Cell Phones, etc. 

Cell Phones, etc.

My wife and I each have a cell phone. I use mine mainly to call her; she takes some calls from her friends. We've been on a Bell Mobility plan for years, but we decided to go to Rogers, where we already have cable TV and the Internet, to benefit from a "bundled" price.

Learning curve: a lot of features on these phones. Our son (age 15 and a half) had to get us going. I'm still looking for a ring tone that sounds like a ringing telephone.

The switch has made me reflect that Bell is in trouble. We recently visited with some people we know who work there--and they confirmed this.

Bell started out with better coverage from cell phone towers than anyone else--that difference seems to have disappeared. Their core service was the home telephone--which people would presumably continue to pay for, even though most of them get very little work from Bell out of it. Now young people are prepared to abandon the home phone for a cool cell phone--and Rogers is offering home phone service.

The future of TV? Digital, which Rogers has. Bell offers satellite--apparently, still a profitable business for them.

The future of the internet? AOL, one of the first internet providers, heavily reliant on dial-up, is bankrupt.

I was a meeting some years ago with a guy who had earlier been Bell's VP of pay phones. That's right--pay phones.