By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – In the middle of March, Rogers Communications was asked to prepare a document by Innovation, Science and Economic Development that floated ideas for how governments could potentially help enhance network capacity if needed, including mobilizing temporary wireless sites, fast-tracking permit applications and allowing access to rights-of-way for emergency fibre installs.
The example measures, obtained by Cartt.ca through an access to information request, was in response to one of several questions asked of Canadian telecommunications companies by the federal department in the event the virus strained networks – and before the full effect of what the virus could and would do was eventually felt. ISED asked what “possible assistance of any kind could Governments provide to reduce these impacts?”
“It would be helpful to have a hotline to call when we need government support for municipal and third-party action,” Rogers said in its response. “Useful examples for the immediate help include the ability to quickly place a Cell-site on Wheels (COW) for a temporary wireless site, fast track permit applications or immediate permits for adding fibre/microwave transmission, quick access to third-party facilities in case of facilities failure [and] priority clearing of equipment that can get stuck at the border.”
Rogers said the possible assistance scenarios to Cartt.ca, saying third-party facilities don’t reference other telecoms’ networks, but could include access to parks, empty lots and the rooftops of buildings closed due to the pandemic to deploy network equipment as an emergency, or access to rights-of-way to temporarily deploy fibre routes in the case, for example, of a fibre cut. Another scenario involves enhancing call routing, such as for toll-free numbers and government 800 numbers, on which all carriers work collaboratively.
When asked about the examples Rogers gave, ISED did not say whether those were required or taken into consideration. However, for its part, ISED has already extended the payment date for spectrum and radio licence fees, from March 31 to September 1, allowed for more spectrum sharing, and quickened the process to get licences to help alleviate the impact of the Covid-19 virus.
ISED also did not clarify whether delayed payments will extend to near-future spectrum fees, including the much-anticipated 3.5 GHz spectrum auction, critical for 5G technology and currently scheduled to begin December 15th. Rogers president Joe Natale, arguing for the 3.5 GHz auction to proceed, hoped the government will similarly extend payment on spectrum purchases due to the economic impact from the virus. Meanwhile, on a conference call last week, Bell CEO Mirko Bibic also suggested the government proceed with the 3.5 GHz spectrum but give auction winners more time to pay.
Bell, Telus and Shaw did not respond to an inquiry about what measures they proposed to ISED.
Last week, the Conservative caucus released a list of recommendations to help bridge the rural digital divide, which called for the government to “request ISPs or other entities to deploy portable Cell on Wheels (COWS) with a priority to those areas where residents don’t have internet. COWs are sometimes used for major public events (like the Raptors championship parade, for example) where there are high concentrations of people in certain spots because they add capacity to overtaxed networks but aren’t useful to extend rural nets in that way.
With so many Canadians now working from home, the telecoms also had to adjust to an environment where reliance on their residential networks for telework has never been greater.
The telecoms have largely been able to handle the stress test on those residential locations, aided by an offsetting of reduced business location traffic. In its question-and-answer document to ISED, Rogers reiterated what it said at the CRTC’s wireless hearing in February, saying it has spare capacity to handle the traffic growth on its wireless network. With a work-from-home situation, more people are using Wi-Fi than the wireless network for internet, but are increasing cellphone calls. Other operators have reported the same.
Home internet usage is up 50% and wireless voice usage up 40% for Rogers, it reported recently and in the March document, the company floated the possibility, for video conferences, of “communicat[ing] broadly for parties to stagger start-times – not all on the hour – in order not to overload servers that initiate sessions.” However, the company has not required customers to undertake any such measures, to mitigate network stress.
Despite the added load, Rogers reiterated Monday that its networks are doing well through this period. “Our network is designed with additional capacity to allow us to accommodate peak loads throughout the year,” Rogers said in the March document. “We are continuously monitoring our traffic levels across our wireless and wireline network to add and distribute capacity as needed to adjust to traffic distribution changes,” which it said is similar to how it manages events like parades.
Rogers also told ISED in March that it was reviewing any impacts on supply chain partners that would affect its ability to deliver services. Rogers said Monday that it has no dependencies that would impede its service delivery.
Rogers also outlined in the document that its Corporate Pandemic Plan, led by the executive leadership team, “is in place to mitigate the risk that a pandemic may pose to the health of our employees.” The team includes chief medical officers and human resources, which work in partnership with Canadian public health officials for “preventative hygiene and environmental measures, as well as proactive alerting and communications procedures across the company.”
