I could share with the committee some information I came across at the commission, where a study was conducted last year on the difference between costs of various types of mobile services—high-speed Internet and other services—in various countries like Canada, the United States, Great Britain, France and Australia.
Many people out there believe that we are paying more for those services in Canada. However, services equivalent to those we have here are more expensive in the United States. There are some sectors where we may be paying more for services. There is a lot of pressure for as many people as possible to have high-speed Internet access at very affordable rates.
If you were to ask me if Canada is shutting itself out of technology development, I would say that, aside from the fact that we must wait about a month before we can get our hands on the iPhone because the U.S. market can absorb everything that was produced in the first months, we are right up there with other countries. As to whether there is enough competition, I believe that one of the reasons for our being here is Globalive and the reversal of the CRTC decision.
New players are getting ready to tap into the Canadian market and offer people wireless services. Quebecor will begin a service that will be very competitive in the Quebec market starting in June or July. Globalive will launch Wind Mobile. It is already clear that this company, though it is well funded by foreign owners, is having a lot of difficulty starting up because existing market players—TELUS, Bell and Rogers—own about 94% of the wireless market.
So, even if lots of companies were allowed to enter the market, they would not necessarily be able to offer products at a better price. You should not forget that all the companies now entering the market, whether it is Dave Wireless or anyone else—there are three or four companies that are getting ready to enter the market—have paid about two and a half times more than they expected to pay for the frequencies they have bought. If you are in business and you believe that starting a company will cost you $100 million, but you end up spending $250 million, it will affect your ability to establish yourself in the market by offering advantageous rates in an attempt to compete with companies that are already established, that have an infrastructure.
So, the problem does not lie in the lack of market competition. As I said in my statement, there are big companies that have been established for a long time, such as Bell and TELUS—originally BC TELECOM—and their gears are turning slowly when it comes to change and opening the market to competition. Competition in the long-distance sector has existed for only 15 years. Before that, we could not own a telephone at home. It's hard to believe, but it's true.
Therefore, the Canadian market has developed slowly from an acknowledgment of the fact that monopolies were initially necessary for reaching as many Canadians as possible. Ninety-nine percent of Canadians have access to a telephone at home, and thanks to wireless phones, it is now possible to reach most Canadians. Because of the current wireless rates, Canada is one of the countries with the least penetration in that sector. The rate of penetration in the wireless sector is still at around 67% in Canada, compared to 80% or 90% in Europe.