Canadian Science Minister Says Demanded Telecom Companies Bolster Reliability

TORONTO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th July, 2022) Canadian Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Francois-Phillipe Champagne said that he has demanded of major Canadian telecommunications companies to bolster their reliability after the massive outage at Rogers Communications that impacted millions of residents.

"The national outage of telecom services that millions of Canadians experienced in the last few days is unacceptable," Champagne said via Twitter on Monday. "That's why today I brought together the heads of the major telecom companies to demand they take immediate action to improve the resiliency and reliability of our networks by ensuring a formal arrangement is in place within 60 days."

Champagne also said he had directed the companies to reach agreements on emergency roaming and mutual assistance during outages. In addition, the companies must reach a deal on protocols to better inform the authorities during telecommunications emergencies, he added.

On July 8, Rogers, a telecommunications giant with over 10 million wireless subscribers and 2 million internet customers, reported a massive outage that affected the entire Canadian network.

A Montreal law firm said earlier on Monday that Rogers is facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly misleading customers about being the country's most reliable network.

The lawsuit also seeks to hold the giant accountable under the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) regulations which mandate telecommunications companies to allow 911 calls at any time, a service rendered unavailable for almost 24 hours, the law firm added.

All customers who had contracts with Rogers as well as Fido mobile or Chatr Mobile and who were disconnected from the services are invited to sue, although the current status of the class action is pending as they await an authorization hearing from courts.