Overview of the Rogers Building, Rogers Communications Quarters in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, October 22, 2021. REUTERS / Carlos Osorio
Register now for FREE and unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
TORONTO, July 8 (Reuters) – A major disruption to Rogers Communications Inc.’s mobile and Internet networks (RCIB.TO) on Friday caused widespread disruptions across Canada, affecting banks, power lines police and customers in the second outage that affected one of the country’s networks. largest telecommunications providers in 15 months.
Customers gathered in cafes and public libraries to access alternative networks, while financial institutions reported problems with everything from automated machines to cashless payment systems.
“We are currently experiencing a disruption to our wireless and cordless networks and our technical teams are working hard to restore services as soon as possible,” Rogers said in a statement.
Register now for FREE and unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
The disruption is likely to add to concerns about competition in the Rogers-dominated industry.
The company, which has about 10 million wireless subscribers and 2.25 million Internet retail subscribers, is the leading service provider in Ontario and, along with BCE Inc. (BCE.TO) and Telus Corp. (T. TO), controls 90% of the market. share in Canada.
Earlier this year, the Canadian competition office blocked Rogers’ attempt to take over rival Shaw Communications (SJRb.TO) in a C $ 20 billion deal, saying it would hamper competition. in a country where telecommunications tariffs are among the highest in the world. Read more
“Today’s outage illustrates the need for more independent competition that drives more investment in the network, so outages are much less likely,” said Anthony Lacavera, CEO of Globealive, a investment that had been offered by a wireless provider involved in the Rogers / Shaw agreement. .
Downdetector, which tracks outages by collecting status reports from various sources, showed outage reports as of 4.30am ET, reaching more than 20,000 users at 7am ET. Reports dropped to about 8,000 at 11:30 a.m. ET.
The national disruption caused some callers to have difficulty reaching emergency services by calling 911, police across Canada said, including Ottawa and Toronto, their largest city.
Interac, which operates an email money transfer service used by several Canadian banks, said the outage was affecting their services. Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) said it was facing system problems with Interac’s electronic transfer service.
Bank Of Montreal (BMO.TO) said the disruption affected financial institutions, toll-free numbers and transactions, while the Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) said its ATMs and online banking were affected.
Canada’s Minister of Industry François-Philippe Champagne said his team has been in contact with the company.
“We expressed how important it is for this issue to be resolved as soon as possible and for the company to provide fast and clear communication directly to those affected,” he tweeted.
NO CREDIT, ONLY CASH
It was Rogers’ second major interruption in just over a year. In April last year, thousands of its customers reported intermittent outages to wireless voice and data services for several hours before the company could resume full operations on its network.
On Friday in downtown Ottawa, cafes, like Tim Hortons, did not accept debit and credit cards and rejected customers who did not have cash. Tim Hortons did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the impact on his business.
Toronto residents crowded in and around a downtown Starbucks coffee shop that offered free wifi to a network unaffected by the outage.
“There are tons of people here with their laptops working fiercely, like they would at home, because they don’t have service at home,” customer Ken Rosenstein said.
Register now for FREE and unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
Report by Yuvraj Malik, Eva Matthews, Shubham Kalia and Maria Ponnezhath in Bangalore; Katharine Jackson in Washington; Divya Rajagopal and Chris Helgren in Toronto; Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Written by Ankur Banerjee; Assembly of Shinjini Ganguli
Our standards: the principles of trust of Thomson Reuters.