The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that the CRTC says it is taking a new step to bolster competition in the market for home Internet services by slashing the rates large providers can charge for access to their networks. The Globe's Christine Dobby writes that in doing so, the regulator admonished the telcos for proposing prices that were unfairly high. To encourage competition at the retail level, Canada's incumbent cable and telephone companies are required to sell wholesale access to their broadband networks to smaller competitors -- such as TekSavvy or Distributel -- that then sell end customers high-speed Internet service as well as home phone and television service in some cases. The CRTC sets the rates the incumbents can charge for that access based on evidence the companies provide about what it costs them to operate their networks. However, the CRTC is not buying it, saying Thursday that cost estimates the companies provided in a recent proceeding to establish updated rates were too high and that it would temporarily set lower rates. "The fact that these large companies did not respect accepted costing principles and methodologies is very disturbing," said CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais.