Bell Aliant

Bell Aliant Inc.

Type	Private subsidiary
Industry	Communications Services
Founded	1999
Headquarters	Atlantic Canada
Key people	Karen Sheriff (President and CEO)
Products	Fixed line, Fixed Broadband, IPTV
Operating income	$2.1 billion CAD (2005)
Net income	>$212 million
Total assets	$4.1 billion
Number of employees	2000 (2009)
Parent	BCE
Website	Bell Aliant Home Page

Bell Aliant Inc. (Formerly Aliant Telecom Inc.) is a communications company providing services in various areas throughout Atlantic Canada.

Bell Canada, which had been the largest shareholder in the company and most of its predecessors throughout their respective histories, took full ownership of Bell Aliant in late 2014. In announcing these plans, Bell Canada indicated that the Bell Aliant brand name will continue to be used in Atlantic Canada.

The current firm is the successor to Aliant Telecom Inc, formed from the 1999 merger of Maritime Telephone and Telegraph Company (MT&T), Island Telecom (which had been majority-owned by MT&T), 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. Bell Canada was the largest shareholder of MT&T, Bruncor, and NewTel prior to the merger, and received a 53% stake in the merged company, Aliant. At the time that Aliant Inc. was being formed, the executives of the four merging companies agreed to a co-operative management strategy which would see no specific province have a Bell Aliant head office; instead the headquarters functions would be spread across its constituent companies.

On April 14, 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. This created the significant challenges involved with merging English-speaking operations with French-speaking operations. The transaction was completed on July 10, 2006, and saw the appointment of Stephen Wetmore, formerly of Bell, as President and CEO. Bell Canada retained 45% of the restructured Aliant. 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. (The company would convert back to a regular corporation at the end of 2010.)