Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Competition in Canada has been good for consumers. It has spurred innovation, and we support it thoroughly. I guess much of the debate you'll be hearing today is going to be around how to get to competition and how to get to the benefits for consumers most quickly.
We've done quite a lot already in Canada. Twenty years ago we had a monopoly in the telecommunications sector in almost all areas, and now we have unregulated competition in 70% of the telecom market. The last regulated area is the local telephone market, and that's what a lot of the debate is about.
My main point today is that competition is very different in the consumer market and in the business market for local telephone service. In the residential or consumer market, as you've heard, cable companies have entered with their own networks and are providing services. But most cable networks don't go into the business market. In most business buildings there is no cable infrastructure. Most competition in the business market is not facilities-based. How do carriers compete in the business market? Generally speaking, it's by using access facilities that are mandated by the CRTC--local loops and other networks. Those are hugely important.
Last year Rogers acquired Call-Net, a very large provider of competitive telecommunication services to Canadian businesses. The former Call-Net, along with our wireless and cable business marketing and sales groups, are combined in Rogers Business Solutions, a $600-million-a-year company. But almost all of our access facilities are dependent on CRTC-mandated access facilities, and less than 5% of those facilities are self-supplied. We are beginning to build networks into the business market, but it will take an awfully long time. So the business market and the residential market are very different.
We're very concerned about what the direction had to say. The direction specifically told the CRTC to have a hearing and review this. I am concerned that the interpretation the CRTC will take is that they should provide fewer mandated facilities to allow competition in the business market. If that's the way the direction is interpreted, I think the results will be very bad for competition in the business market. Any significant reduction in the availability of tariffed wholesale services and facilities could greatly reduce competition in Canada's business telecommunications market.