Finance committee  We talked about competition, telecom generally, deregulation, and those kinds of issues, but that was more about traditional home phone deregulation, primarily—

Finance committee  For sure I am.

Finance committee  I have four quick points in answer to that.

Finance committee  Yes, I'll be very quick. First, the proposal Bell put forward in 2010 to lift the rules to 49% rather than to adopt this 10% rule was the option supported by the majority of intervenors in 2010.

Finance committee  I don't want my point to be misunderstood. It's this on spectrum: right now, as the spectrum policy is designed, Bell is capped at one block of spectrum, and my friends get an opportunity to bid for two.

Finance committee  Hold on, sir. We don't have a quarrel with that. That's what I wanted to say. I don't want to debate that with you. The fact that they get to bid for two and we get to bid for one, I'm not quarrelling with. We're okay with that. We can live with that. We're happy with that. Here

Finance committee  Mr. Van Kesteren, if you look at my opening statement, the prime blocks of spectrum are blocks 2, 3, 6, and 7. AT&T can buy two. They'll buy 2 and 3. Verizon can buy two. They'll buy 6 and 7. That might happen. We'll say, okay, good, let them go. Where are they going to go? T

Finance committee  The last 3% in the most remote areas will ultimately need to be served via satellite. Wireline fibre Internet is being offered by multiple companies in the urban and suburban areas. But if you want that coverage it will be through wireless broadband using LT technology, which off

Finance committee  They're misperceptions based on empty rhetoric, basically ivory tower papers. The fact is if you take an iPhone now—not an iPad but an iPhone—and you compare the exact same number of minutes and the exact same wireless Internet plan, for AT&T it's $90 and for Bell Canada it'

Finance committee  No, but the way the spectrum policy has been designed for the upcoming auction, it says that if any provider has access to two blocks of spectrum, either through ownership or through combining with pooling its spectrum with somebody else, then you have an obligation to build to 9

Finance committee  That means Bell is everywhere today, so it's 97% of everywhere, and my friends are in Toronto and Montreal and it means 97% of Toronto and Montreal, so no rural obligations.

Finance committee  Correct, in the sense that Bell, under the rules, will never be able to have foreign capital beyond the current limitations of 20% direct foreign investment, whereas my colleagues here will be able to be 100% foreign owned.

Finance committee  If AT&T comes in and buys all of them, the answer is yes, in fact ten times bigger. The quarrel isn't with that; the quarrel is that in that environment, why should Bell be limited to one block whereas those behemoths get two spectrum blocks? That's the issue I'm putting for

Finance committee  On the second question, our fundamental quarrel is this: companies as large as AT&T or Verizon can come in and bid for two blocks of prime spectrum that will be put up for bid next year, whereas Bell is captive bidding for one block. We ask ourselves why we would set up a con

Finance committee  Bell takes rural coverage extremely seriously. In 2009, when we launched a new network that put Canada at the forefront of wireless technology, we covered 96% of the Canadian population. That was with the technology called HSPA plus. That 96% covers thousands and thousands of sma