The CRTC is commissioning a “forensic level technical review” of the blackout of Rogers Communications’ national network last July 8. The investigation comes as cabinet considers whether to grant final approval to Rogers’ takeover of rival Shaw Communications, according to Blacklock's Reporter..“The CRTC is seeking to evaluate the resiliency of Rogers’ telecommunications network architecture and business management processes in relation to causes of the July 8, 2022 outage,” staff wrote in a notice to contractors Evaluation Of Rogers’ Network. “The CRTC is also seeking to evaluate if the changes proposed by Rogers in response to this network outage are sufficient to make the network more resilient or if Rogers requires additional specific measures to prevent major outages in the future.”.The July blackout closed federal offices, ATMs and 911 emergency call service in several municipalities. It also disrupted debit card transactions at retailers nationwide. “This network outage left more than 10 million customers of Rogers without connectivity all over Canada,” wrote the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission..“Customers of other telecommunications network operators, businesses, financial institutions and others that rely on Rogers’ telecommunications network and services were also affected,” said the notice. The CRTC said it would hire consultants to complete a forensic review by July 31. No budget was disclosed..Rogers blamed the blackout on routine maintenance gone awry. “We work every day in a very competitive environment and we work hard to bring the best value for money for our customers and for Canadians,” Rogers CEO Anthony Staffieri testified last July 25 at the Commons industry committee. “It is in our interest to do so. They have alternatives and they have choice.”.“Wait, wait, so you think Canadians have alternatives and choice in this marketplace?” asked Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith (Beaches-East York, ON). “Very much so,” replied Staffieri..“You’re saying that with a straight face?” said Erskine-Smith. “I’m running out of time. Here’s another one maybe you can answer with a straight face. Do you think this is the end of the Rogers-Shaw deal?”.“The coming together with Shaw is about creating scale in an industry where scale is important,” replied Staffieri. “One is to make investments that neither one of us could do on our own.”.“Let’s say I’m a frustrated consumer,” said Erskine-Smith. “We have a lack of competition in this country. So where do I go?”.“What we’ve done is made it clear what our commitment is to fix this moving forward, for us as a company and to improve as an industry,” replied Staffieri. Rogers offered customers a 15 percent discount on their July billing as compensation for the outage, he said..Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters February 17 he was still considering whether to approve Rogers’ $26 billion buyout of Shaw Communications. “I am the regulator,” said Champagne. “It’s going to come when it’s going to come.”.“I am the regulator,” repeated Champagne. “I don’t have any deadline.”
