In early February, Bell announced a number of new fibre initiatives including the deployment of Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) in Québec City and the introduction of Bell IPTV service in 2010.

This week in a speech at the Canadian Club in Toronto, George Cope President and CEO at Bell confirmed the official launch of IPTV would occur in Toronto and Montreal this summer.

Bell IPTV or Bell Entertainment Service (BES) in currently available in select condominiums in Toronto and has been undergoing extensive trials over the last several years.

BES employs the Microsoft Mediaroom multimedia software platform and has been receiving generally positive reviews among Digital Home readers who are currently using the service.

Mr Cope told the Canadian Club audience that with the addition of IPTV service he expects Bell to be the largest television provider in Canada by 2015. Currently Bell has 1.9 million television customers, primarily through its Bell TV direct to home satellite service. Shaw Communications is currently Canada's largest television provider with 3.2 million subscribers, consisting of 2.3 million cable subscribers and just under a million Shaw Direct direct-to-home satellite subscribers.

For more information about the Bell IPTV service including FAQs and to learn more about what early adopters of the service have to say, please visit Digital Home's Bell Entertainment Service (BES) forum .