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October 15, 2025 8:41 am  #1


End of an Era - Bell to Scrap Set Top Boxes

Here is an article that appeared today in the star. My main comment is that the Fibe app is horribly flawed - doesn't work properly on my TVs that have built-in apps, and unreliable on FireTV OS.   When I switched from Bell Internet at $132+ per month to Distributel Internet $49.99 per month, the Bell app won't allow me to watch a number of channels and some such as Global Calgary won't record on their "cloud".  Bell's customer service is clueless.  The Fibe App thinks I'm watching "out of home".  Distributel is 100% owned by Bell, - on Bell's fibre to the home...and installed by a Bell Installer.  Of course Bell's customer service agents deny that Bell has any connection to Distributel...much less that their (Bell) employees drive Bell trucks and perform the installations and in-home service.  Baaaaah!
I suspect that anyone who uses their own set top boxes, or Smart TVs with the Bell Fibe app will suffer a similar fate.

One other comment.  Bell terminated its lease on its 2nd Nimiq  satellite in September after culling dozens of channels and shutting down competitors' TV services.  Everything is crammed onto a single satellite.  The bit rates are even worse than before. The problem which arose, with the "single" satellite change is that everyone has a legacy system with a 2-satellite feed and switch. That's over 1 million subscribers....The set-top legacy satellite boxes are really "dumb" devices (very old devices - hardly a model upgrade in more than a decade), but all satellite set top boxes can be updated through satellite delivered software downloads.  Apparently no one at Bell even thought that there would be a problem. For weeks several of my receivers malfunctioned. Rescans, resets, etc, failed to correct the problem. The receiver would stall at a "page" that presented an error message- that there was a satellite "missing".  Changing channels became a case of russian roulette.  Sometimes the satellite receiver would "find" the channel (on niimiq 91 degrees), but most of the time it was locked up looking for the non-existent 81 degree (defunct nimiq) satellite. I found the solution on Reddit...not on Bell's own user forrum, or elsewhere on the Bell site.  Par for the  course Bell did not provide any useful information - how to bypass the problem.   I suspect that no one at the bell executive level has done a "real" focus group with their legacy subscribers....much yess used their products in their homes across various (legacy) receivers, set top boxes, etc. You might ask why I don't switch?  I own the set top boxes outright and pay a small service charge per month for full warranty replacement. My satellite boxes have plenty of recording capacity, are quite reliable, not subject to Internet outages, and I've figured out a way to keep my monthly bills low, receiving only the channels that I really want.  I can live without CP24, CBC News channel, CTV News Channel, which each cost $7 per month a la carte (if you don't buy a horribly expensive upper bell tier).  And while on this rant, Rogers' Comcast service would cost me more per month to rent their Xfinity set top boxes, than my bare-bones Bell satellite "entry" programming  tier.  I'm looking to save money rather than increase costs.

Here's the article

Say so long to your Bell set-top box.
Bell Canada’s parent company is going all-in on its digital transformation, including a plan to scrap the box — the ubiquitous in-home digital interface that connects fibre networks to televisions — in favour of direct streaming on a smart TV or device a customer already owns.
The announcement by BCE Inc., was one of several made by the company Tuesday at an investors day event held in the ballroom of the Delta Hotels Toronto that laid out the company’s plans for growth. 
The set-top boxes will be phased out starting in January for new customers. People renting boxes from Bell can return them if they have a smart TV that can download and stream Bell’s Fibe TV app. 
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
The company also announced plans to launch the ‘unbreakable internet’ in the spring, which will continue to connect you to the web during power outages through a combination of wireless backups, enabled by Bell Mobility 5G smartphones, and the fibre network’s passive optical technology which can transmit data without power.
 
“Consumers want access to rich content any time, anywhere, on any device,” Mirko Bibic, president and CEO of Bell Canada, told an audience of financial advisers and shareholders on Tuesday. “In short, the world is moving to ultra-connectivity.”
Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press file photo
“We see an insatiable appetite for data,” Mirko Bibic, president and CEO of Bell Canada, told an audience of financial advisers and shareholders. “Consumers want access to rich content any time, anywhere, on any device. In short, the world is moving to ultra-connectivity.”
Bell made a number of other announcements on Tuesday, including new tiered wireless plans with rates based on services, and said it will launch internet services in British Columbia and Alberta in the coming weeks.
The event was a three-year look ahead for the company, which estimates it’s current annual revenues of nearly $25 billion will increase two to four per cent between 2025 and 2028, not only by growing internet, digital and mobile services as well as cybersecurity, but through products such as Bell AI Fabric, which it launched this year.
Bell is building six data centres in Canada in order to provide enough computing power to complete AI high-performance tasks, and is partnering with Canadian chip manufacturer Groq Canada on Bell AI Fabric, for use by government and large Canadian organizations.
The company also expects to save $1.5 billion in the next three years through efficiencies, including using artificial intelligence to enhance customer experience, something it hasn’t always been known for.
“This is an area where we’ve historically fallen short as an industry and certainly here at Bell,” said Kris Somers, Bell’s senior V-P of investor relations.
Somers said the company started to make meaningful changes after receiving the highest proportion of complaints among the Big Three telecoms to the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Service in 2019.
The commission, an independent organization, resolves customer complaints about Canadian telecommunications and television service providers.
Somers said Bell now has the lowest proportion of complaints. 
The company developed an AI virtual repair system in 2022 that has eliminated more than a million technical support calls and has an AI virtual assistant to direct customers to the right department. 
Bell also announced that in January, it will no longer sell Virgin internet or Virgin’s affordable television streaming service, but the company said that existing subscribers will continue to have the service
 


 

Last edited by tvguy (October 15, 2025 8:56 am)

 

October 15, 2025 11:45 am  #2


Re: End of an Era - Bell to Scrap Set Top Boxes

Telus has already moved to internet-based distribution and an app-centric interface (Telus now gives out an Android TV box with the Telus TV app as the primary app, but you can also download any streaming apps available on Google TV).

While I appreciate the consistency of the app’s user experience between any device, I hate how delayed all the TV signals are - especially sports channels. They are at least 1-2 minutes behind real time and frequently the sports apps notify me of goals before I’m able to see them on TV. All their channels are also way more compressed than the channels I got on their old set top boxes.

I hope Bell TV doesn’t have this same problem with its TV app.

 

October 15, 2025 12:13 pm  #3


Re: End of an Era - Bell to Scrap Set Top Boxes

Thanks for the post tvguy. That's a big directional change by Bell.

Two things come to mind.

One, there is currently no Bell app for Roku. All of my TVs use Roku. Without a Bell Roku app I'm moving to Rogers (TV and Internet). 

Two, this will make switching between sporting apps more difficult. The Bell app on my iPhone works fine but takes many more click to switch between say the Buffalo Bills game while the Jays are showing commericals.

Last edited by Leslieville Bill (October 15, 2025 12:24 pm)


- Not an industry person.  Just a guy with a love of Toronto radio. 
 

October 15, 2025 12:17 pm  #4


Re: End of an Era - Bell to Scrap Set Top Boxes

I'm so glad I am with Rogers.
Rogers is the best and greatest.
Be sure to switch to Rogers today! 
You'll be very glad you did! 
 


CityNews 24/7: https://toronto.citynews.ca/video/
RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

October 15, 2025 1:53 pm  #5


Re: End of an Era - Bell to Scrap Set Top Boxes

Bell;s satellite service is more than 1 minute behind “realtime”.  The Bell Fibe app is worse than that…approximately 2 minutes behind “realtime”.  So if someone is watching on a FireTV enbled tv in one room and moves to another room where there is a satellite receiver,  they may miss a key playl. On the other hand, the app allows recording of a lot of content, (up to 320 hours)  usually at least 2 shows at one time.  On the negative side you can only extned recordng on the app by 30 minutes.  It got very funky during a Jays game vs. Yankees which ran way past the scheduled time….The satellite receiver can extend recording time by up to 90 minutes, and can be set for a standard 1 hour extension for sports.  

Another oddity was that I could access my "library" of Bell recorded shows on all of my Fibe enabled devices.  But in June, when Bell removed all video-on-demand from their satellite receivers, things went wonky. Shows that I recorded into the cloud on the Bell Fibe app on one device are not appearing in the library of other devices.  A nuisance but not a deal killer.  But no one at Bell customer service seems to know or care to follow up on this problem and other problems wth their Fibe service app.
‘Radowiz if I had the rogers service ould I start playback of a show a few minutes after it starts?  The Bell app, will not restart playback “in progress”.  You have to wait until the scheduled endtime of the program.  Then it takes up to 15 minutes for the app to do some processing…before you can playback the program.  Not well thought out at all.  

One other question.  Does rogers offer a package with a "bring your own" device, consisting of the basic tier, and a sports tier for under $60 per month, with distant time shift signals?

I don't see a Rogers app  on my samsung TV...  But I see it on my FireTV - Amazon HDTV set.  Anyone used the Rogers app on a FireTV HDTV receiver?  How much recording time you you get?  Can you replay from the beginning of the program (while recording) on the rogers xfinity stream app?


Because I can always restart the program on my satellite receiver hard-drive, from the beginning, during recording, I really dont’ want to part with the conveninence.  Even better, with drama programming if we “restart” a 9 pm show at 9:22 on the satellite receiver, we can nuke out all of the gambling ads.

Last edited by tvguy (October 15, 2025 2:04 pm)

     Thread Starter
 

October 15, 2025 3:29 pm  #6


Re: End of an Era - Bell to Scrap Set Top Boxes

I assume they will be on Roku eventually which dominates the smart tv market. 

 

October 15, 2025 3:39 pm  #7


Re: End of an Era - Bell to Scrap Set Top Boxes

I can't promise that it always works.
I use the talk feature, and as long as my TV has been on for at least a minute on the desired channel, I just say "Start from the beginning" and whatever I am watching starts from the beginning. (of that hour)
It's frustrating though, if the time is 5:59 and I am trying to start CityNews from the beginning (@ 5PM) 
It won't do that. It waits until 6:01 to start at the beginning of the 6pm hour. 
Outside of that, it seems to be pretty good. 

The beauty of recording on the cloud instead of a box is that it no longer matters which TV you record on. With Rogers you can start watching a recorded program on one TV, then switch to another in your home and continue watching. 
The older (pre ignite) boxes restricted people to watch only on that exact box that did the original recording.

 


CityNews 24/7: https://toronto.citynews.ca/video/
RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

October 16, 2025 2:35 pm  #8


Re: End of an Era - Bell to Scrap Set Top Boxes

It's a bit of a sidebar in a CRTC release on the rules for disabled people being able to access TV programming with closed captioning or described video. But it says that while the new Bell set-top boxes allow users to record any show they want to the cloud, the system will only keep them for 60 days before erasing them.

Is that true? If so, I'm glad I don't have one of those. I have recordings in the "I'll get to them one day" that date all the way back to 2014! They'd be long gone if I was with Bell. Of course, if I was with Bell for any length of time, I would have been gone a long time ago.

But they shouldn't force you to watch a show within a 2-month time frame. I recall recording some stuff on my DVR in January that I knew I wasn't going to watch until the summer rerun season, when there was very little else on. And that's just what happened.

Under Bell's rules, they wouldn't have been there anymore.

Is this ridiculous prohibition true - watch it within 60 days or it's gone?

Another reason this company never rings a Bell with me. 

 

October 16, 2025 2:39 pm  #9


Re: End of an Era - Bell to Scrap Set Top Boxes

The difference is on your PVR or the older Rogers/Bell ones, the shows were stored on your machine's hard-drive, while the new Bell service stores them on their servers. They just don't want the cost of storing all that unwatched video.

 

October 16, 2025 2:45 pm  #10


Re: End of an Era - Bell to Scrap Set Top Boxes

As I said, another reason not to use Bell. I get that it takes up room on their servers. But sorry, they don't get to tell me when I can watch a show I've recorded. 

 

October 16, 2025 3:11 pm  #11


Re: End of an Era - Bell to Scrap Set Top Boxes

Rogers allows you to keep recorded shows for exactly one year. A feature I like is if you accidentally delete a recording, there is a second chance choice of "A" Retrieve Recording or "B" Permanently Delete.