Still no word on when full service will be restored
TORONTO – As the day comes to an end, Rogers has said it is making progress on bringing its networks back online after an outage that started in the early hours of the morning.
In a letter posted on Rogers’ website, the company’s president and CEO Tony Staffieri apologized to Canadians.
“We know going a full day without connectivity has real impacts on our customers, and all Canadians,” the letter reads. “On behalf of all of us here at Rogers, Rogers for Business, Fido, chatr and cityfone, I want to sincerely apologize for this service interruption and the impact it is having on people from coast to coast to coast.”
Staffieri also indicates the company has made “meaningful progress” on bringing its networks back online, but they do not yet know when they will be fully restored.
The letter does not give any indication of what caused the networks to go down, but Staffieri promises they are “working to fully understand the root cause of the outage…”
“I take full responsibility for ensuring we at Rogers earn back your full trust, and are once again there to connect you to what matters,” Staffieri wrote.
Today’s (ongoing) outage was not a small disruption. Whether you are a Rogers customer or not, there is a good chance you were impacted by it.
Banks were affected, and Interac debit and eTransfer were unavailable. Cash was the only method of payment some businesses were able to accept (after the pandemic led many to request non-cash forms of payment).
The CRTC’s phones were down, some Service Canada call centres and offices were also affected (including passport offices) and so were the phone services at Canada Revenue Agency.
Travel was impacted as well, with the Canada Border Services Agency indicating travellers may not be able to complete the required ArriveCAN submission online and so would have to provide the necessary documentation and information in hard copy.
Most concerningly, 911 services were also impacted. Several police departments tweeted to let their communities know people may experience issues connecting to 911. Several police departments also reminded people 911 is for emergencies, which means they should not call to ask when service will be restored.
This list is not exhaustive. Plenty of other people, businesses and organizations were impacted in a lot of different ways.
And as the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) mentioned in a letter to the CRTC calling for an inquiry into the outage, this is not a one-off incident.
Many will remember Rogers facing another outage last April. The telecom’s wireless service was down due to an issue with a recent Ericsson software update, which affected a piece of equipment that was central to their wireless network. “That led to intermittent congestion and service impacts for many customers across the country,” reads a statement made at the time by Rogers’ chief technology officer. (Once the issue was resolved, Rogers announced it would credit its customers for the outage.)
Beyond this, those living in Canada’s north experience regular outages.
Madeleine Redfern (who was recently on the Cartt.ca podcast), said on Twitter, “This nation-wide outage is actually quite regular in Canada’s north – where we can’t pay by debit/credit or access cash at bands or (ATMs) due to internet outages.”
She goes on to point out Internet outages in the north affect their ability to call police and emergency services and said the lack of access to stable, reliable and affordable service is “more than a temporary inconvenience.”
“Now imagine if all Canadians suffered poor to no internet simply due to weather issues: snow, rain, fog etc. It’s utterly bizarre and unacceptable.”
