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But for small providers who buy and resell access to the networks built by big players with deep pockets — namely BCE Inc., Telus Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. — the government’s decision gives them a chance to compete using infrastructure they couldn’t feasibly reproduce.

“It’s a big win for everybody,” Toronto-based VMedia Inc. co-founder George Burger said in an interview. “The gravitation toward the higher speeds ultimately meant with no access, there was no opportunity for competitive prices.”

Bell filed its petition the day after the federal election ushered in a new Liberal government, stating it might have to claw back annual investments by $384 million in Ontario and Quebec alone. Bell, which has only filed five such petitions in two decades, argued the CRTC decision would most hurt rural communities without sufficient returns to justify building fibre infrastructure.

But the Liberal government sided with the CRTC — and nearly 80,000 people who signed OpenMedia’s online petition asking the feds to “reject Bell’s price-gauging scheme” — citing the need for accessible, reliable and affordable high-speed Internet for middle-class and low-income families.

“We are committed to increasing higher-speed broadband coverage and supporting competition, choice and availability of services for Canadian consumers and business users,” Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains said in a statement.