External firm is reviewing the 2022 Rogers outage at the request of the CRTC. What we know – National
The Canadian telecommunications regulator has announced that it will publish “in due course” a report carried out by an external company on the Rogers outage in 2022.
A spokesperson for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) told PKBNEWS on Thursday that engineering consulting firm Xona Partners was conducting the review.
“The CRTC is continuing its investigation into the widespread outage that affected the Rogers Communications network in July 2022,” they indicated.
“The review of the consulting firm is still ongoing. The CRTC will review the company’s findings and release the report to inform Canadians in a timely manner.
The spokesperson added that he expects to receive the report around the end of October.
In July 2022, a major Rogers network outage left more than 12 million mobile and internet customers without service for more than 15 hours. The outage affected not only Canadians working from home, but also Interac payments, health care and law enforcement.
Rogers said the outage was due to a network system failure after a maintenance outage, but it nonetheless highlighted the vulnerability of Canada’s internet and cellphone network, dominated by three major players.
Immediately afterward, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne gave Rogers and other major telecommunications companies 60 days to develop a joint crisis plan in the event of future outages.
People sit outside the Rogers Center after The Weeknd’s show in Toronto was postponed due to service issues from telecommunications company Rogers, Friday, July 8, 2022.
Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
The companies signed a formal agreement that guarantees emergency roaming, mutual a*sistance and a communications protocol to notify the public and the government during such outages.
Under the agreement, companies have been required since September to support each other in the event of an outage so Canadians can still make calls, access 911 and conduct business transactions.
Since February, the CRTC has required telecoms to notify it within two hours in the event of a network outage. At the time, she also announced plans to hire an independent firm to investigate the matter.
According to the contract offer, the hired company would be asked to “help a**lyze and evaluate the resiliency of Rogers’ wireless and wireline telecommunications networks in all aspects related to the July 8, 2022 outage and evaluate proposed changes by Rogers in response to this outage. network outage to prevent future outages.
In collaboration with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, the CRTC plans to commission a report on reliability and resiliency measures used by international telecommunications regulators to prevent service outages.
“Xona Partners is evaluating the measures taken by Rogers to improve the reliability of its network,” the CRTC spokesperson said Thursday.
“The CRTC also continues to work on a framework to improve network reliability across Canada, given its essential role in a healthy telecommunications system. »
People use electronic devices outside a cafe in Toronto amid a nationwide Rogers outage, affecting many of the telecommunications company’s services, Friday, July 8, 2022.
Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
For his part, Rogers spokesperson Zac Carreiro told PKBNEWS in an email that the company has taken several steps to improve its infrastructure, including partnering with Cisco to improve network resiliency and introducing AI-powered “predictive simulation capabilities” to strengthen testing and monitoring.
“Customers rely on our networks every day and we remain focused on providing the highest level of network resilience to Canadians,” Carreiro said.
“Since last summer, we have conducted a comprehensive review of our network to continue to strengthen its resilience and have implemented several improvements and protective measures. We will continue to work with the CRTC to ensure Canadians have access to reliable telecommunications services and timely information.
The CRTC said it plans to launch additional consultations to improve network resilience, access to emergency services, consumer communication and compensation, the impact of outages on accessibility services and imposition of penalties on service providers.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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