Breadcrumb Trail Link
Wireless and Internet services were cut off for 12 million people on July 8, due to a network shutdown
Author of the article:
bloomberg news
Randy Thanthong-Knight
publication date:
25 July 2022 • 53 minutes ago • Read 1 minute • Join the conversation 
Rogers Communications Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer Tony Stafieri, left, and Rogers Communications Inc.’s Chief Technology and Information Officer Ron McKenzie testify during a Standing Committee on Technology and Industry hearing in Ottawa on Monday. Photo by David Kawai / Bloomberg
article material
The top executive at Rogers Communications Inc. said the company “failed to deliver” on the promise of reliable service and will spend at least $250 million to separate its wireless and wireline networks as a result.
Rogers Chief Executive Tony Stafieri was testifying before a Canadian parliamentary committee on July 8 about the collapse of the network, which shut down wireless and Internet services for 12 million people. The outage affected emergency services, financial payment systems, businesses and government offices.
article material
Industry minister François-Philippe Champagne says he should not have reached out to Rogers CEO Tony Stafieri during the massive national network outage. It should have been the other way round. #rogers outage #telecom #wireless
— Barbara Shechter (@BatPost) 25 July 2022
Staffieri told lawmakers that desegregating the network would help strengthen them further. Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne has ordered Canadian telecommunications companies to design an advanced system so that if a provider encounters a major network problem, 911 calls and other critical services will still function.
The committee is seeking answers from officials at Rogers and the country’s telecommunications regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, about the reasons for the failure to avoid such incidents, its implications and future plans.
“It was a failure of a company. It was a failure of Rogers,” Champagne told the committee on Monday.
The network crisis has put further pressure on Stafieri as Toronto-based Rogers seeks approval from Ottawa to take on rival Shaw Communications Inc. in a $20 billion deal. Rogers is facing a legal challenge from the Competition Bureau of the proposed acquisition.
Source
