Related consultations launched
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC is requiring all telecommunications service providers report to certain official bodies major outages that are now defined as those that last at least 30 minutes and affect a certain number of user minutes – with a few exceptions.
The final mandate, ordered Thursday, is incumbent on all providers with their own network equipment, support systems or that use third parties. The order simplifies the categories of services affected by outages: primary services, which are individuals and business users of all telecom services; emergency services; and specialized services, which include 988 mental health and services for those with hearing or speech disabilities.
Outages on primary and specialized services, which are comparable to voice calls and texts, will need to meet the 30-minute threshold for reporting, while only the former will be required to also meet a threshold of 600,000 user minutes, calculated by multiplying the duration of a service outage in minutes by the number of end-users affected by the outage. The commission said telecoms cannot identify end-users of specialized services, so it’s not a useful tool to determine major outages.
Neither threshold, however, will apply to “community isolation” events that are defined by the commission as an outage in an area – often rural and remote – with only one telecom service provider, even if these areas are served by satellite services because of the time required to set up that type of connectivity, the CRTC said.
The commission will also not require these thresholds be met for wireless public alerting outages because those events are, by default, considered major. Federal, provincial and territorial emergency management organizations (FPT EMOs) will need to be notified about all these outages, and the CRTC and Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) will need to know of such outages with a minimum duration of 30 minutes.
Because compiling data on 911 calls is cumbersome and could take several days, which would delay the outage notification, the CRTC determined that the number of end users affected by such an outage is not helpful to categorize an outage as major.
“Accordingly, the Commission determines that every 9-1-1 service outage, regardless of duration and the number of end-users affected, is considered a major 9-1-1 service outage. The relevant PSAPs must be notified of all major 9-1-1 service outages,” the commission said in its decision.
The telecoms are required to notify the CRTC and ISED of all major primary service outages in all regions; to notify FPT EMOs where the outage affects areas for which they are responsible; and to notify public safety answering points (PSAPs) of all 911 service outages in their service areas.
With Thursday’s decision, the CRTC is tailoring and finalizing a temporary mandate it ordered back in 2023, which some major telecoms called unnecessary at the time. (Most of the telecoms from which we requested comment said they were still reviewing Thursday’s decision.)
In the interim order, the regulator defined an outage as an event affecting more than 100,000 subscribers or a material portion of the carrier’s subscribers for more than one hour; subscribers that are in a geographic area served only by the affected carrier; critical infrastructure; major transport facilities; and 9-1-1 networks.
The interim measure also required the notifications be provided within two hours of telecoms becoming aware of the outage. While the CRTC is keeping that target for major primary and specialized service outages, it is reducing the time in other circumstances.
While telecoms are being “encouraged” to notify PSAPs of an outage affecting voice and text services within 30 minutes, it is making it mandatory that PSAPs be notified within 30 minutes of knowledge when those outages affected 911 services. It is also requiring that FPT EMOs be notified within 30 minutes of knowledge and the CRTC and ISED within two hours of a major wireless public alerting service outage.
The telecoms will also be required to report the major outage type, the criteria the event met to be considered a major outage, and factors that are preventing the telecom from repairing its networks or restoring services.
Other information that must be included in the notification are: a description of the outage; causes of the outage, if known; the service area and networks affected; the service outage start time; expected service restoration and steps taken for that; and a brief description of communications with end-users and stakeholders, including link to communication web page about the outage.
The telecoms will also need to submit a post-outage report to the CRTC within 30 days of restoring the services, which include much of the information in the initial write-up.
The reporting requirements take effect on November 4, with the exception of the notification to PSAPs, which will come after the CRTC receives recommendations from its Emergency Services Working Group (ESWG).
CRTC launches two related proceedings
The commission simultaneously launched two related proceedings on Thursday: one to do with resiliency and the other about consumer protections during outages.
In the first consultation, the commission is looking to craft principles to guide its development and implementation of a resiliency policy. Among other matters, it is contemplating mandating telecoms strive for always-on service availability; design resilient networks to withstand disruptions; implement robust network operation processes; aspire to have immediate fault mitigation and rapid restoration mechanisms; deploy resilient communications networks for emergency recovery personnel; strive for reliable partnerships with third-party vendors and suppliers; and support each other during times of need.
The commission said it has identified areas of focus including network redundancy, security, infrastructure, power supply and modularization, which is the process of “dividing a network into smaller, more manageable sections that can be easily scaled, replaced, or isolated for network upgrades and troubleshooting.”
The deadline for interventions is December 3.
In the second consultation, the regulator wants to know whether existing consumer protections are sufficient to address Canadians’ needs in the event of a service outage. If not, the commission wants to know what consumers require to rectify the disruption, such as refunds and more relevant communications while the outage is happening; which telecom services the rules should apply to; and how those rules should be implemented, promoted and enforced.
It also wants to know whether persons with disabilities need “additional or different protections” during such events.
The deadline for telecoms to comment on specific questions requested by the regulator is October 9, while interventions are due on November 13.
