Because smaller companies such as Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. are allowed to piggyback on existing Bell and Telus lines and equipment, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission regulates how much the big companies must provide them with help, and at what price.
MTS is one of the partners in a consortium laying new fibreoptic lines in Newfoundland and Labrador. The project is being promoted on the grounds that the companies with smaller shares of the Newfoundland and Labrador marketplace can lower prices and compete more successfully with Bell Aliant if they were not required to pay Bell Aliant for use of infrastructure laid by the major telecom company in the mid 1990s.
Deregulating the telecom industry could mean that the provincial government's contribution of $15 million towards the project is unnecessary.
More to follow.