Rogers to invest C$10 billion in artificial intelligence, testing after massive blackout

The Rogers Building, the green-topped corporate campus of Canadian media conglomerate Rogers Communications is seen in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada July 14, 2022. REUTERS/Chris Helgren

July 24 (Reuters) – Rogers Communications Inc ( RCIb.TO ) said on Sunday it will invest C$10 billion ($7.74 billion) over the next three years in artificial intelligence (AI), and more testing and oversight, just weeks after the company reported network problems that caused widespread disruption across the country.

CEO Tony Staffieri said the Canadian telecom operator has made progress with a formal agreement between carriers to automatically switch 911 calls to each other’s networks — even in the event of an outage in any carrier’s network.

“I believe this is the only responsible way forward and I am personally committed to making it possible for all Canadians,” Staffieri said in a letter Sunday.

Staffieri said the company is physically separating wireless and Internet services to create an “always on” network — to ensure customers don’t experience outages with both cellular and Internet services again.

Earlier this month, the carrier, which has about 10 million wireless subscribers and 2.25 million Internet subscribers, suffered an outage that lasted nearly 19 hours, disrupting services from flights to banking and emergency calls.

The Canadian government has also ordered an investigation and demanded that the telecom companies agree within 60 days to develop communication protocols to keep people better informed. read more

($1 = 1.2914 Canadian dollars)

Reporting by Jahnavi Nidumolu in Bengaluru; editing by Diane Craft

Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.