Akron, OH – 01/27/04 Bell Systems and Technology, a division of Bell Canada, recently released Bring It On: Small Stories, Big Impacts 2003, a collection of case studies on Bell Canada’s successful technology and process initiatives in 2003. Virtual Hold Technology (VHT) is featured in the story “Bell Mobility and Virtual Hold: An Avalanche of Teamwork.”

The Virtual Hold queue management solution was chosen by Bell Mobility to manage expected increases in call volumes to support its growing business. The Bell Mobility Customer Service Center serves nearly 7 million cellular, PCS, high-speed Internet, and satellite TV customers. “The customer’s needs dictated an immediate call to action with the implementation of Virtual Hold, a solution that offered proven and accurate predictive callback functionality in a short time frame,” stated Joanna Shore, author of the story.

By informing callers of their estimated wait time and allowing them to select a callback in the same amount of time as if they waited on hold, Virtual Hold’s patented First In, First Out return call technology provides a high level of customer service and satisfaction while improving call center operations and reducing toll and labor costs.

Team members from VHT, Bell Mobility Business, Bell Mobility Systems & Technology, CGI, and IBM worked together to bring the project from kick-off to go-live across three sites (Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver) in just twelve weeks.

“This was a particularly complex integration because calls from mobile phones into Bell Mobility’s call center are toll-free, so we had to design a solution where the Virtual Hold callbacks are treated as free airtime minutes as well,” said Eric Camulli, Director of Technology for VHT. Yet as Armene Suntok, Bell Mobility business analyst, noted, “It was easy to keep us motivated. We were working with extremely bright people who were determined to implement a new, cool technology successfully.”

“In addition to demonstrating a best practice in teamwork, the Virtual Hold application is improving customer satisfaction and increasing operational efficiencies,” said Shore. “Bell Mobility is extremely happy with the implementation of Virtual Hold. It has already enabled improved handling of unexpected call volumes.”

About Bell Canada

Bell Canada, Canada's national leader in communications, provides connectivity to residential and business customers through wired and wireless voice and data communications, local and long distance phone services, high speed and wireless Internet access, IP-broadband services, e-business solutions and satellite television services. Bell Canada is wholly owned by BCE Inc. (NYSE/TSX: BCE). For more information please visit www.bell.ca.