Good afternoon.
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to express the views of the Quebec Coalition of Internet Service Providers, which I represent.
In Quebec, the innovation which the Internet represents came from members of the coalition. At the end of the 1990s, the incumbents took control of the high-speed—DSL—and cable modem technologies, and started limiting access to their infrastructure. That infrastructure to date remains as essential as it was then, both for consumers and for Internet service providers.
The major problem members have faced in the past three years is the change from a positive wholesale gross margin generated by the low-speed products to a non-profitable high-speed product.
This is the result of uncompetitive behaviour by incumbents, who sell the high-speed products to attract new customers to their network as a loss leader, financed by the highly profitable products, for which they still have a monopoly.
This is why we have not seen any reductions in our telephone or cable television bills in the past ten years. In fact, those bills are gradually going up to fund the non-profitable activities of cable distributors and incumbents.
We will also be conducting an extensive review of the 127 recommendations made by the TPRP, and submit those to you to help you in drafting your report.
With regard to Internet service providers, the coalition cannot comment on the effectiveness or role of the CRTC with respect to radio and television, because that is not an area we know.
When it comes to the Internet, however, the CRTC and the members with whom we have dealt over the past seven years helped us a great deal, so much so that two or three years ago CRTC members told us their hands were tied by continuing pressure and intensive, effective lobbying by incumbents on Parliament Hill. The effects extend as far as the CRTC. They recommended we take more political action to get our messages across. We believe that the CRTC has fulfilled its role, particularly with respect to the latest decisions and directives from Industry Canada on the deregulation of Internet services.
There are three major points I would like to make. The coalition is happy about the comments made by Maxime Bernier, Minister of Industry, before this committee on February 19. Minister Bernier said that in any restructuring of the telecommunications industry, it must be ensured that wholesale services and access to them are maintained in their current form. We have appended an excerpt from Mr. Bernier's speech, which you can read at your leisure.
There is one opinion by the Competition Bureau that we find very troubling. In our brief, we have included excerpts from the Competition Bureau's testimony. The Competition Bureau submitted evidence concerning CRTC public notice 2006-14, and expressed opinions demonstrating that it cannot provide objective data to the CRTC or to the tribunal that was to be established in accordance with TPRP recommendations, simply because it concludes the telecommunications industry would be competitive using the infrastructure of the current duopoly.
We do not know on what basis the Competition Bureau reaches that conclusion, but the economics expert we hired said the opposite. This means that the Competition Bureau's latest opinions are extremely disturbing, and demonstrate the bureau's lack of objectivity.
Lastly, for the edification of committee members, we have highlighted the link between the retail gas industry and the telecommunications industry. If the industry were deregulated and the CRTC or competition tribunal was no longer involved in the process, consumers might suffer the same fate as all those drivers paying high prices for their gas today. With no regulated minimum price, consumers would not be protected at all.