ASL – Summary of the consultation – 1 of 4
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Part 1: Background and Commission proceeding
Telecom Notice of Consultation CRTC 2023-39 - Call for comments on mandatory notification and reporting about major telecommunications service outages
Background
The safety and security of Canadians is a top priority of the Commission. The scale and frequency of telecommunications service outages caused by extreme weather, cyber-attacks, and accidents have been increasing over time as a result of factors such as climate change, the increasing economic and social importance of telecommunications networks, and technological evolution.
As the complexity of telecommunications networks and the importance of communication in Canadians’ daily lives increases, the Commission considers that more must be done to improve the reliability and resiliency of telecommunications networks to ensure that all Canadians can count on their telecommunications services when they need them.
Commission proceeding
In this notice of consultation, the Commission is seeking input from Canadians on the nature and scope of permanent notification and reporting requirements for major service outages. On an interim basis pending the outcome of this proceeding, the Commission has directed all Canadian carriers to report major service outages (including outages affecting only 9-1-1 networks) to the Commission within two hours of when the carrier becomes aware of such an outage. Additionally, the Commission directed carriers to file a comprehensive report with the Commission within 14 days following the outage. This direction took effect on 8 March 2023.
As its next step, the Commission will initiate a public proceeding to address network reliability and resiliency in broader terms, including issues relating to resiliency principles, emergency services (9-1-1), public alerting, consumer communication, the impact of outages on the accessibility of telecommunications services, consumer compensation, technical measures, and the imposition of administrative monetary penalties.
The purpose of this consultation was to find out how we can ensure that Canadians will have reliable access to emergency services and Internet, even in the event of poor weather.
Consultation on notification and reporting about major telecom service outages
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