Industry committee  I'll speak very briefly on this, because really I can speak only to our experience on the telecom side. The common theme is the overarching power of dominant providers who control the market and really control all the levers for smaller businesses who are trying to compete in that space.

Industry committee  If the CRTC ends up throwing out that deal—if it ends up being illegal—then it wouldn't be able to form the basis of Videotron's ability to compete on wireline, wherever that deal is being offered to it. Again, we know very little about that deal. Presumably, out west at least, Videotron wouldn't be able to use existing wholesale regulated rates to compete.

Industry committee  Thank you, Chair, Vice-Chairs and committee members for the opportunity to speak with you. I'm Andy Kaplan-Myrth, VP of regulatory and carrier affairs at TekSavvy, which is an independent Canadian Internet, phone and TV service provider. I'm joined by my colleague Jessica Rutledge, who is our regulatory counsel at TekSavvy.

Industry committee  On the mobile side, in a way, because of this strategy of encouraging a fourth player, we have this inefficient overbuilding that we don't have on the wireline side. With the wire line, to overbuild, you would need to have more wires coming into your home. Right now you have a phone company and a cable company.

Industry committee  I also think it's both, but my main concern about it is that it's a systemic problem—or systemic issues, I guess—to the extent that, on the network side of the business, they can enjoy efficiencies because it's better for one company to be building one network than overbuilding, or two companies in different regions.

Industry committee  The fourth player is really the wrong strategy. As long as we have this strategy of nurturing a fourth player to introduce some degree of competition, we're really designing the system to fail. We're going to be one merger away from complete collapse of competition. A fourth player may be enough to influence prices to some degree, but it is not robust competition that can survive major deals like this one.

Industry committee  The CRTC right now is considering final rates that are the bulk of what a business like TekSavvy relies on right now. Those are the regulated wholesale rates for most of these services. Those have been under appeal for years. I don't have enough time to go into the details of that, but if the CRTC finalizes its 2019 rates, TekSavvy and lots of other competitors will use those rates to lower prices, which will have an effect on Internet prices across Canada.

Industry committee  I think I am out of time, and I'm not sure that I can actually speak to it. Maybe I'll leave that there, and maybe we can get back to it.

Industry committee  I wonder how different those comments from constituents would look if we had robust wholesale-based competition where we had lots of different providers offering services to customers, so that they're not just buying their service from Shaw or Telus and wondering where they're going to be stuck.

Industry committee  I should be clear that our primary investments in facilities are around our headquarters in Chatham-Kent in southwestern Ontario. This merger would not directly affect our investment plans where we're building fibre and fixed wireless, but there is an aspect where Shaw and Rogers do compete with each other on wire line for competitors' attention and competitors' energy.

Industry committee  Thank you. Too often, policy is developed with the big incumbents in mind and the system that we have in mind. How competition can be encouraged is almost an afterthought in a lot of cases. With regard to the model that we have right now, individual examples are out there, but this applies to the entire model.

Industry committee  This is why I was emphasizing this difference between two different businesses that are really operating in parallel, building networks on the one hand and competition for services on the other hand. When most of us talk about encouraging competition, I think we're talking about an end-user's experience.

Industry committee  I'm sorry. Is the scenario here that as a condition for the merger to go ahead Rogers would agree to mandated MVNO?

Industry committee  Look, I don't think we are primarily opposed to the merger in the first place. We also don't support it. My concern is more with the fact that a merger like this can happen and can eliminate a fourth player and result in another consolidated giant telecom with incredible market power.

Industry committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, Vice-Chairs and committee members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you. My name is Andy Kaplan-Myrth, and I am VP, regulatory and carrier affairs, at TekSavvy, an independent Canadian Internet, phone and TV service provider with teams now working from their homes in southwestern Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec.