Big Three respond to deaf and hard of hearing groups calls for better accessibility in network outage reporting

Several proposals from deaf and hard of hearing advocacy groups to address the unique challenges their community faces during service outages, while important, are impractical and irrelevant to the CRTC’s current consultation, said Canada’s three major telecoms. As part of its development of a regulatory framework to improve network reliability and resiliency, the CRTC has been consulting on mandatory notifications about major telecommunications service outages. Reply comments from BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., and Telus Corp. to interventions from the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Coalition (DHHC) and Deaf Wireless Canada Committee (DWCC) were posted by the commission on Monday. The two organizations submitted their comments last month following a deadline extension for interventions in sign language. The DHHC, endorsed by the DWCC, called for a greater focus on the needs of the deaf community by requiring telcos to report on how service outages affect their deaf customers and make those reports and other communications available in sign language. They also said that the standard definition of a significant outage should be two hours of network downtime if it affects both deaf and hearing consumers but shortened to 15 minutes if it only affects those who are deaf, specifically their access to video and message relay services. Considering the Canadian Administrator of Video Relay Service (CAV) has a monopoly as the only entity to provide this service, this short window is crucial, said the DWCC. The DHHC also went after the CAV, noting that in a recent quarterly report, the company said it had 11 outages, adding up to about 4.5 hours of downtime. “There was no dissemination of this information. No posts were made. It seems the reports were not filed to either ISED, the CRTC, nor to the 9-1-1 and 9-8-8 call centres,” said Donald Prong, executive director of the Ontario Association of the Deaf, according to a transcript of his video intervention. Emphasizing their massive impact on the deaf community, he called for the CAV and other relay services to be roped into the same reporting requirements as telecommunications companies. In its reply, Telus stated that because the CAV does not meet the definition of a “Canadian carrier” under the Telecommunications Act and is not a party to the proceeding, the DHHC’s request is not relevant to this consultation. Rogers gave similar sentiment, saying that the CRTC would need to impose new requirements on the CAV, 9-1-1 network providers, and public safety answering points (PSAPs) directly, not on telecom service providers (TSPs). “The issue raised by the DHH Coalition could be reviewed in a future proceeding if the commission finds that it has merit,” said Telus. The proceeding’s scope was a recurring theme for the telco. It said the same thing regarding the DWCC’s request for accessibility organizations to receive outage alerts to report to their communities and receive financial remuneration for it. Both Telus and Rogers supported the DWCC’s suggestion that carriers be required to provide information on alternative methods to access emergency services. Telus noted that it has been advocating for a regulatory mandate that would require all TSPs to set up a website advising customers on how best to contact emergency services in the event of a network outage. When it comes to making outage reports available in sign language, Rogers cited limited interpreter resources as a hurdle to producing ASL or LSQ videos. It is “currently an impractical recommendation,” the company said. Rogers also agreed with the DWCC’s recommendation for a multi-channel approach to outage notifications, including emails, text messages, social media, and website postings. However, it opposed the organization’s proposal to make phone calls to impacted customers, noting that it could take days to contact everyone affected and phone services would probably be down during an outage anyway. Bell stood opposed to many of the organizations’ proposals and continued to point to the memorandum of understanding (MOU), signed between TSPs in response to the Rogers July outage, as an example of an effective framework. The company said the MOU already has a “reasonably defined” list of the authorities who should be notified of an outage, a clear time frame within which it should be reported, and does not require the creation of an online reporting portal. “This regime can and should be extended to all carriers and TSPs to the extent the Commission moves forward with an outage notification and reporting framework,” said Bell. – Reporting by Phalen Tynes-MacDonald at pcreed@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca

Big Three respond to deaf and hard of hearing groups calls for better accessibility in network outage reporting

News | December 6, 2023

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Big Three respond to deaf and hard of hearing groups calls for better accessibility in network outage reporting

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