Industry committee  You're right that there is minimal overlap, but there are incredible complementarities to the capabilities of the business. I'll give you the most important one as an example: Shaw has spent five decades building an extensive fibre network throughout every major city and medium-s

Industry committee  No, it's not based on any economic theory. It's just based on the fact that we would have to spend a few billion dollars of Rogers capital to replicate that fibre network. By coming together, we can leverage that fibre network and extend it further into rural Canada, and we can a

Industry committee  I'm saying that we're on the doorstep of a very important investment cycle and the onus is on us as Rogers and as Shaw to look at the possibilities and opportunities to deliver on 5G and deliver on the rural opportunity—

Industry committee  I'll start by saying that we're on the doorstep of a very important time in our history in the telecommunications industry. It is the same doorstep we faced in 1999 when people started talking about the Internet and whether there was a market for it. It is the same doorstep we fa

Industry committee  I'll take that, Mr. Masse. I hate to be repetitive, but we're not really able to comment on anything that might speak to industry structure in and around the auction. Therefore, there is a commitment to stay quiet on anything that relates to the spectrum auction and decisions in

Industry committee  Why don't I take that first, Brad? There's a process that has begun with three regulators: the Competition Bureau, ISED and the CRTC. This will be germane to those discussions. We are just in the middle of creating our submissions. It's hard for me to comment on exactly what w

Industry committee  First of all, Rogers has already launched 5G to 170 cities across Canada, and we're going to continue to do so. What we're waiting for is the upcoming auction. The upcoming auction is a very important spectrum for 5G, and potentially the auction after that one. These particular

Industry committee  No, as Mr. Shaw said, we are prohibited from speaking any more extensively around the auction, given that it's around the corner and we're in the quiet period.

Industry committee  First of all, prices have been coming down across the industry. Stats Canada released their consumer price index for wireless a little while ago. We've seen a 15% drop in the last 12 months. The Liberal government's own telecom quarterly report shows the prices have dropped betwe

Industry committee  I'm going to ask Victoria Smith, who hasn't had a chance to speak. This is very much her primary responsibility for us. Victoria, can you talk about your role in terms of the network expansion and the billion dollars of net new investment?

Industry committee  MP Dreeshen, we've already made that commitment. Our entire network is based on Ericsson technology. It has been for a long time. They're our network partner in 4G. They'll be our network partner in 5G and into the future. They've been a great partner.

Industry committee  The auction is in June and then there's a settlement period. I would imagine within a month or two thereafter we'd be able to speak more broadly about spectrum.

Industry committee  It's correct.

Industry committee  No, that was not the intent of making that promise. The intent was to give people a degree of certainty. I believe that wireless prices will continue to go down for all wireless customers. Part of the big benefit of 5G is to deliver a better unit cost of delivering a gigabyte o

Industry committee  First of all, if you look at the consumer in western Canada, for example, you see the scale of Shaw's fibre footprint, the scale of Rogers [Technical difficulty—Editor] compete more broadly, more intensively in western Canada. More than ever this—