Rogers says its internet and wireless services are “starting to pick up” after a day-long outage in large parts of Canada.
A Rogers spokesperson told CP24 that engineers and technicians were “working hard to get everyone back online as quickly as possible.”
“As our services and traffic volumes return to normal, we will continue to keep our customers updated.”
Rogers Chief Executive Tony Staffieri said the company couldn’t say exactly when that time would come.
“We do not yet have an ETA on when our networks will be fully restored, but we will continue to share information with our customers as we restore full service.”
The firm did not say what caused its service to drop on Friday, but Staffieri said it would investigate “the root cause of this outage.”
Also Friday night, a senior spokesperson for Rogers told CTV News Toronto that they would “proactively credit all customers” for their issues with details to be announced later.
When will Rogers get ready?
Federal Innovation Minister Francois Phillippe Champagne told CP24 on Friday night that he had news “that suggests some service may have been restored.”
But he said the network was not yet fully operational and the length of the outage was not acceptable.
“Obviously this is unacceptable, we will look into it to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
He said the Canadian Radio-Television and Communications Commission would meet with Rogers leaders on Saturday.
Elsewhere in the federal government, intelligence analysts told Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino that they believed the outage was not caused by an external cyberattack.
There have been widespread implications of the outage in Ontario, including for people trying to call 911.
Several police departments said Friday morning that people may have trouble accessing emergency services by phone.
metrolinex warned customers that GO Transit tickets cannot be purchased via debit or credit payments.
Toronto concert halls urged patrons to print physical copies of tickets because many virtual ticket reader apps are down due to outage.
The Toronto Hospital for Sick Children said the outage caused disruptions with their virtual dating systemindicating that affected patients will be contacted to re-book appointments.
Scarborough Health Network in Toronto is asking all doctors and staff currently on call to come in for their shift until the outage is resolved. Many users have turned to social networks to obtain information about the situation.
Toronto pop superstar The Weeknd announced that his tour stop at Rogers Center was postponed to a later date “due to service interruptions that affected operations at the venue.”
“Information about a new filing date will be shared as soon as possible,” a statement read. “All tickets will be honored for the new date. We understand how disappointing this is and apologize for the inconvenience.”
In April 2021, Rogers experienced a nationwide blackout which saw many unable to make calls, send text messages or access their internet browsers. The communications company attributed this outage to a software problem.
In a tweet on Friday morning, Bell said his clients you may be experiencing issues when trying to call or text Rogers customers.
“Bell’s network is operational and calls and text messages between Bell customers or with other carriers are not affected,” the company said. CP24 is a division of Bell Media.
Telus issued a similar statement, tweeting: “The network outage affecting Rogers customers is not affecting TELUS Internet, home phone, or wireless infrastructure.”
Interac said in a statement that the outage also affected its online services.
“There is currently a nationwide communications outage with a network provider that is impacting the availability of INTERAC services,” Interac said on Friday.
Telus issued a similar statement, tweeting: “The network outage affecting Rogers customers is not affecting TELUS Internet, home phone, or wireless infrastructure.”
Many retailers and businesses are also facing problems accepting payments because Interac, which processes electronic financial transactions, said its online debit and payment offerings and electronic transfer services are affected.
“There is currently a nationwide communications outage with a network provider that is impacting the availability of INTERAC services,” Interac said on Friday.
fall detectorA website that tracks outages showed that people began reporting problems with Rogers service around 4:30 a.m. EDT, and 20,000 reports had been logged by 7 a.m.
Customers in Toronto, Kitchener, Moncton, Ottawa, and Mississauga posted the most reports on the website: 45% said they were experiencing a total blackout, 29% had problems with mobile internet, and 26% had problems with the fixed Internet.
Downdetector also showed spikes in outage reports for independent service providers like TekSavvy, which often take advantage of Rogers’ network.
TekSavvy said in a tweet that it was being affected by the outage and was having issues with contact center phone lines, but had no estimate of when a fix might be forthcoming.
“The outage is shining a light on the general lack of telecommunications competition in Canada,” said Vass Bednar, executive director of McMaster University’s master’s program in public policy.
The country’s telecommunications sector is dominated by three major carriers — Rogers, BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. — and their control over the industry has long been a concern of academics, who have called on regulators to increase competition for mobile and Internet services. in Canada.