‘We failed’: Rogers issues letter to customers following outage

Rogers has issued an apology letter to customers, following a 15-hour widespread outage late last week that caused people and businesses across the country to be without internet and mobile services, and also disrupted 9-1-1 and debit transactions.

“We failed on our promise to be Canada’s most reliable network,” read a letter released by Tony Staffieri President and CEO of Rogers Communications to customers Wednesday afternoon.

The company apologized to customers for the massive impacts the July 8 outage caused.

Rogers announced Tuesday, that customers would be receiving a five-day credit as compensation for the outage which saw many businesses unable to complete transactions and critically halted some contact with emergency services.

The company called the credit a “first step.”

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“No one – not our customers, our governments, and not us – is anywhere close to finding what happened acceptable,” said Staffieri in Wednesday’s open letter.

“This outage caused real pain and significant frustration for everyone. Canadians were not able to reach their families. Businesses were unable to complete transactions. And critically, emergency and essential calls could not be completed.”

Staffieri continued to state in the letter that Rogers is working to ensure that the issue won’t happen again, adding the company, government and the telecommunications industry is working to ensure 911 and essential services won’t be impacted if any outage occurs.

“I understand that it is only through our actions, and with time, that we can restore your confidence in us. We can and will do better.”

On Monday, Canada’s industry minister instructed telecom companies to reach agreements on emergency roaming, assisting each other during outages, and a communication protocol to better inform Canadians and authorities during emergencies.

Francois-Philippe Champagne said he brought together the heads of the major telecom companies and demanded they “take immediate action to improve the resiliency and reliability of our networks by ensuring a formal arrangement is in place within 60 days.”

In an open letter on Tuesday, the CRTC ordered Rogers to provide a detailed explanation for the widespread outage by July 22, and answering the questions on the ‘why’ and ‘how’ the outage happened, as well as what measures are being put in place to prevent it from happening again.

Rogers Communications Inc. is the parent company of CityNews.

– With files from Michelle Morton