The big boss of Rogers says he regrets not having kept the Premier of Quebec, François Legault, informed at the time of the major network outage on July 8. He gave more details on Monday about the causes of the problem.
“We did not notify the Premier of Quebec as well, and in retrospect, I regret that. I’m disappointed we didn’t try to reach him sooner,” said Tony Staffieri, President and CEO of Rogers.
He was responding to a question from Conservative MP Bernard Généreux during a special hearing of the parliamentary committee on industry and technology, Monday in Ottawa. Mr. Staffieri explained the unfolding of the catastrophic day of July 8, providing elected officials with a little more detail on what happened.
That morning, 12 million Rogers cellular or Internet customers were cut off from the network, some of them for more than a day. Citizens found themselves unable to reach 9-1-1 emergency services, and it was no longer possible to use the Interac payment system in the country, among other consequences.
Mr. Staffieri apologized to his customers affected by the outage. He explained that a system failure occurred after an update was installed on the core network. Given the complexity of the network, “figuring out what caused the outage took some time,” he explained.
Once the error was identified, additional time was required to reconnect network users. In particular, it was necessary to physically disconnect faulty equipment. According to the big boss of Rogers, the maneuver had been tested five times, without problem.
“We had procedures in place to ensure that 911 and emergency calls changed to another operator. For very specific technical reasons, this automatic transfer did not happen,” he said, refuting that it could have been caused by business decisions.
He now promises to separate central telephone and Internet services, at a cost of $250 million. He also announced investments of 10 billion dollars to strengthen the network. As a remedy for this outage, all Rogers customers will automatically receive a five-day credit on their bill.
The CEO of Rogers faced several questions from elected committee members about his attempt to acquire his competitor Shaw, a transaction that is currently at the mediation stage with the Commissioner of Competition of Canada. Several MNAs expressed fears that the network could be weakened by a drop in competition.
“It’s a matter of scale,” Mr. Staffieri said. This is necessary to make investments that neither company is prepared to make alone, such as connecting rural and indigenous communities. »
The Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, also testified before the committee. The minister recounted how he spoke to Rogers executives from Tokyo, where he was.
The minister stressed that the outage was caused by a single company, but he said he was ready to examine the conclusions of the ongoing CRTC investigation and those of the parliamentary committee to find out whether the law should be strengthened. He did not say if he would block a possible acquisition of Shaw by Rogers, but specified that he would prevent the transfer of all licenses from the first to the second.
Meanwhile, he insisted that he demanded from the major telecommunications companies an agreement on emergency roaming between the companies, mutual assistance during blackouts and a protocol to better inform the public and authorities during problematic situations.
Minister Champagne had given 60 days to Rogers, Bell, Telus and Videotron, in particular, to agree. They now have 45 days left.
The chief executive of the CRTC and experts were yet to speak before this same parliamentary committee on Monday as these lines were written.