This incident must have frustrated more than a few people. On October 6, Bell customers traveling abroad suddenly found themselves without internet access. Nearly five hours without mobile data for those trying to check emails or navigate an unfamiliar city.
What caused the outage? A very real technical problem. The system that manages Bell’s roaming billing simply hit its limits. “This system that tracks your data usage ran into a capacity issue,” the company explained in its report to the CRTC.
Picture the scene: families on vacation unable to share their photos, business travelers locked out of important documents… Thankfully, emergency calls were still possible.
Bell’s teams took about four hours to find a solution. Their workaround? Temporarily bypassing the faulty billing system. This technical maneuver restored service while increasing system capacity to prevent a repeat of the outage.
Good news for future travelers: Bell promises that its system will be updated so roaming will no longer rely on a single technical element. A significant commitment, especially with the CRTC closely monitoring telecom network reliability.
Still, this incident is a reminder of just how much our constant connection to the world depends on complex systems that can sometimes let us down.
