Mr. Peter Smyth:

In general, it is an advantage to have multiple bidders. There are various things a procurement specialist can do to negate the power of a single bidder. One would ensure that one has as much information as possible on the cost to the bidder of providing the goods or services one is seeking. In large scale public infrastructure projects, there is a process known as a public sector benchmark which is, effectively, a model of what the project should cost. That allows the public sector to determine whether it is getting value for money from the private sector by comparing the bid to what it should cost the public sector to carry out the project itself. In the context of the broadband plan, There is no formal public sector benchmark for the broadband plan but there is a very robust should-cost model to which one can compare the bidder's proposals.