CNOC supports PIAC’s call for inquiry on the responsibilities of telecom service providers
OTTAWA – The CRTC is giving Rogers Communications 10 days to provide detailed information about the network outage that began last Friday.
“The CRTC is requesting a detailed account from Rogers as to “why” and “how” this happened, as well as what measures Rogers is putting in place to prevent future outages,” said CRTC CEO and chair Ian Scott today in a statement.
“We take the safety, security, and wellness of Canadians very seriously and we are responsible for ensuring that Canadians have access at all times to a reliable and efficient communications system.”
Rogers must respond to the CRTC by July 22, 2022. “Once we are satisfied with Rogers’ responses to our questions, we will determine what additional measures need to be taken,” Scott said.
The request for information is the Commission’s first step in investigating the outage after Industry minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters yesterday the CRTC would be looking into it.
In a harshly worded letter addressed to Ted Woodhead, Rogers’ senior vice-president, regulatory affairs, Fiona Gilfillan, CRTC executive director, telecommunications sector, called the effects of the outage “unacceptable” and said Rogers and other service providers should have mitigation strategies in place.
Gilfillan further called out Rogers for saying its networks and systems were nearly fully operational on July 9 when there continued to be many complaints of service interruptions in the following days. She suggested Rogers should have handled the outage better, particularly from a communications point of view.
“In the first several hours of the outage, it became clear that Rogers was either unable to reassure, or ineffective in reassuring, its customers and providing critical information about what to expect,” Gilfillan wrote.
The letter pointed out the company made few details available regarding the outage and even “failed to provide Canadians with information about alternate means of reaching 9-1-1 in case of emergency.”
Due to the seriousness of the outage, the CRTC is asking Rogers to provide a complete and detailed report on it, which is to include answers to a series of questions on topics including what the root cause of the outage was, what repairs were required, how emergency services were impacted, the extent to which Interac was impacted, how customers are being compensated and how the company determined what would be an appropriate level of compensation.
In addition to taking this first step to investigate the outage, a CRTC spokesperson confirmed the Commission is currently reviewing a request made by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre to launch an inquiry into the outage and to examine whether Canadian telecommunications service providers should, among other measures, be required to provide a baseline of emergency planning.
This request is being supported by the Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC), which represents smaller independent communications service providers in the country.
“CNOC is concerned with the consequences suffered by communications users during the significant blackout,” a letter from the organization sent to the CRTC today reads. “We are further concerned that our members, acting as secondary Internet Service Providers are unable to gain satisfactory compensation from Rogers for the downtime and reputational harms.”
Due to non-disclosure agreements, more specific information about compensation for service providers is not available. CNOC is asking the Commission, however, to appreciate that the NDAs between its members and Rogers hinder its ability to fully assess the situation, and as such requests “the Commission issue requests for information to Rogers and all primary Internet Service Providers to put on the public record the terms and conditions associated with network outages.”
(At least one Rogers customer is also dissatisfied with the company’s compensation plans and as such has launched a class action lawsuit, which is currently pending authorization.)
TekSavvy, an independent service provider that was impacted by the Rogers outage, also supports PIAC’s call for an inquiry. “Any such inquiry or consultation related to the outage and network resiliency must consider issues of competition and wholesale-based providers,” said Andy Kaplan-Myrth, the company’s vice-president of regulatory and carrier affairs, in a statement emailed to Cartt.ca.
