Bell Canada launched as the Bell Telephone Company of Canada in 1880, and spent much of its history as Canada's monopoly telephone service provider. For many decades in the late 20th century, it was the leading company in the "tricorporate" -- a group of partly state-owned telecom companies that included Northern Telecom (later Nortel) and Bell Northern Research (BNR). Since deregulation hit the Canadian phone market in the 1990s, Bell has expanded into wireless and Internet services. Its parent company, BCE, holds stakes in a number of media companies, including CTV and the Globe and Mail.