Industry committee  I want to be clear: I really don't follow unlicensed spectrum in urban areas. But it might be the challenge that you're facing. The issue for us is that there are not a lot of rules around how that spectrum is managed. So in essence you can't control it. Where we own spectrum, we can dedicate spectrum and say that this is for our customers; and as customers grow in their usage profile, which has happened over the last five years, we can use that spectrum confidently knowing that we have it.

Industry committee  That's absolutely correct, and it's about to change.

Industry committee  The fundamental issue has not been technology. Government, the military, and large enterprises have been using satellite communications for truly mission-critical applications for the last 40 years. If you think of applications that move out of the military, large business, and government into the consumer realm, the challenge has been for us to bring in more capacity and reduce the cost per megabit, the cost of a unit of capacity.

Industry committee  It is. It's a game changer for rural Canada.

Industry committee  Okay. I'll address the turnaround-time issue first. The first satellite went up less than two weeks ago. By the time we complete all of our testing, we should be in the market at the end of this year. Depending on where you live, it could be the first part of the year—January or February.

Industry committee  Absolutely.

Industry committee  It's apples and oranges. I serve homes and businesses. I put an antenna at the roofline of the customer's home. I install a device. I'm up 18 feet. I'm not mobile. If we were to look at CRTC statistics, the average in 2010 was roughly 15 gigabytes of monthly download. That's what my customers use in comparable communities.

Industry committee  And the average for the group?

Industry committee  That's a different issue.

Industry committee  You're looking for what the issues are?

Industry committee  We have the technology. In terms of the markets, probably the best example I can give you of full engagement—both business and community and government—is New Brunswick. We deployed in the province of New Brunswick in less than three years. We deployed in an area with 43,000 households that were unserved by traditional landline technology.

Industry committee  I hate to hit the button again, but we've been able to raise $400 million in private capital. We've been able to finance two new high throughput satellites at a cost of roughly $400 million. So when people say that capital is not available for this sector, we're proof-positive that you can raise money if you have a good business plan.

Industry committee  There's good technology, such as 4G satellite and 4G wireless. The technology is available. The only outstanding challenge is spectrum. Again, I can give you examples where we are prepared to invest, but there's no spectrum. We're prepared to compete with other organizations focused on rural areas for spectrum.

Industry committee  Unless we execute unlicensed spectrum today, the challenge with it is that you can't control, you can't plan, for capacity. When we started in our business, there was 5 gigabytes of monthly download. Today, in a span of just under five years, we're getting closer to 20 gigabytes of monthly download.

Industry committee  Those are a lot of questions. To be quick, you're absolutely right about satellite. Satellite broadband is being viewed as the solution for areas of low population density and challenging geography. There are two reasons for that: the ubiquity of the service, as it's able to reach very large areas; and its ability to deal very cost-effectively with areas with low population density.