Tag: rogers outage

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Rogers July 8th outage didn’t disrupt the National Public Alerting System: Pelmorex

Pelmorex Weather Networks, responsible for operating the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination (“NAAD”) System, says Rogers’ July 8th outage didn’t impact its system.

Pelmorex is responsible for verifying emergency alerts and sharing them with broadcasters, wireless service providers, and other distributors, which push the alerts out to the public.

“The NAAD System is configured such that Pelmorex would never be reliant on a single internet service provider to ensure service,” Pelmorex says in its response to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), dated August 31st.

Authorized alert issuers didn’t inform Pelmorex of having trouble accessing the interface which issues alerts, the response notes.

Rogers emailed Pelmorex at 11:19am ET on July 8th to say emergency alerts through the NAAD System won’t be delivered to Rogers wireless users. Pelmorex says it first contacted Rogers at 9:25 am EDT. The response indicates Rogers responded to Pelmorex’s questions before issuing the 11:19am email.

“On the distribution side, wireless service providers (WSPs) receive emergency alert files through a private, secure IP connection hosted by a third party. This connection was not impacted by the outage and all WSPs, including Rogers, were able to receive alerts from the NAAD System.”

The NAAD System validated and processed 42 emergency alert messages between 4:00am and 11:59am ET on July 8th, all in Saskatchewan.

How it works

Pelmorex says it has a system in place to see if the Last Mile Distributor (LMD), the part of the telecommunications sequence responsible for getting the message to the end user, is disconnected from the NAAD System. With WSPs, Pelmorex sends an alert message to each of the individual cell broadcast systems operated by the provider, once it receives an alert. A link text message is issued determining the communication between the NAAD System and each cell broadcast system, confirming if each one is fully operational.

However, a successful connection between the two systems doesn’t mean the provider can distribute the alert.

But Pelmorex says there is an operational process between the company and wireless service provider if a problem should arrise.

“In the event of a loss of connection and as per standard operating procedures, the NAAD System operations team will contact the appropriate WSP support team. Similarly, WSPs possess the contact information of the 24/7 NAAD System support team and they can contact Pelmorex should they experience an issue or a loss of connection with the WPA service.”

Source: CRTC

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Analyst believes Rogers’ takeover of Shaw will push into 2023

Maher Yaghi, an analyst at Bank of Nova Scotia, believes the Rogers and Shaw merger will drag well into 2023.

According to reporting from the Globe and Mail, the Competition Bureau’s pushback against the merger is one reason for Yaghi’s reasoning.

“The odds are increasing that it will take a full trial, and possibly a further appeal, before we get a clear view on the outcome of that transaction,” Yaghi said.

The Commissioner for Competition filed to block the merger in May, stating the transaction would decrease competition and is not a good deal for Canadians.

To appease the issue of competition, Rogers said it would sell Freedom Mobile to Vidéotron to create a fourth competitor in the wireless market. However, the Commissioner of Competition said the sale wouldn’t dispel concerns. 

“The Competition Bureau continues to argue that a fourth national wireless service provider needs to have strong economics to sell wireless and wireline bundled services, and not just wireless, to remain viable,” Yaghi said.

On Monday, the Competition Tribunal delivered another blow to Rogers, ruling the July 8th service outage is applicable to the hearing. Rogers previously stated the outage was not connected to the $26-billion Shaw takeover.

According to the Competition Tribunal’s website, the first week of a five-week hearing will begin on November 7th. The last day of the hearing is December 8th. Oral arguments will push the matter well into December 14th.

Source: Globe and Mail 

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PIAC asks CRTC to release confidential details from Rogers’ recent filing on July outage

Toronto, Canada-September 29, 2020: Close up of Rogers sign on their headquarters building in Toronto. Rogers Communications Inc. is a Canadian communications and media company.

The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) wants the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to release confidential information Rogers filed on the July 8th service outage.

The disclosure request relates to Rogers’ August 22nd filing to the CRTC, which contains answers from a second round of questions the commission asked the telecom giant.

The PIAC says Rogers redacted critical information the public needs to understand the outage and evaluate the company’s response.

Like Rogers’ first set of responses, the second was also heavily redacted. However, it did reveal the company’s plans to separate its wireless and wireline networks will cost an estimated $261 million, up from the original $250 million estimate.

The PIAC wants the commission to reveal the specifics about the $261 million estimate, timelines to separate the networks, and how separating the networks will improve resiliency, among other information.

“If Rogers’ customers are to, at least in part, foot the bill for these significant remedial projects, then customers should know what they’re paying for and when to expect results,” the PIAC states.

“More detailed explanations of the investment initiatives will also allow the public to comment on whether the claimed investments are effective and proportionate solutions, and to raise questions on whether the stated plans reflect investments that were already planned or necessary prior to the outage.”

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: PIAC

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Questions relating to Rogers’ July 8th outage applicable to Shaw merger hearings

The Competition Tribunal has ruled the July 8th Rogers outage will be relevant to proceedings on Rogers’ overtaking of Shaw.

The tribunal made the ruling Friday after they heard from the Commissioner of Competition and representatives from Rogers.

The outage impacted 13 million wireline and wireless customers. However, it’s important to know the final figure of impacted users is much higher than 13 million, as the outage impacted carriers and various companies who use Rogers services.

Rogers is vying to buy out Shaw in a $26-billion merger but has only received approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) so far. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) has yet to make a decision, and the Competition Bureau has opposed the merger, stating it’s not in the best interest of Canadians.

To address concerns, Rogers said it will sell Freedom Mobile, Shaw’s wireless asset, to Vidéotron to create more competition. While the sale is contingent on the approval of Rogers’ takeover of Shaw, the Commissioner says the sale is “not an effective remedy.”

“It fails to eliminate the substantial lessening and prevention of competition the proposed transaction will cause,” the Commissioner states in an amended response posted on August 15th. 

Source: Competition Tribunal 

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Telecom news round up [Aug 13-19]

Welcome to another edition of MobileSyrup’s telecom news roundup.

Business

The Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services’ (CCTS) received 15,000 complaints in 2021. The CRTC-mandated organization summarized the details in its 2021 Compliance and Monitoring report. While the report lacks information about which companies received the most complaints, it does point to 4pairless communications twice when discussing breaches of its Procedural Code.

Six weeks after Rogers’ July 8th outage, the company has revealed more details surrounding the nationwide disturbance. More than 13 million wireline and wireless customers were impacted. When it came to restoring services, Rogers focused on wireless services first, followed by wireline services and critical care services. The disclosure results from several requests from various organizations demanding Rogers reveal more detail on the outage.

The CRTC is continuing its investigation into Rogers’ nationwide outage. The regulatory body has sent the company a list of questions it needs “to assess the situation.” The commission wants details on the company’s plan to separate its wireless and wireline networks, the direct economic losses the outage brought, and its impact on 911 services.

More on the CRTC, the commission has ruled it will decide on Telus’ application to charge credit card fees in 45 days. The CRTC commonly approves interim decisions 15 days after receiving applications. However, the commission says it won’t take that step in this case, given the number of interventions against Telus’ request. That figure sits in the thousands. More background on the topic is available here.

Internet Service Provider (ISP) TekSavvy has once again asked the Competition Bureau to address predatory internet pricing. In a letter, the ISP says large companies are offering retail internet prices under their flanker brands that cost less than the “inflated” prices they charge competitors. TekSavvy says the anti-competitive behaviour is going unchecked, leading ISPs to go out of business.

Infrastructure

Telus is planning on spending billions of dollars in British Columbia through 2026. Under the commitment, the Vancouver-based telecom giant will invest $33 million in Surrey this year. $13 million will also go towards New Westminster, $4 million to Richmond, and $105 million to Vancouver. The company has promised similar investments for several municipalities in Alberta.

Deals

The new school year is just around the corner, and several brands are offering decent promotions for students.

Public Mobile is offering students a 20GB data plan for $55/mo.

Rogers has offered some former customers a $45/25GB win-back plan.

Virgin Plus has a $45/20GB plan available for some customers, although getting it requires talking to an agent through chat.

Deals are also available through Nintendo and Amazon.

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Rogers reveals July 8 outage impacted over 13 million wireline, wireless customers

Rogers has shared more information regarding the July 8th outage.

We now know the outage impacted more than 13 million wireline and wireless customers. 2.9 million customers were wireline (consumers, businesses, etc.), and 10.2 million were wireless customers (postpaid, prepaid, wholesale, etc.).

The company provided more information on how the outage unfolded but kept specific details private. The available details reveal the system was impacted in minutes, affecting Rogers Internet Gateway, Core Gateway and Distribution Routers. The three could not communicate between themselves or the company’s cellular, enterprise, and cable networks.

“With the Core Gateways and Routers impacted, the wireless and wireline networks went offline and were unable to deliver traffic to and from residential and business customers,” Rogers says in its updated response.

Rogers initially shared details in a heavily redacted response to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) last month.

Restoring services

Wireless services were Rogers’ first priority of restoration. Wireline services were next. Critical care services (including police, hospital, and airports) was the third thing Rogers restored.

Restoring services for major infrastructure providers and business customers was fourth, and home internet services were fifth.

In its updated response, Rogers also provided specifics on actions it took following the outage and details on its internal process for major network upgrades.

What they didn’t disclose

Despite putting a figure on the outage for the first time, Rogers still didn’t share the breakdown by province or the impact on government services.

Rogers also didn’t share customer information and other third-party info, 911 calling stats and more technical details regarding their infrastructure.

The company says sharing confidential customer information isn’t necessary to understand the outage or the steps taken following the outage.

The company further states it won’t disclose technical information on its network and infrastructure as it would undermine the security of its network and potentially harm the public.

“Rogers purposely provided a detailed overview of the incident in order for the public to understand what occurred and why. Any further specificity would be of no assistance to the public but would be helpful to malicious actors seeking to disrupt our networks. There must be a balance.”

The company provides similar reasoning for not disclosing details on 911 call statistics. The company says it considered providing this info until they were told such statistics could disrupt their network.

More information needed

The recent disclosure of information resulted from requests put in by various organizations, including the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC). However, as Rogers notes in its recent response, all questions included in the requests were not answered. 

The CRTC has sent the company further questions to better understand the outage. In a letter dated August 5th, the commission wants to know the economic loss of the outage and confirmation customers received the compensatory credits the company promised.

Source: CRTC

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CRTC asks Rogers to provide more information regarding July 8th outage

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has asked Rogers to provide more information regarding the July 8th outage.

In a letter dated August 5th, the CRTC said more information is needed “for the Commission to assess this situation.”

The CRTC sent the Toronto-based telecom company initial questions following the outage last month. Rogers responded with a heavily redacted document that kept various details hidden from the public.

Since then, Rogers has vowed to separate its wireline and wireless networks to prevent all services from going down at the same time in the future.

Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri told the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology the process will cost $250 million, and the CRTC wants Rogers to provide information on how they got to this figure.

The commission is requesting a cost breakdown of the $250 million, details of implementation timelines and how separating networks will improve resilience. The CRTC is also asking for similar details regarding Roger’s plans to invest $10 billion in Artificial Intelligence and further testing and oversight.

Additionally, Rogers has to provide details on the direct economic losses of the outage and confirmation if residential and small business customers receive the credit the company promised. Rogers pledged to credit customers for five days of service, a move that’s estimated to cost $150 million.

Rogers is also asked to provide information on reports of network issues prior to the nationwide outage. Furthermore, the company has to answer questions related to 911 services and emergency alerting.

The CRTC initially asked Rogers to answer these questions by August 15th. However, the company has asked for the deadline to be extended by a week to August 22nd.

The CRTC said it’s still making a decision on PIAC’s request to make Rogers’ initial answers to the CRTC public.

“[Rogers] response has excessively redacted critical information that the public requires to understand what occurred during the outage and how Rogers plans to mitigate future risks and harms,” the PIAC said in its request.

Source: CRTC

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Telecom news round up [Aug 6-12]

Welcome to this week’s edition of MobileSyrup’s telecom news roundup.

Rogers-Shaw merger

The latest in the ongoing Rogers-Shaw merger is that Rogers, Shaw, and Quebecor signed a definitive agreement to sell Freedom Mobile to Quebecor subsidiary Vidéotron. The agreement is conditional on the Rogers-Shaw merger closing, among other things, and is “substantially consistent” with terms announced by the companies in June.

Business news

Telus has asked the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to add a credit card processing fee to customer bills. The Vancouver-based telecom company wants to set this rate at 1.5 percent of the payment (plus tax) and have it applied to new and existing customers who pay for Telus services through credit card. If approved, the change will come into effect on October 17th.

In another request to the CRTC, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) wants the telecom watchdog to release more information on Rogers’ response to the nationwide outage on July 8th. The CRTC has heavily redacted the publicly available response, and various sections of information, including the total number of customers impacted, were removed.

Internet Service Provider (ISP) Oxio says customers will be able to avoid expected slowdowns during peak hours for now. The company accesses its internet through Rogers and asked for a capacity increase in June to deal with its growing customer base. The increase was supposed to take place on July 7th, one day before the nationwide outage, but that never ended up happening. Oxio says it doesn’t know when its original request will be honoured but says it has a commitment from Rogers to fix the problem, setting on interim solutions until then.

Infrastructure

Telus is investing $17 billion in Alberta between 2022 and 2026, including a $3 million investment in Fort McMurray and a $10 million investment in St. Albert. The collective $17 billion will connect thousands of homes to Telus’ pure fibre-to-the-home network and deliver 5G access to remote communities.

Deals

Vidéotron is offering its Quebec customers Samsung’s Galaxy A53 5G for $10/month for 24 months. Customers can purchase the phone outright for $588. However, going with the monthly payment plan will bring the final cost down to $240.

Honourable mention

While not a deal, or something strictly speaking on Canada’s wireless and wireline networks, Samsung released two new foldable devices this week, and yes, Canadians can get their hands on them.

The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is available for pre-order at Best Buy, The Source, and Amazon Canada. The Galaxy Z Flip 4 can only be pre-ordered at Best Buy and Amazon. A variety of carriers, including Telus, SaskTel, and Eastlink, are also selling both devices.

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PIAC calls for the CRTC to release more details on Rogers’ response to July outage

Toronto, Canada-September 29, 2020: Close up of Rogers sign on their headquarters building in Toronto. Rogers Communications Inc. is a Canadian communications and media company.

The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) wants the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to release more information on Rogers’ response to the July 8th outage.

The “response has excessively redacted critical information that the public requires to understand what occurred during the outage and how Rogers plans to mitigate future risks and harms,” PIAC’s request reads, as reported by Cartt.ca.

Some of the redacted information included the total number of impacted customers, the provinces they resided in, and the number of 911 calls that couldn’t be completed.

PIAC wants the commission to publicly share details on the full outage and recovery timeline Rogers submitted.

“It will be the backbone of any evaluation of the efforts made by Rogers and the sequence of steps taken,” PIAC says of the timeline.

“This will reveal the choices Rogers made and may support conclusions regarding what Rogers chose to prioritize and why and whether those choices appropriately protected customers rather than, say, coveted enterprise customers.”

The Ottawa-based consumer advocacy group also wants details on customer communications and how the outage affected emergency services to be made public.

“The public interest in disclosing the full extent of the impact on and Rogers’ actions to restore access to emergency services far outweighs any specific direct harm that would flow to Rogers,” the PIAC says in its request to the CRTC.

The publicly available information in Rogers’ response detailed what caused the outage and its plans to separate its wireless and wireline core networks.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Via: Cartt.ca 

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Oxio says internet slowdowns will be deterred for now following a commitment from Rogers

Oxio says it has a commitment from Rogers to fix its internet slowdown stemming from the telecom giant’s July 8th outage.

The independent internet service provider (ISP) sent its Ontario customers an email on July 30th stating they could face potential slowdowns during peak hours (8pm – 10pm). The email detailed how the company requested a capacity increase from Rogers in June to deal with its growing customer base. The increase was to take effect on July 7th, but it never happened, something Oxio said “is pretty normal.” The July 8th outage led Rogers to change the implementation date twice.

But in the company’s most recent email to customers, sent on August 5th, Oxio had good news to report. “We’ve gotten a commitment from Rogers to fix EVERYTHING,” the email reads.

The ISP said Rogers fixed its defective SFP, which provides internet to Oxio’s network, on the 4th. Rogers also increased Oxio’s bandwidth capacity, which should deter any slowdowns customers were experiencing until its June request is approved. Rogers has also committed to more bandwidth capacity as it waits on approval.

While Oxio said the news was good, it wasn’t easy to make it happen, citing the lack of competition in Canada’s internet service market.

“This isn’t the way the internet in Canada should work. We need better relationships between the infrastructure owners…and the few independent internet service providers left. We need laws and regulations from the CRTC that encourage competition. We need more independent internet service providers, not fewer,” Oxio wrote in the email.