Rogers outage: House of Commons committee to launch investigation – National

The Home of Commons trade committee agreed Friday to check the large Rogers Communications outage that left thousands and thousands of Canadians in a communications blackout for greater than 15 hours final week.

MPs on the committee agreed unanimously to probe what occurred throughout a particular assembly right this moment.

The July 8 outage affected Rogers cellular and web customers, knocked out ATMs, shutting down the Interac funds system and stopping calls to 911 providers in some Canadian cities.

The committee will maintain a minimum of two conferences by the tip of the month and invite officers from Rogers, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Committee and Business Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne to testify.

It desires solutions about the reason for the outage, its affect, and greatest practices to keep away from future outages and to raised talk with the general public throughout such emergencies.

In an electronic mail, a Rogers spokesperson confirmed firm executives will attend the hearings.

“We are going to work collaboratively with the members on the Standing Committee on Business, Science, and Expertise to supply particulars on the reason for the outage and the actions we’re taking to boost the reliability of every of our networks transferring ahead, together with by formal mutual assist agreements,” mentioned Rogers in a press release.

The day of the outage Champagne referred to as it “unacceptable” and directed the nation’s main telecom corporations to succeed in agreements on emergency roaming, helping one another throughout outages and a communication protocol to raised inform Canadians throughout emergencies.

He gave them 60 days to succeed in a deal.

The telecommunications regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Fee, can also be investigating the Rogers outage.