CRTC sets new outage-reporting rules
Canada’s telecom regulator is tired of hearing about service outages from the news.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said Wednesday it’s setting new rules on the reporting of major interruptions to phone and internet service, changes that come in the wake of the massive outage of Rogers services last July.
The new rules, which come into force on March 8, are temporary while the CRTC conducts a broader public consultation on network reliability and resiliency.
“Canadians are experiencing an increased frequency of outages to crucial telecommunications networks,” the CRTC said Wednesday, noting the disruptions stem from a variety of causes, including extreme weather events, cyber-attacks and accidents.
“In many cases, the commission has first learned about an outage through news reports or complaints from Canadians,” the CRTC said in a notice of consultation published Wednesday.
Service providers will now be required to inform the CRTC within two hours of becoming aware of “major” outages. Those are generally defined as affecting more than 100,000 subscribers for more than an hour (or subscribers in an area served by just one carrier) or incidents that knock out “critical infrastructure” or a 911 network.
Within two weeks after that, telecoms must file a “comprehensive” report detailing the root causes of the outage, steps taken to resolve the service interruption and plans to avoid such issues in the future.
Carriers will also be required to spell out how the outage affected emergency communications and accessibility services for deaf, hard-of-hearing or visually impaired persons.
After the Rogers outage, 12 of Canada’s biggest telecoms signed a memorandum of understanding “to provide emergency roaming, mutual assistance, and communications to the public and governmental authorities during a critical network failure.”
The CRTC said the interim rules build on the requirements in that agreement.
In many cases, the commission has first learned about an outage through news reports or complaints from Canadians.
CRTC IN A REPORT