Rogers headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Friday, October 22, 2021.
Cole Burston | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Massive outage Rogers Communications Mobile and Internet networks caused widespread turmoil across Canada on Friday, affecting customers with banking, police emergency lines, and a second outage, hitting one of the country’s largest telecommunications providers in 15 months. Gave.
Customers gathered at coffee shops and public libraries to access alternative networks. Meanwhile, financial institutions have reported problems ranging from automated machines to cashless payment systems.
“Currently, there are outages across wired and wireless networks, and the tech team is working hard to restore service as quickly as possible,” Rogers said in a statement. ..
The outage may add concerns about competition in industries dominated by Rogers.
With approximately 10 million wireless subscribers and 2.25 million retail Internet subscribers, the company is a leading service provider in Ontario. BCE When TelusDominates 90% of Canada’s market share.
Earlier this year, the Canadian Competition Bureau stopped Rogers’ attempts to take over his rivals. Shaw Communications A $ 20 billion transaction states that telecommunications charges will hinder competition in the world’s highest countries.
Anthony Lacabella, managing director of Globe Alive, an investment company that bid on wireless providers involved in Rogers / Show transactions, said: ..
Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from multiple sources, showed outage reports starting at 4:30 am ET and ending with more than 20,000 users by 7 am ET. .. The report fell to about 8,000 by 11:30 ET.
National outages have made it difficult for some callers to reach emergency services via 911 calls, according to police across Canada, including Ottawa and its largest city, Toronto.
Interac, which operates an email transfer service used by several Canadian banks, said the outage was affecting the service. Toronto-Dominion Bank He said he is facing a system problem with the Interace-Transfer service.
Bank of Montreal He said the outage was affecting financial institutions, toll-free numbers, and transactions, Royal Bank of Canada He said the ATM and online banking service were affected.
Canada’s Minister of Industry François Philippe Champagne said his team is in contact with the company.
“We have expressed how important it is to resolve this issue as soon as possible and to provide direct, prompt and clear communication to the affected people,” he tweeted.
No credit, cash only
This was Rogers’ second biggest outage in just over a year. In April last year, thousands of customers reported intermittent interruptions in wireless voice and data services for hours before the company was able to restore full network operation.
In the heart of downtown Ottawa on Friday, cafes, including Tim Hortons, did not accept debit or credit cards, keeping customers out of cash. Tim Hortons did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the impact on the business.
Residents of Toronto flocked to and around Starbucks Midtown Coffee Shop, which offers free Wi-Fi over a network that is not affected by power outages.
“There is no service at home, so many people work hard with their laptops, just like at home,” said customer Ken Rosenstein.
