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'Bell Aliant Regional Communications' is a communications company providing services primarily in rural areas throughout eastern Canada, as 'Aliant' in Atlantic Canada and as Bell in central Canada. It is publicly traded through the Bell Aliant Regional Communications Income Fund (), an income trust.
Bell Canada presently owns about 45% of the group and exercises management control. Fund units representing about 28.5% of Bell Aliant were distributed to shareholders of Bell's parent company, BCE. Shareholders of the former Aliant Inc. received units representing 26.5% of the firm.

Contents

History

Operations

Project Cleanfeed Canada

See also

External links

References

History

The current firm is the successor to 'Aliant Inc.', formed from the 1999 merger of Maritime Telephone and Telegraph Company (MTT), Island Telecom, Bruncor (parent of NBTel), and NewTel Enterprises (parent of NewTel Communications), then the four main incumbent telephone companies in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador respectively. Aliant was approximately 53% owned by Bell Canada. At the time that Aliant Inc. was being formed, the executives of the 4 merging companies agreed to a co-operative management strategy which would see no specific province have an Aliant head office; instead the headquarters functions would be spread across its constituent companies.
On March 7, 2006, Bell and Aliant announced plans to merge Aliant's operations into those of Bell. Specifically, Aliant's "high growth" wireless and retail (DownEast) networks would be folded into Bell's wholly owned Bell Mobility and Bell World operations, respectively. Aliant, under a new income trust structure, would acquire Bell's "regional" landline operations (i.e. outside of major city centres) in Ontario and Quebec. The transaction was completed on July 7, 2006, and saw the appointment of Stephen Wetmore, formerly of Bell, as President and CEO.
The purpose was to separate out the more stable (or low-growth) parts of Bell's holdings, i.e. wireline operations in markets with relatively little competition, to satisfy investors. The restructuring is not expected to have any effect on end consumers in terms of existing pricing or bundling practices. Meanwhile, Bell Canada proper continues to have full control over its wireless and satellite/cable operations throughout Canada, as well as wireline operations in major centres such as Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and surrounding areas.
Bell Aliant has also assumed Bell's 63.4% interests in both NorthernTel and Télébec, the remainder in both cases being owned by the Bell Nordiq Income Fund. Both firms continue to operate their own wireless networks.
Until 1999, Aliant Communications was the name of a small telephone company serving Lincoln, Nebraska and area, which was acquired that year by Alltel. Following this acquisition, Aliant Communications adopted the Alltel brand and transferred its rights in the Aliant name to the then-new Canadian entity. (The wireline operations of Alltel are now part of Windstream Communications.)

Operations

Currently, the company operates as "Aliant" in Atlantic Canada and as "Bell" in Ontario and Quebec. Similarly, the former Aliant wireless and retail networks continue to use the "Aliant" brand in Atlantic Canada, albeit now under the direct control of Bell.
In Atlantic Canada, Aliant's services include high-speed and dial-up internet access, wireline telephone service, and IPTV cable television. Its main rivals are the region's incumbent cable providers - EastLink (N.S. / P.E.I.), Rogers Communications (N.B. / N.L.), and Persona (rural N.L.).
Services in Ontario and Quebec are similar, except that Bell Canada itself retains responsibility for any IPTV services there.

Project Cleanfeed Canada

In November 2006, to address the problem of the access and proliferation of pornography sites, especially by those under the age of majority, Bell Aliant, Bell Canada, MTS Allstream, Rogers, Shaw, SaskTel, Telus, and Videotron, in conjunction with cybertip.ca (a nationwide tipline for reporting the online sexual exploitation of children), announced the creation of '''Project Cleanfeed Canada''', an initiative designed to block access to hundreds of pornography sites. However, some critics denounce the initiative, saying that this amounts to nothing more than internet censorship.^[2]

See also

★ Bell Canada

★ Telus

External links

★ Corporate site

★ Aliant consumer website

References

1. Aliant Inc. 2005 Annual Information Form
2. post on Michael Geist's blog