Rogers to invest $7.7B in AI testing after a massive outage

Rogers Communications Inc. said it would invest C$10 billion ($7.74 billion) over the next three years in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and increased testing, and oversight, just weeks after the communications firm reported network issues that caused widespread disruptions across Canada.

Tony Staffieri, Rogers Communications’ Chief Executive Officer, said the Canadian communications firm had made progress on a formal agreement between carriers to automatically switch 911 calls to each other’s networks—even in an outage on any telecom carrier’s network.

In a letter on Sunday, Staffieri said that he believed this was the only responsible way forward, and he was committed to making it possible for all Canadians.

CEO Staffieri said that the firm is physically separating wireless and internet services to create an ‘always on’ network—to help make sure the customers do not experience an outage with cellular and internet services again.

Earlier in July 2022, Rogers Communications underwent a glitch that lasted nearly 19 hours, disrupting services from flights to emergency 911 calls and banking. Rogers has about 2.25 million retail internet subscribers and nearly 10 million wireless subscribers.

The Canadian government has also ordered an investigation and demanded telecoms firms agree within 60 days to develop communication protocols to keep people better informed.