BCE are to create a $70 million fund to accelerate the development of convergence products and services across the company.
We are moving decisively to execute on our strategy of empowering our connectivity with content and commerce, said BCE President Michael Sabia, who
will oversee the funding and development of the new initiatives. Our strategy
is to bring the full benefit of convergence to Canadians by combining the
intellectual assets – the ideas and technology – that we have in abundance in
Bell Canada, Bell Globemedia and BCE Emergis. We want to give our customers
the full benefits of convergence by offering more choices, more control and
more tools to manage their ‘connectedness’ to Canada and to the rest of the
world.
The program will fast-track the development of new and currently proposed
initiatives that leverage the content, connectivity and commerce strengths of
the BCE companies, to the benefit of consumers and business customers. The $70
million will lay the foundation to deliver on BCE’s commitment to bring at
least ten convergence services to light in 2001 and will pave the way for
further developments in the following years.
The $70 million innovation program will draw upon the creative ingenuity
of our various development teams, and enable them to more effectively pool
their ideas and resources, said Mr. Sabia. It will bring Canadians an array
of initiatives that will fulfill the promises of convergence and connectedness.
Earlier this year, BCE announced its first convergence initiative, code-
named ComboBox. This new technology will allow Bell ExpressVu and Sympatico High Speed Internet to provide more efficient and easy access to existing services and open up new opportunities for a wide array of interactive services.
The services will be delivered via an Internet gateway connected through
Bell’s high-speed service and an enhanced television set-top box. By
integrating these capabilities, Bell ExpressVu customers will be able to
access the Internet from their television, send and receive e-mails, chat on-
line, use instant messaging, obtain interactive information on the broadcast
programs they are watching, as well as play games, download content and create
customized programming. Similarly, Bell’s high-speed Internet customers will
be able to add interactive digital televisions and home networking
capabilities to their Internet service.
An important feature of this technology will be an embedded digital
storage capability as part of a personal video recorder. Using this,
customers will not only be able to easily record broadcast programs for later
playback, but will be able to use Internet content to create personalized
news, information and entertainment programs.
