Bell Canada Enterprises

Telecommunications companies of Canada

BCE is Canada’s largest communications company, providing the most comprehensive and innovative suite of communication services to residential and business customers in Canada.

Under the Bell brand, the Company’s services include local, long distance and wireless phone services, high-speed and wireless Internet access, IP-broadband services, information and communications technology services (or value-added services) and direct-to-home satellite and VDSL television services. BCE also holds an interest in CTVglobemedia, Canada’s premier media company.

BCE shares are listed in Canada and the United States.

In 1844, the first telegraph messages of Samuel Morse gave wings to words and freed communication from its dependence on the speed of a horse, slow-moving railways or the uncertain progress of sailing vessels. Telegraphic communication spawned a huge industry, but it was inevitable that human ingenuity would advance the telegraph idea one step further. By the 1850’s, scientists were conducting experiments to invent an electrical device that had the benefit of voice transmission. In the summer of 1874, Alexander Graham Bell discussed his theories on the subject with his father, Professor Alexander Melville Bell, at the family home in Brantford (Ontario). He received a patent for the electric-speaking telephone on March 7, 1876.

Contrary to popular perception, it wasn’t Alexander Graham Bell who introduced the telephone to Canada — it was his father, Professor Melville Bell. In the summer of 1877, the son assigned 75% of the Canadian rights on the telephone to his father. Now 58 years old, Melville Bell had been a teacher all his life. He unveiled the new technology to the public in a series of lectures.

“We seem to penetrate into a spirit-world and hear the very ghosts of sound. It depends upon the speaker whether these aerial shapes are dim or clear in outline. The telephone presents them, however faint, with perfect definiteness, if they have been so moulded by the speaker’s lips.”

— Melville Bell lecture, January 1878.

Though one might find the above description amusing, the following quote indicates that Melville Bell had a very clear idea of the potential of telephony in the future — something shared by few businessmen at the time:

“Experiments are still going on to render the instrument more sensitive and more resonant; and there seems no reason to doubt that it will ultimately be made to convey the voice over our longest submarine cables, and to bring England and America, Australia and India all within mutual speaking distance.”

— Melville Bell lecture, January 1878.

The telephone of Melville’s era was constructed of wood in the shape of a box or a butter stamp. The same instrument served as both transmitter and receiver that the subscriber moved from mouth to ear and back again. Understandably, much of the conversation was lost. Clients could also obtain a signalling device: a bell activated by a hand generator. The rental fee was about $40 per year, although the rate varied for certain customers. Pastors and physicians paid less or sometimes received the instrument free of charge. Subscribers connected the telephones themselves on a private line using single iron wire, hung from roofs or strung on fence posts. These lines were built between, for example, home and business or store and factory. In short, Melville Bell offered a manufactured product, not a service. Melville Bell’s first customer was Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie who leased a pair of telephones in 1877 for use between his office and Rideau Hall — proof that Professor Bell had good marketing sense!

Melville Bell’s “lecture tours” drew the attention of at least two major Canadian telegraph companies: Montreal Telegraph and Dominion Telegraph, fierce competitors. Both coveted a stake in the telephone business. In February 1879, Dominion Telegraph concluded an agreement with Professor Bell to market the Bell telephone. At the same time, Montreal Telegraph acquired the rights to distribute Edison telephones. The keen competition between these two companies had negative effects: Montreal Telegraph subscribers and Dominion Telegraph subscribers couldn’t telephone each other and city streets were invaded by a profusion of poles and wires. The public remained split between enthusiasm for the novelty and scepticism regarding its practical application.

During the summer of 1879, Melville Bell decided to sell his rights to the telephone. He and Mrs. Bell were eager to join their son in Washington, D.C. Potential Canadian purchasers declined, considering the venture either too risky or too expensive. The rights were sold to National Bell of Boston, owners of Graham Bell’s patent in the United States. National Bell president W.H. Forbes chose a Boston businessman, Charles Fleetford Sise, as General Manager and instructed him to organize a Canadian company on a national basis.

Sise arrived in Montreal in March 1880. Throughout the year, he worked tirelessly to establish and develop the telephone industry in Canada and is acknowledged as the founder of The Bell Telephone Company of Canada, incorporated by federal charter on April 29, 1880. The Directors selected a prominent Montreal businessman, Andrew Robertson, as the company’s first president and Montreal as the location of the Head Office.

By the end of 1880, Sise had purchased the existing telephone interests in Canada, including those of The Dominion Telegraph Company and The Montreal Telegraph Company. The company offered telephone service in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba and had interests in British Columbia. The Bell Telephone Company of Canada employed 150 people, serving about 2,100 subscribers distributed as follows:

Cities     Telephones

Montréal     546
Toronto     353
Hamilton     181
Québec     79
Ottawa     230
Others     711

Sise understood that owning and operating a few isolated and incompatible exchanges did not make a real business. The telephone’s success rested on creating a network. In the spring of 1881, the Company constructed the first “long-distance” line in Canada between Toronto and Hamilton. The General Manager was so committed to the project that he advanced the funds from his personal savings to ensure its completion.

The fight came to Sise on every front. From the outset, monetary and other forces — political, geographical, and social — hampered his ambitious plan to establish a coast-to-coast telephone service.

The Bell Company owned several telephone patents, including the key one issued to Graham Bell. These patents were crucial to the early business and blocked eager entrepreneurs from entering this exciting new field. In 1881, Sise created the Mechanical Department (now Nortel Networks) in Montréal to assemble the American-made telephone parts. Economic nationalism was on the rise in Canada in 1880. Prime Minister Macdonald had been elected two years earlier on a platform of “National Policy.” Would-be competitors pounced on the article of the law requiring that all patented products must be manufactured in the country. Sise argued that he was complying with this provision. The government disagreed and on January 24, 1885, voided the Bell patent, ending the Company’s exclusive right to manufacture and distribute the telephone.

Geographical and social factors presented Sise with additional challenges. In distant British Columbia, a local telephone company, already operating under license, had been established prior to 1880. In the Maritimes, a cash-strapped Bell had sold off all its plant by 1889, but retained certain interests. In the Prairies, where the Company had been present since 1887, the citizen-led movement of the early 1900’s pressured government take-over of telephone service. As a result, Bell sold its plant and interests in Manitoba and Alberta in 1908 and in Saskatchewan the following year. Bell’s operations were now concentrated in Québec and Ontario.

The year 1915 was a turning point in the history of the telephone: the first transcontinental telephone call took place. Distance had been conquered. In New York, a white-haired Graham Bell repeated his famous sentence: “Mr. Watson, come here, I need you.” From San Francisco, the now well-known electrician answered, “This time, I’m afraid it will take a little more time, Mr. Bell!” Montreal and Vancouver spoke for the first time in 1916, via Canadian and U.S. circuits. People crowded into the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montreal and the Globe Theatre in Vancouver to witness this historic communication. The era of industrial telephone service had begun. In the space of a single generation, the pair of telephones connected by private line had become an extensive network.

Charles Fleetford Sise retired in 1915 at the age of eighty. His reign had lasted thirty-five years. He left a company with 2,235 shareholders and a work force of almost 8,000 employees. Two figures illustrate his contribution to the Canadian telephone industry:

Few Canadian companies can boast a continuous history since the 19th century; a history rich in technological and social achievements that helped to lay the foundations for modern Canadian society. Bell Canada’s success story highlights the organization’s proven ability to move forward with the times and technological innovation. The story doesn’t end here. The Company continues to demonstrate its leadership in the communications industry as we push forward into the 21st century.

Canada Business Directory @ January 17, 2009