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By Timothy Denton

France, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Australia, Finland, Israel, Japan, Korea, China: these are some of the countries that have adopted policies granting competitors access to the facilities of larger telecom carriers. Yet all these countries are wrong, according to the Montreal Economic Institute (see “The CRTC needs to get out of the way,” Gael Campan, Oct 31).

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Everyone agrees: networks require investments of tens of billions. But requiring larger players to supply access to smaller players lowers their profits and reduces their incentive to invest. Networks will not be built out as far or as fast if we follow this policy, says the MEI. Roll back that meddling CRTC and let the incumbents get on with the business of building networks.

Access to the wired and wireless facilities of incumbent carriers is critical to real competition in our telecommunications markets

This is the theory of “facilities-based competition,” the idea that the only legitimate competition occurs when competitors own every part of the network except the phone in your hand. Connecting to their networks is a privilege that they, not regulators, should decide upon.