TORONTO – Rogers Communications issued a press release Monday in response to a scary story that appeared in the Saturday Globe and Mail.
The Globe story described an incident in 1998 which involved the "cloning" of analog cell phones of senior Rogers’ executives (including CEO Ted Rogers). The facts are as follows, says the Rogers release:
“The cloning incident referred to occurred seven years ago on a single Rogers’ executive phone. At that time, cloning was an industry-wide problem which has been removed as a result of the industry move to digital technology. In fact, the vast majority of Rogers’ customers today are on GSM digital phones, the world standard upon which more than a billion phones are in operation worldwide, and cloning of these phones is virtually impossible, ” says the Rogers release.
The newspaper reported on a woman with a cell bill over $12,000 for one month. She was fighting the company and had come to believe her problem was due to a cloned number.
“Ms. Susan Drummond’s situation had to do with a lost or stolen phone and had nothing to do with cloning,” adds the release. “The phone charges have now been eliminated and costs will be reimbursed. Ted Rogers was personally involved and apologized on behalf of the company.”
And according to a Globe follow-up story, Rogers is going to the Drummonds’ for tea in the new year to hear first-hand what happened.
