Rogers to Credit Customers for 5 Days of Service Following Outage

Telecommunications company Rogers Communications signage is pictured in Ottawa on July 12, 2022. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

Rogers says it will reimburse customers with a credit equivalent to 5 days of service following the telecom company’s nationwide outage.

In a Twitter statement, the telecom service provider said the crediting is “a first step” to win back the trust of their customers after the interruption of their internet and phone services that began on July 8.

“We have been listening to our customers from across the country who have told us how significant the impacts of the outage were for them. We know that we need to earn back their trust, and as a first step, we have increased the value of the credit,” Rogers said on July 12.

“We will be automatically crediting our customers with the equivalent of five days service.”

The credit will be automatically applied to customer accounts, and will appear on their statements next month, although some will be processed the following month, Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri said in an interview with Global News on July 12.

The company has warned of spam text messages concerning fake credit offers that some customers received following the outage.

The outage affecting both Rogers wireline and wireless networks was caused by a “network system failure” that followed a maintenance update to the company’s core network, which led to a malfunction in some of its routers, Staffieri explained in a July 9 statement.

The company said “a vast majority” of its services were restored by early morning the same day.

The outage disrupted online and telephone services in government agencies, businesses, financial institutions, public transit systems, hospitals, and even 911 emergency calls in several provinces.

Travellers coming into Canada were also affected as they were unable to access the government’s ArriveCan mobile app to submit the information required to go through customs.

Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne met with Staffieri and the CEOs of other major telecom service providers in Canada on July 11, and demanded that they develop a framework for improving “the resiliency and reliability” of their networks.

Champagne said the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), will also further investigate the outage.

On July 12, CRTC Chairperson and CEO Ian Scott ordered Rogers to provide “a comprehensive explanation” regarding the national service outage and gave the company until July 22 to respond.

“This is the first step the CRTC is taking to improve network resiliency for all Canadians in response to this significant outage. Events of this magnitude paralysing portions of our country’s economy and jeopardizing the safety of Canadians are simply unacceptable,” Scott said in a statement.

“Once we are satisfied with Rogers’ response to our questions, we will determine what additional measures need to be taken.”