According to a CP newswire story, the Newfoundland government is looking at participating in a consortium deal to build a second fibre link to the mainland. The group would be made up of Rogers, Persona and MTS Allstream.
Newfoundland needs an additional link, as last weekend’s telecom crisis demonstrated, but government money isn’t the way to build it. Instead, the government should exert its influence to ensure the consortium includes Bell Aliant, the operators of the current link. At the very least, it should be a condition of using the government cash.
Aliant should provide capacity on their existing ring in exchange for the same on the new facility. But why would they do that? After all, Aliant already operates a survivable ring, according to documents they filed with the CRTC in 2004. It wasn’t the transmission ring to the mainland that knocked Newfoundland off-the-air last week. Why should Aliant help its competitors?
The alternative is that the government might consider operating its own network. Worse still would be the federal and provincial governments both dropping off the current Aliant network and no longer being the biggest customers for Aliant’s capacity or even acting as customers for the new consortium. What good is having your own fibre if you lose your biggest customers, including the capacity currently being sold to the consortium members.
Trade capacity in order to keep the public sector out of operating its own network. That is how consumers of all 4 carriers benefit – lower costs and improved reliability.