Editing Bell Canada (section)

===Divestiture and deregulation===
The Bell System had two main companies in the telephone industry in Canada: Bell Canada as a regional operating company (affiliated with [[American Telephone and Telegraph|AT&T]], with an ownership stake of approximately 39%)<ref name="The Invisible Empire">{{cite book
  | last1 = Rens
  | first1 = Jean-Guy
  | last2 = Roth
  | first2 = Kathe
  | title = The Invisible Empire
  | publisher = McGill-Queen's Press&nbsp;— MQUP, 2001
  | year = 2001
  | isbn = 978-0-7735-2052-3
  | pages = 217–218 }}</ref> and [[Nortel|Northern Electric]] as an equipment manufacturer (affiliated with [[Western Electric]], with an ownership stake of approximately 44%).<ref name="The Invisible Empire" /> The Bell Telephone Company of Canada and Northern Electric were structured similarly in Canada to the analogous portions of the Bell System in the United States; the regional operating company (Bell Canada) sold telephone services as a local exchange carrier, and Western Electric (Northern Electric) designed and manufactured telephone equipment.

As part of the [[Bell System#1956ConsentDecree|consent decree signed in 1956]] to resolve the antitrust lawsuit filed in 1949 by the United States Department of Justice, AT&T and the Bell System proper divested itself of [[Nortel|Northern Electric]] in 1956.

In October 1973, AT&T and Bell Canada signed an agreement stating that AT&T would no longer furnish Bell System communications and research to Bell Canada. AT&T's at-the-time chairman John DeButts explained that the main reason for this was because Bell Canada had developed its own research and development lab ([[Bell-Northern Research]]), making Bell Canada ready to serve its Canadian landline customers on its own. As a result, AT&T divested Bell Canada on June 30, 1975.

[[File:Bell Canada logo (1977).svg|thumb|Bell Canada logo used from 1977 until December 7, 1994.]]
Even though Bell Canada had been divested, it was allowed to participate in Bell System projects which could be completed shortly after its divestiture date.<ref name="beatriceco">{{Cite web |url=http://www.beatriceco.com/bti/porticus/bell/canadian_bell_companies.html |title=Bell Canada (and other Canadian telecommunications companies) |access-date=August 17, 2015 |archive-date=June 11, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190611165655/https://beatriceco.com/bti/porticus/bell/canadian_bell_companies.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Porticus-BellSystemHistory">{{cite web
 |last         = Todd
 |first        = Kenneth P.
 |title        = A Capsule History of the Bell System
 |editor-last  = Massey
 |editor-first = David
 |publisher    = American Telephone & Telegraph Company
 |url          = http://www.porticus.org/bell/capsule_bell_system.html
 |access-date   = June 28, 2008
 |archive-url   = https://web.archive.org/web/20080711065530/http://www.porticus.org/bell/capsule_bell_system.html
 |archive-date  = July 11, 2008
|url-status      = dead
 |df           = mdy-all
}}</ref><ref name="Porticus-CanadianBellCompanies">{{cite web
 |author       = The Porticus Centre
 |title        = Bell Canada (and other Canadian telecommunications companies)
 |publisher    = The Porticus Centre
 |year         = 2007
 |url          = http://www.porticus.org/bell/canadian_bell_companies.html
 |access-date   = June 28, 2008
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20080511213643/http://www.porticus.org/bell/canadian_bell_companies.html
 |archive-date = May 11, 2008
|url-status     = dead
 |df           = mdy-all
}}</ref><ref name="Porticus-Nortel">{{cite web
 |author      = Nortel Networks
 |title       = Northern Electric&nbsp;— A Brief History
 |publisher   = Nortel Networks
 |url         = http://www.porticus.org/bell/northern_electric_history.html
 |access-date  = June 28, 2008
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20080712190123/http://www.porticus.org/bell/northern_electric_history.html
 |archive-date = July 12, 2008
|url-status     = dead
 |df          = mdy-all
}}</ref>

Northern Electric renamed itself Northern Telecom in 1976, which in turn became [[Nortel Networks]] in 1998 with the acquisition of Bay Networks.

Bell Canada acquired 100 percent of Northern Electric in 1964; starting in 1973, Bell's ownership stake in Northern Electric was diminished through public stock offerings, though it retained majority control. In 1983, as a result of deregulation, Bell Canada Enterprises (later shortened to [[BCE Inc.|BCE]]) was formed as the parent company to Bell Canada and Northern Telecom. As a result of the stock transaction used by Northern Telecom to purchase Bay Networks, BCE ceased to be the majority owner of Nortel, and in 2000, BCE spun out its share of Nortel, distributing its holdings to its shareholders.

Between 1980 and 1997, the federal government fully deregulated the telecommunications industry and Bell Canada's monopoly largely ended. Bell Canada currently provides local phone service only in major city centres in Ontario and Quebec.

In July 2006, Bell and former subsidiary Aliant completed a restructuring whereby Aliant, renamed [[Bell Aliant Regional Communications]], took over Bell's wireline operations in much of Ontario and Quebec (while continuing to use the "Bell" name in those regions), as well as its 63% ownership in rural lines operator Bell Nordiq (a publicly traded income trust that controls [[NorthernTel]] and [[Télébec]]). These are in addition to Bell Aliant's operations in [[Atlantic Canada]]. In turn, Bell has assumed responsibility for Bell Aliant's wireless and retail operations. Bell Aliant, now an income trust, is 44% owned by Bell.<ref name="BellAliant-About">{{cite web|author=Bell Aliant |author-link=Bell Aliant |title=Fact Sheet |publisher=Bell Aliant |year=2010 |url=http://www.aliant.ca/english/ir/factsheet.shtml |access-date=February 4, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080529134215/http://www.aliant.ca/english/ir/factsheet.shtml |archive-date=May 29, 2008 }}</ref>

On April 30, 2007, the [[Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission]] (CRTC) announced its decision to allow pay phone rates for Bell Canada, Telus, Bell Aliant, SaskTel, and MTS Allstream to increase from 25 cents to 50 cents, starting as early as June 1. The CRTC also permitted local rural rates to increase by the lesser of the annual rate of inflation or five percent, and removed price caps on optional rural services, such as call display and voicemail.<ref name="2007-CRTC-rate-increase">{{cite news|title=Hello? The 50-cent pay phone call is coming |publisher=[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]] |date=April 30, 2007 |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/hello-the-50-cent-pay-phone-call-is-coming-1.634874 |access-date=December 14, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080218201925/http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2007/04/30/payphones.html |archive-date=February 18, 2008 }}</ref>
On June 2, 2007, Bell Canada increased the cost of a local pay phone call to 50 cents when paid in cash and one dollar when paid by calling card or credit card,<ref>{{cite news
  | title = Bell's pay phone price increases to 50 cents Saturday
  | publisher = [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]]
  | date = June 1, 2007
  | url = https://www.cbc.ca/news/bell-s-pay-phone-price-increases-to-50-cents-saturday-1.634873
  | access-date = December 14, 2007 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071221063046/http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2007/06/01/payphone-increase.html| archive-date= December 21, 2007 | url-status= live}}</ref>
Bell's first increase in pay phone rates since 1981.<ref name="2007-CRTC-rate-increase" />

In 2009, Bell Canada purchased electronics retailer [[The Source (retailer)|The Source]] and all other assets of [[InterTAN|InterTAN Canada Ltd.]] from bankrupt [[Circuit City (1949–2009 company)|Circuit City]].<ref name="Star-TheSource">{{cite news
  | title = Bell buys 756 electronics stores from The Source
  | publisher = Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd.
  | author = Dana Flavelle
  | author2 = Chris Sorensen
  | date= March 3, 2009
  | url = https://www.thestar.com/business/2009/03/03/bell_buys_756_electronics_stores_from_the_source.html
  | access-date= March 7, 2016
}}</ref>

Bell has deployed [[Multiprotocol Label Switching|MPLS]] on their nationwide fibre ring network to support consumer and enterprise-level IP applications, such as [[IPTV]] and [[VoIP]].{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

On March 17, 2017, BCE Inc. completed its acquisition of [[Manitoba Telecom Services]].<ref name="fp-dealcomplete"/>