Overview of the Rogers Building, Rogers Communications Quarters in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, October 22, 2021. REUTERS / Carlos Osorio
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July 9 (Reuters) – Rogers Communications (RCIB.TO) said on Saturday that its services were about to become fully operational after a massive outage that it attributed to a router malfunction after maintenance work.
The disruption of one of Canada’s largest telecommunications operators closed access to banking, transportation and government for millions of people.
“We now believe we have reduced the cause to a network system failure after a maintenance upgrade to our main network, which caused some of our routers to malfunction on Friday morning,” Rogers CEO said , Tony Staffieri, in a statement.
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Canadians crowded into cafes and public libraries that still had Internet access and stayed outside hotels to pick up a signal on Friday. The country’s border services agency said the disruption affected its mobile app for incoming travelers while cashless payment systems stopped working. Police across Canada said some people who called could not reach emergency services by calling 911. Read more
The disruption, Rogers’ second in 15 months, sparked outrage among Canadians and calls on the government to expand competition in the telecommunications sector.
With about 10 million wireless subscribers and 2.25 million Internet retail subscribers, Rogers is the leading provider to Ontario, Canada’s most populous province and its largest city, Toronto. Rogers, BCE Inc. (BCE.TO) and Telus Corp. (T.TO) control 90% of the market share in Canada.
Financial institutions and banks, including the Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) and the Bank Of Montreal (BMO.TO), said Friday that the disruption disrupted their services. The Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) said its ATMs and online banking services were affected.
In the statement, Saffieri said the company would “proactively” give credit to affected customers on Friday and invest in its network and technology.
Last year, Rogers attributed a major outage to an error related to an Ericsson software update (ERICb.ST).
Ericsson said Saturday it was aware of the outage and was in regular communication with the company to restore service.
Critics said the disruption demonstrated the need for more competition in telecommunications, adding to criticism of the company’s industrial dominance.
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 make competition difficult. a country where telecommunications tariffs are among the highest in the world. The merger is still awaiting a final verdict. Read more
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Report by Akanksha Khushi in Bangalore; Additional report by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Alison Williams, Diane Craft and Chris Reese
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