My own saga is complete now, and some interesting lessons learned.

I was with Rogers for Mobile, internet and TV for over 15 years. I was generally satisfied but Rogers are high maintenance, with most activities requiring a phone call. Those calls were frustrating because I could tell the agent was operating multiple systems which were very slow to respond. There were very few calls less than an hour.

I am now with Bell.

Fast forward to the last year and following two severe full network failures I had had enough and realised I had not followed my own long learned rules of procurement and assessing the service against the competition.

When I looked at Bell, I quickly realise the differences were significant in areas of

• system capability (speed, capacity, performance)
• price
• service level, uptime
• network growth and innovation (fibre, 5G+)

Those items were enough to be convinced but the final kicker was my own building which was converted to fibre 5 years ago by a company I had never heard of, however it turns out this was part of Bells migration from Satellites to fibre, building by building. I bypassed them and went straight to Bell.

The result was I am now fully converted to Bell and very happy. Here are some observations:

• download speed trebled – real gig speed download
• upload faster than download
• less and smaller hardware – 30 min installation time
• 100% service using the app. I have not spoken to any Bell customer service people. (Sorry people)
• Price is 50% of what I paid at Rogers (yeas 50% – this was a shocker)

The only comment I would make to Bell is to focus on the benefits of what they have built in their service to consumers. I would have moved sooner had I known. But I do not trust marketing, so cannot complain. I am happy with the move and looking forward to the Rogers Ambassadors calls ceasing.

Lessons for digitisation taken from Bells network

1. Focus on the network reliability, performance and capabilities
2. Design the app as a people replacement (sorry agents). Transactional activities, such as channel changes, bill management and direct debit set up are all things the customer can handle.
3. Go big with important things, not incremental change..