New measures to help prevent widespread impacts like what we saw during the recent Rogers network outage.
A formal agreement has been reached among 12 of Canada’s telephone and internet service providers, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced Wednesday.
Champagne said the agreement will “ensure and guarantee” emergency roaming and mutual assistance during major outages and other emergencies.
“Going forward, should one of these providers be faced with a major outage, the other companies commit to providing the support and the assistance necessary so that Canadians can still reach their loved ones, reach out to 911, and conduct business transactions,” Champagne told reporters.
The agreement also includes a communications protocol for advising the public and government about response and restoration during major network outages.
Champagne demanded that the country’s telecom companies enter into a formal agreement in the days following the Rogers outage on July 8.
The outage interrupted phone and internet service for millions and took down Interact debit and e-transfer services. Some customers were also unable to call 911 as a result of the outage.
“The Rogers outage of July 8 was unacceptable, and we must do everything possible to ensure something similar does not happen again in the future, as I said at the time,” said Champagne.
The minister said he has also directed the Canadian Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee to come up with further measures within six months “to ensure robust and reliable telecommunications networks across the country.”
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