Industry committee  As I have already mentioned, RISQ does not compete against the industry. The very purpose of the act is to deregulate the telecommunications industry. Our sole objective is to ensure that, despite all of these bills and laws, aimed at the telecommunications industry, people will

Industry committee  No. I cannot foresee that. We have been subsidized by the Government of Quebec. According to an agreement we have with the Government of Quebec, we cannot resell our assets without the express permission of the Quebec Department of Education.

Industry committee  RISQ is not involved in research. We are rather a research infrastructure. I do not know if that answers your question. Could you repeat it please?

Industry committee  Thank you for clarifying your question. I now understand what you are getting at. That has already happened. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, RISQ was in the beginning created with the intention of using a communication protocol called TCP/IP. This protocol was not availabl

Industry committee  All of the data will be exclusively carried by what I call the world academic Internet, which is an entirely private international network.

Industry committee  In essence, our international equivalent. There are optical fibres running along the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Another example is high definition videoconferencing. Our networks were built with these needs in mind because of our educational mission. These networks must opera

Industry committee  That is correct.

Industry committee  It is more on the access side that there is an issue for us. Our network has very specific characteristics and it remains a private network aimed at serving its members. As far as access is concerned, it is not a matter of competition. Whether we are in a Bell or Telus CO or in

Industry committee  That is possible, but I cannot count on that happening. However, teaching institutes cannot run the risk of having changes substantially increase what they have to pay. That is more our worry.

Industry committee  Let us say that that is an outcome that requires less preparation.

Industry committee  Yes, a lot.

Industry committee  There are very important research projects, for example an international partnership on the new particle accelerator at CERN, in Geneva. This accelerator will transmit incredible amounts of data. The transmission of this data to various universities throughout the world will requ

Industry committee  Our main concern in this regard is access to infrastructure. That was the second point that I made in my introduction. Since RISQ is not a telecommunications company, it does not have the rights of way that telecommunications common carriers and cable operators are able to have.

Industry committee  That is a decision that would involve not RISQ, but rather Telus.

Industry committee  It is difficult for me to try to guess at how far the Commission might go. I can but look at various scenarios. For example, if we were prevented from accessing this infrastructure, we would be forced to relocate our fibre optics and our equipment throughout the province. Our net