It's a very good question.
Concerning the win-back, I want to let you know that Canada and the U.S. are perhaps the only jurisdictions to have this kind of restriction on their telecommunications industry.
What win-back means is that you don't permit the former monopoly to communicate with the customer—they must wait 90 days—after losing a client.
The telecom panel, in one of their recommendations on win-back, said that making offers and counter-offers to the same customer is the very essence of competition, and that win-back campaigns should not be restricted by a regulator.
We want to follow this recommendation. I think it's a very good one.
Why is it a good recommendation? Because it allows consumers to receive information about the products and services available in the market and because information is what consumers base their decisions on. Well-informed consumers will know about all the products that are available in the market and will be able to make a better choice.
We believe that restrictions should be eliminated as quickly as possible to allow for more dynamic and intense competition here in Canada. It is also important to note that winback rules are in place in both Canada and the United States. In the U.S., only a couple of states have regulatory standards—specifically, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina. It should also be noted that they restrict the right to make counter-offers to a seven-day or fourteen-day period only, not 30 the way it is here in Canada.
We conducted a study that indicated that most of the larger states—31 out of 38—have no such restrictions in the telecommunications industry. In my opinion, the time has come for us to drop this kind of restriction here in Canada, because they do not benefit consumers. In that regard, I would like to quote the Federal Communications Commission.
It's the American CRTC.
They said, in a decision:
Winback restrictions may deprive customers of the benefits of a competitive market. Winback facilitates direct competition on price and other terms, for example, by encouraging carriers to “out bid” each other for a customer's business, enabling the customer to select the carrier that best suits the customer's needs.
It's very clear, for the regulator in the States, that the win-back restriction is a kind of restriction that is against competition. We don't need that kind of restriction to ensure that we have all the information and good competition here in Canada.