Canadian mobile operators agreed to a series of government-pushed measures to provide back-up against future network service issues, as authorities assess further rules in the wake of a Rogers Communications’ outage earlier this year.

In a statement, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Francois-Philippe Champagne said the mobile operators, alongside various other telecoms players and internet service providers, had made several network reliability pledges.

New rules include an obligation to provide emergency roaming and other measures to aid users in the event of an outage from a rival. This includes providing assistance to allow people to “reach loved ones, access 911 and conduct business transactions”, Champagne added.

Canada’s Memorandum of Understanding on Telecommunications Reliability also includes a commitment around customer communication during any network problems.

The move was pushed by authorities in the wake of an outage suffered by Rogers Communications in July where services were disrupted for more than 15 hours.

Alongside highlighting the newly-signed agreement with providers, Champagne indicated there would be other measures undertaken to lessen impacts from any future incidents.

These include further obligations detailed by the Canadian Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee; a detailed investigation into Rogers Communications’ outage and its response including new measures set to be introduced; and pushing forward work on a public safety broadband network.