CRTC releases notification, reporting requirements for major telecom service outages

The CRTC has set out its requirements for reporting large-scale telecommunications outages in Canada, with definitions of exactly what qualifies as a major outage. In addition to having to notify the CRTC and other official bodies about outages, such as provincial emergency management crews, telecommunications companies will have to file “comprehensive post-outage reports” explaining what caused the outage, as well as the effects of the incident and what was done to resolve it. Those requirements come into force in early November. After an outage is fixed, telecoms will have up to 30 days to submit a post-outage report to the CRTC. “With this information, can learn from what happened to avoid similar outages in the future, Canadians can learn the cause of an outage and other facts, and governments can develop policies to help limit outages going forward,” the CRTC noted in its decision. Two years after it launched its consultation on the matter, the commission has defined various “major emergency services outages” as being: - A major primary service outage (a complete loss of service to internet, cellphone, data services, landline phone and voice over internet protocol service); - A major 911 service outage; - A major wireless public alerting service outage; - A major specialized service outage (a loss of service for teletypewriter relay or internet protocol relay services, or an outage during which those relay platforms are not working. Also any outage affecting connection to the 988 mental health crisis phone service). There have been large-scale outages in Canada in the past. In July 2022, Rogers Communications Inc. saw a widespread outage of its home internet and wireless services, an outage which also impacted wholesale-based providers buying Rogers’ service, as well as outages driven by weather disasters such as Hurricane Fiona in Atlantic Canada. The Rogers outage spurred months of reaction, including demands for a detailed report on the cause. It also brought changes such as a network sharing agreement between telecom providers to help customers of a service experiencing an outage get “reasonable” roaming options and provide mutual aid arrangements between providers during emergencies. According to the CRTC’s decision, major primary service outages could occur in two ways. For one, it would have to impact at least 600,000 user minutes, “calculated by multiplying the duration of an outage in minutes by the number of end-users affected.” It could also be an event where a rural or remote community is isolated by losing access to internet or phone services. There is not a required minimum number of end-users affected for the other types of major issues to count as a problem that must be reported. Once such outages have been ongoing for 30 minutes or more, they must be reported. Meanwhile, alongside the decision outlining reporting and notification requirements, the commission announced that it is launching two public consultations, one on “new requirements and standards for how service providers design and operate their networks,” and the other on “additional consumer protections to help ensure Canadians have the information they need during an outage.” Commissioner for Ontario Bram Abramson dissents According to CRTC commissioner Bram Abramson’s dissenting opinion attached to the decision, it is a problem that the CRTC has not already put a major outages reporting framework in place. He states there are several pieces missing from the decision as it stands, ranging from definitions that do not catch all types of service people use, to a need for more intricate technical descriptions. Referring to the 988 crisis helpline service, Abramson notes that problems with networks directing calls to suicide prevention intake lines count as notifiable service interruptions, “yet interruptions immediately on the other side of those networks are not.” “Callers are unlikely to know or care, and ought not have to, on which side of the demarcation the fault lies. A mental health crisis call routed flawlessly to 988, for instance, fails if the intake system on the other side of it is down, but such an outage falls outside our framework,” he said. Regarding primary services, Abramson suggests the CRTC should have a more precise definition which should include “unregulated but pervasive interpersonal communications services.” “The majority decision leaves primary services both ill- and under-defined, and is too limited when it comes to emergency and specialized services," Abramson wrote. To exclude services such as Apple’s iMessage or Meta’s Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram direct-messaging products “is out of step with the tools by which Canadians telecommunicate, and on whose resilience and reliability they rely.” “The Telecommunications Act is technology-neutral legislation. It does not trap the commission in a box made of legacy telecom services. We should not trap ourselves in such a box, either.” news@thewirereport.ca

CRTC releases notification, reporting requirements for major telecom service outages

Regulatory |
By Wire Report Staff
| September 4, 2025

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CRTC releases notification, reporting requirements for major telecom service outages

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By Wire Report Staff
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