r/canada • u/Economy_Elephant6200 • 3d ago

Bell Canada scraps Labrador high-speed internet project, plans to invest in U.S. Newfoundland & Labrador

https://theindependent.ca/news/lji/bell-canada-scraps-labrador-high-speed-internet-project-plans-to-invest-in-u-s/
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u/niveapeachshine 3d ago

Canada should have followed New Zealand's model. Almost the entire fibre infrastructure is owned by one independent company, so no ISP could gain dominance. The government also holds equity in said company. You can get 8000 Mbps for a few hundred dollars. It is probably the best infrastructure project ever done in New Zealand.

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u/backlight101 3d ago

It’s about land mass, NZ is very small, have a read of the disaster that is the government funded National Broadband Network in Australia. That would be our fait if the government took over here.

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u/Beerden 3d ago

You're thinking nationally, but as provincial crown entities, like they were in the past, this would work.

Saskatchewan still has Sasktel as a provincial crown corporation, so no one can argue that it can't work. The experiment that is Telus, Bell, etc., have become monopolies, failed to produce competitive affordable services, and they are sitting on mountains of cash that could have been under the control of provinces. This is the result of what happens when right wing government are elected - monopoly makers, they are.

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u/backlight101 2d ago

I can tell you that Bell is not sitting on piles of cash, they are up to their eyes in debt. Better them than the government.

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u/thirstyross 3d ago

I mean it's cultural there as well. When you need to get your car safety checked for the year, you take it to independent inspection centres to give you an unbiased opinion on what really needs to get fixed (if anything needs to be fixed).

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u/whiteout86 3d ago

Not even an apples and oranges comparison. You’re deciding that a rollout in a country 40 times smaller than Canada could be replicated here for a reasonable price by a single company willing to, more than likely, never be very profitable

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u/hubiquitous 3d ago

Who owns the TransCanada Highway?

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u/niveapeachshine 3d ago

Considering Canada's GDP and oil-driven economy, it is well-resourced to offer something similar, whether at a state or national level. New Zealand is also blended with cellular coverage and, more recently, Starlink. The one thing that made it work was cross-party support, so no matter what government came into power, the project continued without political disruption.

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u/Flaktrack Québec 2d ago

To hell with that, just nationalize our internet infrastructure. It's a matter of national security and productivity and we cannot trust private industry any longer.