Telecommunications giant Rogers (TSX:RCI.B) (NYSE:RCI) is facing a significant outage Friday that impacts wireless, cable, and internet customers across the country, although most outage reports come from southern Ontario.
The outage began early on Friday morning, with various services affected.
Rogers Can’t Say When Things Will Be Back to Normal
Rogers cannot say when the massive outage causing widespread network issues for phone, internet, and debit payments across Canada will be back up and running.
The company released an updated statement around 11:30 a.m. Friday saying they “sincerely apologize to our customers” but could not provide an estimate of when service would be restored.
“We are currently experiencing an outage across our wireline and wireless networks and our technical teams are working hard to restore services as quickly as possible,” Rogers said on Twitter. “We will continue to keep you updated as we have more information to share, including when we expect service to be back up.”
“On behalf of all of us at Rogers, we sincerely apologize to our customers, and we will continue to keep you updated as we have more information to share, including when we expect service to be back up. Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve this issue.”
Internet monitoring group Netblocks.org reports that total internet traffic in Canada was at 75% of its normal level on Friday morning.
Rogers-owned spin-off brands like Fido and Chatr are also offline, but even services not directly controlled by Rogers, like emergency services, travel and financial networks, are having issues.
Debit Payment and Emergency Services Are Impacted
Many retailers and businesses are also having problems accepting payments with Interac, which handles electronic financial transactions, said its online debit and payment offerings and electronic transfer services were affected.
“There is currently a nationwide communications outage with a network provider which is impacting the availability of INTERAC services,” Interac said on Friday.
The Toronto Police Department tweeted that Rogers customers in that city were having trouble connecting to 911 but pointed out that 911 itself was working fine, as long as you don’t call from a device affiliated with Rogers. The force said they are working to resolve this issue.
Under CRTC rules in place since 2017, telecommunications networks are supposed to ensure that cell phones can contact 911 even if they have no service.
Government services, including already overcrowded passport offices, Service Canada, Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency, are also affected.
The Canada Border Services Agency says the ArriveCan app is disabled due to the outage. Therefore, anyone arriving in Canada must show a paper copy of their vaccination status.
Internet service provider TekSavvy tweeted that the outage was causing issues with the contact center phone lines. However, it had no estimate of when there will be a resolution. TeckSavvy buys access to the Rogers network at the wholesale level and resells it to customers.
Rogers Faced a Similar Outage Last Year
Rogers’ wireless and wired networks similarly collapsed in April 2021. At the time, the company blamed a problem with a software update at one of its telecom equipment vendors.
Technology analyst Ritesh Kotak says he suspects the cause of the outage is “an update gone wrong” in one of Rogers’ internal systems.
Whatever the reason, he says it underscores how vulnerable the Canadian economy is to outages like this. He also ensures all of his telecom services come from different providers for that exact reason.
“It shows just how reliant we are on this technology,” he said in an interview. “From some government services … to working from home, all that has literally been shut down.”
“The outage is illuminating the general lack of competition in telecommunications in Canada,” said Vass Bednar, executive director of McMaster University’s master of public policy program.
Featured Image: DepositPhotos © NewAfrica
