Rogers CEO and telecom executives summoned to meeting

They are called to the principal’s office.

Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri and other senior telecommunications industry executives were called in for a meeting with Federal Science, Innovation and Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne at the following Friday’s national Rogers outage.

“The Minister will meet with the CEOs of Rogers and other major telecommunications companies to discuss the importance of improving network reliability across Canada,” Champagne spokesman Alexander Wellstead said in a statement. written Sunday afternoon.

The virtual reunion comes after Rogers saw its cellular, cable and internet networks go down for most of Friday, snarling everything from debit cards to 911 service and online streaming services in many parts of the country.

“The Minister shares the frustration that millions of Canadians experienced last week when Rogers experienced a system outage. The Minister insisted that the situation was unacceptable and expressed this directly to the CEO of Rogers,” Wellstead added.

In a written statement, a Rogers spokesperson said the company « looks forward » to the meeting.

“Rogers understands the frustration and disruption we have created for Canadians with our network outage, and we are fully committed to finding solutions. The federal government and Minister Champagne were present throughout the shutdown to offer assistance, for which we are grateful. They are focused on solutions and a plan for the future and so are we,” the statement read.

Neither Bell Canada Enterprises nor Telus immediately responded to requests for comment on their CEOs’ attendance.

Rogers, meanwhile, did not provide further details on the refunds, it said it would apply to future customer bills.

In a written statement Saturday, Staffieri blamed the outage on « a network system failure following a maintenance update, » and added that the company’s network routers were malfunctioning.

Earlier this weekend, consumer advocacy group Public Interest Advocacy Center called on the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the country’s telecommunications regulator, to investigate the outage and to take a closer look at all communications providers in the country.

Interac, which operates Canada’s main debit card network, announced plans to hire a second telecommunications provider after the Rogers outage shut it down on Friday.

The outage came amid increased resistance from Canada’s antitrust watchdog to Rogers’ proposed $26 billion takeover of Shaw Communications.

Mediation between Rogers and the Competition Bureau on July 4 and 5 did not resolve the Bureau’s objections to the deal.

The Bureau worked to block the merger, saying it would lead to less choice and higher telecom bills for Canadians.

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