Even though the proposal from a consortium involving Persona, Rogers and Allstream was made to government as long as 12 months ago, there was no public discussion of the initiative before a fire at Aliant headquarters in St. John's interrupted telephone and internet service for upwards of six hours in late October.
Immediately in the wake of that event a number of commentators - including cabinet ministers, officials at St. John's city hall and others - voiced loud and sustained criticism of the events, and implicitly of Aliant's handling of the problem.
Particularly vocal were St. John's mayor Andy Wells and city solicitor Ron Penney. Penney called for a probe into the Aliant fire.
Premier Danny Williams focused on issues of public safety when news of the Persona/Rogers/Allstream proposal came to light. Canadian Press reported it this way:
A six-week-old child stopped breathing for several minutes during the five-hour outage, and had to be driven to a nearby hospital for help after calls to 911 failed.In the same story, Canadian Press also reported:
"That alone is a significant, serious situation," Williams said. "There could've been a loss of life, so any time you're talking safety and life loss, that's obviously paramount."
- Persona had already begun construction of the new links backed by a commitment of $30 million toward a project then estimated to cost $82 million.
- St. John's mayor Andy Wells wrote to provincial innovation minister Trevor Taylor supporting provincial government participation in the additional links.
On November 2, the provincial government announced the $15 million commitment which would bring the provincial government an ownership stake in the new telecommunications project. The project apparently would cost $52 million ($15 million from the province plus $37 million from the private sector), but Canadian Press still reported the project as costing $82 million.
Before the deal was announced, R.F. Davis, an engineer from St. John's submitted an opinion article to The Telegram. It was carried in the Saturday edition and is reprinted below. Davis' comments take issue with some of the claims being made about the existing Aliant service. He also draws attention to the issue of private sector companies improving their competitive position through a public-sector investment. As Davis notes, Aliant laid dual fibreoptic cables across the island portion of the province in the mid 1990s with no public money being either sought or obtained.
Following is Davis' article as carried by The Telegram.
The Telegram
04 November 2006
R.F. Davis
A second fibre-optic cable already exists off island
From time to time we see references parroted by a media as being "gospel" because the point being made came from a politician. When that politician is Premier Danny Williams, people tend to sit up and take notice.
In a story in the Oct. 27 edition of The Telegram, headlined "Province ponders second line in wake of phone outage," Williams said Newfoundland is considering construction of a second fibre-optic link to Nova Scotia that would prevent 911 services from shutting down as
they did recently.
Didn't stop blackout
It is unfortunate that the advice being given to the premier on this matter is incorrect. There have been two fibre -optic cables connecting Newfoundland and Labrador to the national telecommunications network for 10 years. The presence of this second cable did not prevent the 911 system from failing Oct. 20. Neither will a third cable provide any increased protection for the 911 system. The Gulf fibre cables have nothing to do with providing protection for the 911 system.
Two Aliant fibre-optic cables already exist across the Gulf and carry huge amounts of telecommunication voice and data traffic (including the Internet). They are diverse both physically and electrically and telecommunications traffic is carried simultaneously over both cables. Likewise, across the island there are two physically and electrically diverse fibre-optic cable routes that simultaneously carry the traffic. These cable systems are supported and maintained by a very experienced and dedicated team of engineers, technicians, construction and repair personnel.
The story referenced above and statements since Oct. 20 by various municipal and provincial politicians, including the premier, are leading the public to believe that another fibre-optic cable across the Gulf will save us. A third fibre-optic cable is not required for service diversity or protection purposes nor is it required to provide additional capacity to meet the needs of the province.
New system proposed
The story went on to report that the provincial government is considering investing in an $82-million proposal by Rogers Communications; MTS Allstream and Persona Inc. to build this new cable system.
(Telegram Editor's note: an announcement was made Thursday after this submission was written that the province will invest $15 million while Persona Communications, Rogers and MTS Allstream will invest another $37 million to install a new, fully redundant fibre-optic telecommunications link from St. John's to Halifax along two diverse routes to connect to national carriers on the mainland.)
If investment by the provincial government triggers the building of a third cable, the revenue generated will only go to serve the interests of the companies and their shareholders who will own and control the cable. The general interests of the people of the province will be secondary.
If the provincial government is considering investment in infrastructure for telecommunications there is a better use of the money. The people of the province would be better served if the government looked at upgrading its own 911 system by providing a new provincewide E911 system utilizing the all digital telecommunications network currently. An E911 system has been under consideration for years and is no closer to realization.
No government help
The two Aliant cables that exist today were totally financed by Newtel Communication (now part of Aliant). There was no financial support by the provincial government - neither offered nor requested. Aliant is obligated to provide universal access to basic local and long distance telecommunications services in the province. The companies wishing to tap into the public purse to help finance their infrastructure investments operate totally in the competitive environment and carry no such obligation to serve and provide access to basic services.
The telecommunications failure Oct. 20 should not be used by the provincial government as a rationale in attempting to convince the public that we should make an investment in unrequired infrastructure. If the business proponents of the third fibre-optics cable wish to have the capability, which this cable will give them, of competing in the long haul telecommunications marketplace, then I say let them build the cable themselves with their own money.