OTTAWA – The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) filed a disclosure request to the CRTC on Friday asking the commission to release information filed by Rogers in confidence about the Canada-wide network outage that occurred last month.
Information requested by the advocacy group include the cost breakdown of the company-promised $261 million to physically separate the wireless and wireline networks and how long it will take; how the new facilities and equipment will be deployed as part of the separation plan; and redacted examples of the network initiatives as part of the company’s promise to invest $10 billion to fund increased resiliency and redundancy.
Rogers filed that redacted information to the commission on August 22, as part of its response to a CRTC request earlier this month for more information on the July outage.
“PIAC submits that if Rogers’ customers are to, at least in part, foot the bill for these significant remedial projects, then customers should know what they’re paying for and when to expect results,” the group said in a letter, adding that would tip the scale in favour of the public interest for disclosure.
“More detailed explanations of the investment initiatives will also allow the public to comment on whether the claimed investments are effective and proportionate solutions, and to raise questions on whether the stated plans reflect investments that were already planned or necessary prior to the outage,” it added.
Rogers has been on a public relations campaign, reiterating promises of resiliency and facilities separation to improve network reliability.
