The plan largely consisted of replacing equipment in exchanges and on long-distance networks. This equipment was mostly manufacturer-discontinued, or no longer supported, but the equipment continued to meet the company's operational requirements. Much of this equipment was on routes and in communities where economic activity would not generate the revenue required to replace the equipment, without carrying loans over an extremely long period of time. This had the effect that a market case could not be generated to gain shareholder (Bell Canada) approval to spend the limited capital funding to replace it with modern equipment.