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Rogers Execs To Testify In House of Commons About Mass Outage

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Two hearings will be held to hold Rogers Communications accountable for the outage that affected Canadians coast to coast.

For more than 15 hours, Rogers (Fido and Chatr) networks of cellphones, internet and more were down. Even stretching to interfering with debit transactions, but most dangerously was the inaccessibility of emergency services.

Some emergency services switched to an email, which is an alternative– however, without online access how do you compose and email in the event of an emergency?

That being a major concern for the CRTC as it outlined 54 questions to Rogers to provide more information;

  • what was the root cause of the outage (including what processes, procedures or safeguards failed to prevent the outage, such as planned redundancy or patch upgrade validation procedures)
  • total number of people impacted by the outage, personal & business related.
  • how were 9-1-1 calls processed during the outage and whether they were able to be processed by other wireless networks within the same coverage area

These are just an example of some of the questions posed to the telecommunications company. An abridged version of Rogers response is can be read here.

Almost immediately after the outage, Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne directed all the major wireless providers to come to a mutual agreement on how they would transfer customers to another network in the event of another outage.

However, during its downtime this idea was brought up but Rogers didn’t believe that the competition’s networks could withstand a sudden influx of traffic if they just flipped a switch and moved over 10 million accounts over.

During the hearings schedule for Monday, July 25 2022, executives from Rogers as well as CRTC officials and the Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne will be in attendance.

Shortly after connections were restored, Rogers and it’s subsidiaries announced they would be crediting accounts for five billing days. This despite a class-action lawsuit that was filed in Quebec seeking $400 for each customer affected by the outage.

Rogers did announce that they will be separating its wireless and internet services to create an “always on” network so that if cellphones go down, Wi-Fi will stay up and vice versa. Executives have also stated that they are working with their counter parts on agreements that would allow customers to switch to another network for the sake of making emergency calls.

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UPDATE: Rogers Restores Services To ‘Vast Majority’ Of Customers

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Rogers says it has restored services for the “vast majority” of customers affected by a widespread network outage on Friday.

In a tweet posted by the telecom giant around 7 a.m. Eastern Time on Friday, it said technical teams were working hard to get the remaining customers back online as quickly as possible.

“As our services come back online and traffic volumes return to normal, some customers may experience a delay in regaining full service,” reads the tweet.

It is still unknown what caused the outage or how long it will take to restore services to everyone, but Rogers said it will proactively credit all affected customers, adding that more information will be shared soon.

The day-long outage affected internet, TV, home phone and wireless services since early Friday morning, with Downdetector reporting a massive spike in reported issues shortly after 4:30 a.m. Eastern Time. It also affected wireless providers Fido, chatr and cityfone, which use the Rogers’ network.

Rogers first acknowledged the problems in a tweet shortly before 9 a.m. Eastern Time.

“We are aware of issues currently affecting our networks and our teams are fully engaged to resolve the issue as soon as possible. We will continue to keep you updated as we have more information to share,” said the tweet.

In a statement issued late Friday evening, Rogers president and CEO Tony Staffieri said he takes full responsibility for ensuring the company earns back the trust of consumers.

“We know going a full day without connectivity has real impacts on our customers and all Canadians,” wrote Staffieri. “On behalf of all of us here at Rogers, Rogers for Business, Fido, chatr and cityfone, I want to sincerely apologize for this service interruption and the impact it is having on people from coast to coast to coast.”

Staffieri said they are committed to fully understanding the root cause of the outage and will make “all the changes necessary to ensure that in the future we meet and exceed your expectations for our networks.”

The nationwide Rogers outage also impacted Tbaytel’s Mobility network.

“We apologize and recognize that the Mobility outage was frustrating and disruptive to your day. Unfortunately, this outage inconvenienced you and customers across the country,” stated Tbaytel on its Facebook page Saturday morning. “A proactive credit for the time of the outage will be issued to our Tbaytel Mobility postpaid customers. Your invoice will be automatically credited next month. You do not need to contact us.”

Interac services were also impacted by the Rogers outage.

Some people reported that they could send or receive e-transfers, while others were not able to take money out of their banks, and many businesses were only able to accept cash.

In a tweet around 10 a.m. Eastern Time on Saturday, Interac confirmed its services had been restored.

“As Rogers has restored connectivity after their system wide outage, INTERAC services are now fully available,” read the tweet.