Bell acquires Quebec-based provider Ebox

BCE Inc. has acquired Quebec-based internet, telephone and television provider Ebox Inc., the incumbent announced in a Thursday press release. The independent company provides services to consumers in Quebec and parts of Ontario. Bell will continue to provide those services under the current Ebox brand and operations. “Under Bell, Ebox will benefit from the resources and scale necessary to support the growth of the business and continue delivering improvements to the great services at competitive prices,” the release stated. According to the release, the founders of the Longueil, Que., company, Jean-Philippe Béïque and Dominic Letourneau, decided to step away from Ebox after founding it 25 years ago. Bell participated in a formal sale process initiated by the two founders and it will continue to operate on a standalone basis under the leadership of Ebox vice-president and general manager Isis Thiago De Souza. "We are delighted to join the Bell family and continue the great work that Jean-Philippe and Dominic started 25 years ago to provide great internet service to customers in Quebec and Ontario,” De Souza stated in the release. Bell’s senior manager of media relations, Caroline Audet, told the Wire Report in an email that the company will not disclose the terms and conditions of the transaction. The independent company has had some disputes with Bell in the past. In 2017 it filed an application with the CRTC alleging that Bell was putting it at an undue disadvantage when the two companies were determining the carriage fees for Bell Media channels like RDS and TSN before the roll out of the smaller provider’s television service in southern Quebec. Ebox attempted to have the CRTC arbitrate the deal, but that led to Bell withdrawing any of its channels for distribution, and, according to Ebox, asserting that it had no “regulatory obligation” to offer its programming services. In June 2020 it filed an intervention regarding an application by Bell subsidiary Câblevision du nord de Québec which asked for the destandardization of its 50/5 profile for its third-party internet access (TPIA) customers. Ebox claimed that destandardizing the 50/5 profile “would impede competition by allowing Câblevision to maintain its monopoly and reduce the affordability of the TPIA service in the region.” Last month the company also reiterated a request for the commission to mandate that the Bell-subsidiary offer an aggregated wholesale service in the region.

Bell acquires Quebec-based provider Ebox

Brief | February 24, 2022

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Bell acquires Quebec-based provider Ebox

Brief | February 24, 2022

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