Bell Canada's marketing gurus seem to have taken a page from Verizon's playbook for fiber broadband when they named their new Fiber to the Node-based 'Fibe' broadband service. The name 'Fibe,' as pointed out by Broadband DSL Reports, is somewhat misleading in that unlike all-fiber broadband service where the fiber goes all the way to the side of the home, Bell Canada's service drives fiber to a node located likely 3,000 feet near a home and then uses a copper-based VDSL2 connection to connect to the end customer.
But if you're lucky to live in an area where Bell has plowed fiber near your neighborhood, you can get your choice of four service grades: Fibe 6/1 Mbps, Fibe 12/1Mbps, Fibe 18/1 Mbps and Fibe 25/7 Mbps. Of course, there's a catch with the service. Bell places 25, 50, and 75 GB monthly usage caps on each of the service tiers. What's more, you'll have to pay an extra $5 if you just buy the 'Fibe' without bundling in its new IPTV or satellite TV service.
While it's clear that Bell, like Qwest and AT&T, is set on juicing as much out of its existing copper network as it can in Brownfield areas, its actions mirror the war of words in the U.S. that have emerged between cable operators and the large telcos. Comcast, for example, came under fire from the Better Business Bureau over its claims that it has an all fiber access network, when in actuality it's still connecting to the customer via coax. Whatever the arguments are, the end result is a misleading message for consumers.
For more:
- Broadband DSL Reports has this article
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