Rogers service restored after Canada-wide outage

• Rogers Communications (RCIb.TO) attributed outage to router fault following maintenance work.
• Company says it will “proactively” reimburse clients who were impacted on Friday.
• CCB rejected Rogers’ proposal to acquire competitor Shaw Communication in a C$20 billion deal.

After a significant outage, which Rogers Communications (RCIb.TO) attributed to a router fault following maintenance work, the company stated on Saturday that its services were almost fully operational.

Millions of individuals lost access to banking, transportation, and government services as a result of the outage at one of Canada’s largest telecom providers.

Also Read

Canada and Costa Rica advances to Women’s World Cup 2023

Canada defeated Panama by 1-0. Costa Rica defeated Trinidad and Tobago b...

Following a maintenance upgrade in our core network, which caused some of our routers to malfunction early on Friday morning, Rogers Chief Executive Officer Tony Staffieri said in a statement, “We now believe we’ve reduced the reason to a network system breakdown.”

On Friday, Canadians rushed into internet-accessible cafes and public libraries and waited outside hotels for a connection. The nation’s border services agency reported that the outage had a negative impact on its mobile app for incoming travellers and that cashless payment systems were rendered inoperable. Police in Canada reported that some callers were unable to reach emergency services through 911 calls.

Canadians were outraged by the interruption, which was Rogers’ second in 15 months, and demanded that the government increase competition in the telecom industry.

In Ontario, Canada’s most populous province and the location of its largest metropolis, Toronto, Rogers is the leading provider with roughly 10 million wireless users and 2.25 million retail internet subscribers. 90% of the market share in Canada is under the control of Rogers, BCE Inc (BCE.TO), and Telus Corp (T.TO).

Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) and Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO), among other financial institutions and banks, declared on Friday that the disruption affected their services. The Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) reported issues with its online banking and ATM services.

Staffieri said in the statement that the business will “proactively” reimburse clients who were impacted on Friday and make network and technological investments.

Rogers blamed a significant outage from the previous year on a bug related to an Ericsson (ERICb.ST) software update.

On Saturday, Ericsson stated that it was aware of the disruption and was in regular contact with the business to have the service restored.

Critics added to the criticism of the company’s industrial hegemony by claiming that the outage proved the need for greater competition in the telecom sector.

The Canadian Competition Bureau earlier this year rejected Rogers’ proposal to acquire competitor Shaw Communications (SJRb.TO) in a C$20 billion deal, claiming that it would limit competition in a nation where telecom tariffs are among the highest in the world. A decision about the merger is still pending.

Also Read

Canada will assist the combat effort in Ukraine by sending 39 armoured vehicles

Anita Anand, Canada's Minister of Defence, stated on Thursday that Ottawa is...