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Notification of major service outages

Service outages, even if they are short, are highly disruptive and can seriously impact Canadians’ lives. Reporting requirements will ensure that public safety and government authorities are informed about major outages, so they can better support Canadians and help providers restore services more quickly.

Major outage reporting process

Outage reporting criteria

Determine if the outage meets reporting thresholds and notify the appropriate authorities.

Submitting a notification

Use the official form to report the outage and provide timely updates throughout the event.

Post-outage reporting

Submit a detailed report after services are restored, including lessons learned and corrective actions.

Outage reporting criteria

The CRTC, in Telecom Decision CRTC 2025-225, requires all Canadian telecommunications service providers (TSPs) to report major service outages to the CRTC, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), and other government authorities. The requirements are summarized below. Refer to the decision for the complete requirements.

Major service outages affect primary, emergency, or specialized services and meet the requirements for the CRTC service outage notification. They must be reported within the timeframe specified by the CRTC. Service outage notification requirements are grouped into the following three categories of services:

Requirements for the CRTC service outage notification

Major primary service outage
Outage description
  • A complete loss of service to any primary service, such as Internet access, cellphone, data services, and telephone services (including landline and voice over Internet Protocol [VoIP]).
End-user impact for service outage to be considered major
  • At least 600,000 user-minutes affected, calculated by multiplying the duration of an outage in minutes by the number of end-users affected; or
  • A community isolation event, defined as the loss of primary services to a remote, isolated, or rural community.
Minimum duration for service outage to require notification
  • 30 minutes.
Who must provide notification
  • All TSPs that own and operate transmission facilities or exempt transmission apparatus.
  • Originating network providers are encouraged to notify relevant public safety answering points (PSAPs) about major primary service outages affecting voice and text.
Government authorities to be notified
  • The CRTC.
  • Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED).
  • The federal, provincial, and territorial emergency management organizations (FPT EMOs) who are responsible in the geographic area of the outage.
  • Notification to the PSAPs who serve the area of an outage impacting voice and text services is encouraged.
Time frame to provide notification after the TSP has become aware of the service outage
  • The CRTC, ISED, and FPT EMOs: within two hours.
  • Notification to PSAPs: within 30 minutes is encouraged.
How to provide notification
  • The CRTC and ISED: to the CRTC’s outage email using the outage notification form.
  • FPT EMOs: the CRTC will share the notification with ISED, who can then notify the relevant FPT EMOs.
  • PSAPs: through 9-1-1 network providers.

Major emergency services outage

Major emergency services outages include major outages to 9-1-1 services and wireless public alerting services.

Major 9-1-1 service outage
Outage description
  • An outage that only affects 9-1-1 service.
  • This outage results in a full or partial disruption of 9-1-1 service. During a partial 9-1-1 service outage, 9-1-1 calls are delivered to the PSAP, but ancillary data is not delivered.
End-user impact for service outage to be considered major
  • Any number of end-users are affected.
Minimum duration for service outage to require notification
  • Notifying PSAPs: Outage of any duration.
  • Notifying the CRTC, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) and federal, provincial, and territorial emergency management organizations (FPT EMOs): 30 minutes.
Who must provide notification
  • Originating network providers.
  • 9-1-1 network providers.
Government authorities to be notified
  • The CRTC.
  • ISED.
  • The FPT EMOs who are responsible in the geographic area of the outage.
  • The PSAPs who serve the area of the outage.
Time frame to provide notification after the TSP has become aware of the service outage
  • The CRTC, ISED, and FPT EMOs: within two hours.
  • PSAPs: within 30 minutes.
How to provide notification
  • The CRTC and ISED: to the CRTC’s outage email using the outage notification form.
  • FPT EMOs: The CRTC will share the notification with ISED, who can then notify the relevant FPT EMOs.
  • PSAPs: through 9-1-1 network providers.
Major wireless public alerting service outage
Outage description
  • An outage that only affects wireless public alerts.
  • This is an outage in the wireless public alerting specific network elements operated by a wireless service provider (WSP).
End-user impact for service outage to be considered major
  • Any number of end-users are affected.
Minimum duration for service outage to require notification
  • Notifying FPT EMOs: Outage of any duration.
  • Notifying the CRTC and ISED: 30 minutes.
Who must provide notification
  • WSPs that are mandated to provide wireless public alerting services.
Government authorities to be notified
  • The CRTC.
  • ISED.
  • The FPT EMOs who are responsible in the geographic area of the outage.
Time frame to provide notification after the TSP has become aware of the service outage
  • The CRTC and ISED: within two hours.
  • FPT EMOs: within 30 minutes.
How to provide notification
  • The CRTC and ISED: to the CRTC’s outage email using the outage notification form.
  • FPT EMOs: WSPs will notify FPT EMOs through the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination (NAAD) system operator by email or telephone.

Major specialized services outage
Outage description
  • An outage that only affects TTY, IP Relay, or 9-8-8 services.
  • A 9-8-8 outage results from an outage within the TSP’s implementation of the 9-8-8 service, and not at the 9-8-8 call center.
End-user impact for service outage to be considered major
  • Any number of end-users are affected.
Minimum duration for service outage to require notification
  • 30 minutes.
Who must provide notification
  • TSPs that are mandated to provide TTY relay, IP relay, or 9-8-8 services.
Government authorities to be notified
  • The CRTC.
  • Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED).
Time frame to provide notification after the TSP has become aware of the service outage
  • The CRTC and ISED: within two hours.
How to provide notification
  • The CRTC and ISED: to the CRTC’s outage email using the outage notification form.

Submitting a notification

Canadian telecommunications service providers (TSPs) must submit a notification to the outage email using the service outage notification form.

This form contains the required information about the outage. The CRTC will share the information with ISED.

TSPs must send updates to all required government authorities as soon as they have any new information. Updates must continue until all required information has been provided, the outage has ended, and all services have been restored. The final update must confirm that the outage has ended.

Post-outage reporting

Canadian telecommunications service providers (TSPs) must submit a post-outage report to the CRTC’s outage email no later than 30 days after the major service outage ends and services have been restored.

The post-outage report must include, at a minimum, the following information:

TSPs who designate information within their post-outage report as confidential must also provide a meaningful abridged version for publication on the CRTC’s website. TSPs are encouraged to share their lessons learned in a way that can be made public. TSPs must submit the abridged or non-confidential version of the post-outage report using My CRTC Account to facilitate the publication on the CRTC’s website.

Related links

Internet, cellphone, home phone, and television service outages

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