-08-25.
  2. ^ "Bell Fibe TV User Guide" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-10-02.
  3. ^ "Fibe TV Interactive Channel List". Bell. Retrieved 2014-11-16.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bell_Fibe_TV&oldid=726200188"