CRTC issues consultation on network resiliency in response to increased service outages

The CRTC is inviting telecom stakeholders and Canadians to participate in a consultation for the development of a regulatory framework to improve network reliability and resiliency. The regulator also issued interim outage reporting directives to Canadian service providers. “Canadians need reliable, high-quality telecommunications services. We are taking action to lessen the disruptive impact of service outages on Canadians, reduce their occurrence and length, and ensure that essential services such as 911 and emergency alerts are always available,” CRTC chair Vicky Eatrides stated in the Wednesday release. The scale and frequency of service outages have been on the rise, according to the notice of consultation. Extreme weather, cyber-attacks, and accidents were identified as the main causes. Atlantic Canada experienced an outage caused by Tropical Storm Fiona in September. Other outages were caused by a fibre cut in the Northwest Territories in June 2022, the derecho storm in Ontario and Quebec in May 2022, forest fires in Alberta and British Columbia in 2021, and Hurricane Dorian in Atlantic Canada in 2019. Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne already had Canada’s largest providers sign a memorandum of understanding that established a communications protocol, mutual assistance agreements, and emergency roaming capabilities between providers in response to the Rogers Communications Inc.’s July 2022 outage. He also directed the Canadian Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (CSTAC) to produce a report outlining recommendations to improve network reliability. The commission’s preliminary view is that Canadian carriers should be forced to provide it with notification of any outage and post-outage reports. In the interim the commission is mandating that Canadian carriers report major service outages, and all those affecting 911 services, to the CRTC within two hours. The carriers must file a comprehensive outage report with the commission within 14 days following the outage. The interim measures take effect March 8th. Regarding the consultation the commission is asking for input on what constitutes a major service outage including a specific definition for a major 911 network outage, the time frame in which it should be reported, which authorities a carrier should notify, and the specific information that should be provided (ex. relevant timelines, affected services, number and types of customers affected, affected geographic areas, the steps already taken to restore services). It is also seeking input on whether or not a post-outage report should be submitted to the commission and the scope of said report. The CRTC said it will launch future consultations “to address network resiliency in broader terms” such as emergency services, public alerting, consumer communication, consumer compensation, accessibility, technical measures, and the imposition of administrative monetary penalties. The CRTC announced its plans to initiate the proceeding into network outages in November. At the time Rogers chief regulatory officer Ted Woodhead responded by saying that the CRTC needed to demonstrate “regulatory humility.” He said the memorandum of understanding and legislation in the works, which predated the incumbent’s national outage, is the answer. “I’m not sure that the CRTC has to do anything other than, you know, its general oversight role,” Woodhead said at a conference panel. – Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca

CRTC issues consultation on network resiliency in response to increased service outages

News | February 22, 2023

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CRTC issues consultation on network resiliency in response to increased service outages

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