CRTC Probes Rogers-Bell Glitch That Exposed Phone Calls

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is investigating a network failure that allowed some phone calls in the Niagara Region to be misrouted or intercepted this summer, leading to reports of people overhearing private conversations.

The problem began on July 24, 2025, at around 10 p.m. ET, when Rogers reported that a suspected lightning strike caused some wireless calls to Bell’s wireline network to be misdirected through outdated TDM (time-division multiplexing) equipment. This hardware is legacy phone gear that works by squeezing many phone calls onto the same wire by giving each call a tiny time slot.

According to Rogers, “some Calling Parties temporarily did not connect with the corresponding Called Parties they were intending to call,” which in some cases resulted in dead-air or “crosstalk” where unrelated conversations were overheard. Rogers said only a small number of calls were affected and that the issue was fixed the next day, July 25.

Bell disputed parts of Rogers’ account. In its filing, Bell said both inbound and outbound calls between Bell and Rogers customers were exposed, not just in one direction, and that customers complained of hearing third-party conversations rather than calls simply failing to connect. Bell wrote that “the technical fault was isolated within Rogers’ network infrastructure, and there is no evidence that Bell’s network was implicated”.

Public concerns soon followed. On August 5, the CRTC sent a formal request for information (RFI) to both carriers, requiring detailed explanations, subscriber impacts, and mitigation steps. Responses were due August 15, with public comments originally scheduled by August 25.

Rogers, in its RFI reply, maintained that it was a localized, rare event tied to legacy technology and said it has urged Canada to move all carriers to IP-based interconnections to prevent similar issues in the future. On August 19, Rogers told the CRTC that expanding the inquiry was “unnecessary,” calling it “a minor and isolated issue that impacted just a very small number of customers”.

That position was challenged by outside groups, including The Canadian Internet Society, which argued on August 18 and again on August 22 that the process lacked transparency, that Rogers and Bell had filed too much data in confidence, and that the public needed a meaningful chance to review the incident. They requested deadline extensions and a formal inquiry, saying the situation raised major privacy concerns.

Ottawa resident Marc Nanni filed submissions on August 27–28, saying Rogers was “brushing it off as a glitch and minor, while Bell claims to know nothing,” and raising 42 questions about how calls were exposed, whether 911 and government lines were affected, and why neither company notified the public during the outage.

On August 25, 2025, the CRTC extended the public comment deadline to September 15, 2025, citing the seriousness of the matter.

The CRTC has said, “The privacy of Canadians is taken seriously,” and will review both carriers’ responses alongside public submissions before deciding next steps.

Niagara Falls said at the time, “Some @NRBNetwork Enterprise Voice customers may be experiencing issues when making or receiving calls from Rogers numbers, including one-way audio or hearing another conversation unexpectedly. This issue is currently affecting phone lines at Niagara Falls City Hall.”

The bottom line is there are numerous reports of people saying on Reddit and here that they heard someone else’s phone calls, which included details like medical appointments and other private info. Definitely a big privacy issue if many people said it was widespread in the region.