The federal cabinet won’t overturn a CRTC decision requiring network owners to sell access to their internet wires to competitors, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly announced Wednesday evening. Rogers called it a “deeply flawed decision,” while Bell CEO Mirko Bibic said the telco will scale back its expansion plan for its fibre-optic network by a million locations. Cogeco CEO Frédéric Perron called the result “unacceptable.” The happiest camper: Telus, which has been fighting to use competitors’ wires in eastern Canada. (The Logic)

Talking point: Under then-prime minister Justin Trudeau, the cabinet ordered the policy reconsidered, only to have the CRTC decide again that it was right. The mandatory wholesale access rule is meant to promote competition by letting providers offer internet services even if they don’t have their own wires in an area; the biggest telcos say it disincentivizes them to build and upgrade those networks, while small ones say only they should get the wholesale access at issue.