Search

Telecom - Staff Letter addressed to Philippe Gauvin (Bell Mobility Inc)

Ottawa, 20 February 2023

Our reference: 8000-C12-201909780

BY EMAIL

Philippe Gauvin
Assistant General Counsel
Bell Mobility Inc
19th Floor- 160 Elgin street
Ottawa, Ontario, K2P 2C4
bell.regulatory@bell.ca

Subject: Request for information regarding disruption to mobile 9-1-1 calls in Calgary

Dear Philippe Gauvin,

Commission staff has recently become aware of a situation that may have impacted Canadians’ ability to establish proper communications with certain Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs). It is staff’s understanding that during the period between 26 October and 18 November 2022, a number of 9-1-1 calls placed over mobile wireless phones did not properly connect to the PSAP serving the area from which the calls were made. One or some of these calls may have been in relation to a medical emergency affecting a 13-year-old student from Calgary, Alberta on 9 November 2022.Footnote1  Staff further understands that the affected calls may have been made from mobile wireless devices registered to Bell Mobility Inc.’s network and that the disruption may have been the result of network upgrades conducted by Bell related to next- generation 9-1-1 implementation.

The Canadian public and the Commission place a high degree of importance on 9-1-1 services, including the ability for Canadians to be able to connect with a PSAP during an emergency. As such, Bell Mobility is required to provide comprehensive answers to the questions set out below, including all relevant details, rationale and any supporting information, by 3 March 2023.

  1. Confirm whether Bell Mobility is aware of any issues with its network (e.g. equipment failure, outages, network upgrades, or other service disruptions) that affected – or could have affected – the ability of users making calls from Bell Mobility mobile phones to be connected to PSAPs served by the TELUS 9-1-1 networks between 26 October 2022 and 18 November 2022, including specifically any 9-1-1 calls made on a Bell Mobility device in Calgary on 9 November 2022 that were not connected to the Calgary PSAP.

If any such issues did occur,

  1. Provide complete details on the nature and cause(s) of the issues(s).
  2. Explain how and when Bell Mobility became aware of the issues(s), e.g. via network monitoring or via notification from another telecommunications service provider or PSAP.
  3. Confirm the dates and timelines during which Bell Mobility customers would have experienced issues completing calls on the Bell Mobility network, including calls to 9-1-1.
  4. Confirm the geographic areas in which Bell Mobility customers would have experienced issues completing calls on the Bell Mobility network, including calls to 9-1-1 during this timeframe.
  5. Provide details of any communications that Bell Mobility had with TELUS Communications Inc., as the 9-1-1 network provider serving Alberta, in relation to the issue(s), including the relevant dates and nature of the correspondence.
  6. Provide details of any communications Bell Mobility had with PSAPs servicing the affected areas in relation to the service disruption, including the name of affected PSAP(s), relevant dates and nature of the correspondence.
  7. Provide, for each day the issue(s) would have been experienced, an estimate of the number of 9-1-1 calls made using Bell Mobility mobile phones that were successfully delivered to PSAPs vs the number that failed as a result of the issue(s), by area, as well as an explanation as to how this estimate was arrived at.
  8. Describe the measures taken to rectify the issue(s) as well as to avoid any future recurrence of these issues.
  9. Confirm whether Bell Mobility informed its customers and the public of the issue(s) and the service recovery efforts, including the relevant dates and means of any such communication.
  10. Provide any additional details relevant to the Commission having a complete understanding of the situation not already covered by the above questions.

This letter and any subsequent correspondence will be placed on the public record. As set out in section 39 of the Telecommunications Act and in Broadcasting and Telecom Information Bulletin CRTC 2010-961, Procedures for filing confidential information and requesting its disclosure in Commission proceedings, Bell Mobility may designate certain information as confidential though must provide a detailed explanation on why the designated information is confidential and why its disclosure would not be in the public interest, including why the specific direct harm that would be likely to result from the disclosure would outweigh the public interest in disclosure. Furthermore, should Bell Mobility designate information as confidential, Bell Mobility must either file an abridged version of the document omitting only the information designated as confidential or provide reasons why an abridged version cannot be filed.

Note that, in accordance with its normal practices, the Commission may disclose or require the disclosure of information designated as confidential if its disclosure is in the public interest, i.e., where the specific direct harm does not outweigh the public interest in disclosure.

In light of the public interest in understanding what happened, Commission staff expects Bell to disclose information on the public record to the maximum extent possible. Where a document is to be filed or served by a specific date, the document must be actually received, not merely sent, by that date.

The Commission requires all documents to be submitted electronically by using the secured service “My CRTC Account” Partner Log In or GCKey and filing the “Telecom Cover Page” located on that web page.

Yours sincerely,

Original signed by

Michel Murray
Director, Dispute Resolution & Regulatory Implementation

c.c.: Etienne Robelin, Manager, Emergency Services Policy, CRTC (etienne.robelin@crtc.gc.ca)

Date modified: