The two telcos and the watchdog who wants to stop them from combining are meeting Tuesday afternoon to see if the companies can satisfy competition commissioner Matthew Boswell’s request that they make firm enough promises the buyout “will not likely prevent or lessen competition substantially.” (The Logic)

Talking point: Justice Paul Crampton ordered the conference for this afternoon, before a trial due to start Nov. 7, to determine whether those hearings can focus on how to keep Rogers’s purchase of Shaw from reducing competition in the telecom market rather than Boswell’s call to stop it entirely. In a September filing, Boswell’s bureau argued the companies’ proposal to sell Shaw’s discount wireless brand Freedom Mobile to Videotron is inadequate because it’s too tightly integrated into Shaw’s other operations to be a fierce enough competitor to Bell, Telus and a combined Rogers and Shaw if transferred to Videotron’s hands.