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BCE Cuts About 690 Jobs to Fund US Fiber and AI Push

June 15, 2026 at 19:40 EDT

Sales & Business
Infra & Chips
Recruiting & HR

BCE Inc., the Canadian telecom giant that owns Bell Canada, said in June 2026 it would cut about 690 positions, roughly 1% of its total workforce, to curb operating costs while ramping up investment in its US internet and AI businesses.

Telecom Restructuring · BCE / Bell Canada

Bell Cuts ~690 Jobs While Pouring Billions Into US Fiber and AI

Canada's telecom giant trims ~1% of its workforce in a "difficult but necessary" move — the latest in a multi-year pattern of cuts — even as it accelerates spending on a 300 MW AI data center and a fast-growing US fiber business.

~690

Jobs cut now (~650 management + ~40 Bell Media), ≈1% of workforce

38,683

Year-end 2025 headcount, down from 40,390

~$2B

AI solutions revenue target by 2028 (raised from $1.5B)

A multi-year pattern of cuts

Jobs eliminated per round — drawn to scale

~4,800

2024

9% of staff

~1,700

2025

net reduction

~690

Now

≈1% of staff

Investing — AI

300 MW · ~US$1.7B

"Bell AI Fabric" data center in Saskatchewan — sovereign AI compute, with ~US$1.3B of it spent in 2026. Partners include Cohere, Coveo and BUZZ HPC.

Investing — US Fiber

Up to 8M locations

Ziply Fiber acquisition made BCE the #3 fiber operator in North America. Footprint to roughly double to ~3M by end of 2028.

The strategy: cut costs, fund growth, pay down debt

BCE frames the layoffs as debt reduction and "sustainable growth" — mirroring Meta, Microsoft and Amazon cutting staff to fund AI.

3.5x

Net debt leverage target by end-2027

3.0x

Net debt leverage target from 2028 onward

~$250M

Projected annual savings from earlier rounds

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