'Like a spare tire': Waterloo company launches backup option for mobile outages

Waterloo, Ont. company Sweat Free Telecom has launched what it says is a must-have in the event of a future telecom outage: an e-sim card that lives on your device and can connect to an allotment of spare data. People use electronics outside a coffee shop in Toronto amid a nationwide Rogers outage, affecting many of the telecommunication company's services, Friday, July 8, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

When a service outage in July 2022 left millions of Rogers customers in the dark for up to 15 hours, it underscored the importance of being prepared in case of a similar emergency.

For some, that meant having lifelines in place that don’t rely on individual cellphone plans, such as alternative ways to call 911, or carrying extra cash on hand in case another blackout shuts down debit machines.

Now, a Waterloo, Ont., company is pitching what it says is another must-have in the event of a future telecom outage: an e-sim card that lives on your device and can connect you to an allotment of spare data.

Developed by Sweat Free Telecom founder Chanakya Ramdev, the e-sim can be installed through a QR code provided. If your carrier’s network goes down, you would then use your cellphone settings to activate the e-sim, which is programmed to automatically hop onto the best available network in the area.

“What we’ve built is — you can think of it almost like a telecom network on top of all the others,” said Ramdev.

“We are like a backup, a Plan B, almost like an insurance. We position ourselves as like a spare tire for your car.”

Ramdev said the aim is to complement, rather than compete, with major carriers. The e-sim doesn’t have talk or text capability, but it allows 911 calling and provides access to data, letting the user communicate through apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

He said it’s a brand new model for bolstering network resiliency, which has long been a top-of-mind issue for policy-makers and industry players.

Unlike other e-sims primarily meant for international travel, Ramdev said his data plans don’t have an expiry date.

“You can just buy it once and it stays in your phone, and whenever you need it — whether it’s today, a year from now, one thousand years from now — you can still use it then,” he said.

“Use your main carrier for everything, but if and when there’s ever an issue, or if you’re in a dead zone, then you can use us as a backup.”

Packages come as cheap as $15 for a gigabyte of data, or can be purchased in larger quantities, such as $55 for five gigabytes.

It works through a partnership between Ramdev’s company and an overseas telecom that has roaming agreements with most major providers, including in Canada.

That means the e-sim not only connects to major Canadian networks such as those operated by Rogers, Bell and Telus, but also to more than 200 other networks across roughly 100 countries. While the technology is designed to choose the best available signal, Ramdev said the user also has the option of manually selecting a different network to access if they prefer.

Improving network resiliency and redundancy has been a priority of Canada’s telecom regulator in recent years. The CRTC cited the Rogers outage of nearly three years ago as one of the events prompting its consultation into how providers must report and notify customers when their services go down.

Earlier this year, the regulator announced improvements for customers in Northern Canada, where remote residents have grown used to frequent outages. That includes a requirement for local provider Northwestel to automatically reduce customers’ bills when internet services are disrupted for at least 24 hours.

The federal government has also floated satellite technology as a potential solution, having launched a consultation into the matter last year.

For its part, Rogers has sought to strengthen the resiliency of its networks since the outage, which was caused by a configuration error during a network upgrade, according to a report by Xona Partners Inc. delivered to the CRTC last year.

In response, Rogers partnered with Cisco to split and build a new dedicated IP core, separating its wireline and wireless core networks, while improving the processes for change management and incident management. The company said it also completed a full review of its networks and implemented all recommendations contained in the independent report.

About a month after the Rogers outage, Canada’s major telecom companies reached a formal agreement to “ensure and guarantee” mobile roaming and other mutual assistance in the case of a future major outage.

Ramdev said he hopes to help Canadians avoid the panic that comes from being disconnected during outages, which have grown more frequent amid wildfires and other natural disasters, not to mention the threat of malicious actors.

“Our focus is on people like me who went through the Rogers outage, but there are also a lot of ... people whose job is to make sure that a business continues to function when there is an outage,” he said.

“This is just meant to give them some kind of peace of mind, that if there is ever an issue, at least they have some kind of backup.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 2, 2025.

Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press