Rogers has restored service after a Canada-wide outage, blaming a router outage

A general view of Rogers Communications’ quarter Rogers Building in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on October 22, 2021. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio

July 9 (Reuters) – Rogers Communications (RCIb.TO) On Saturday, it said its services were nearing full functionality after a major outage it blamed on a router down after maintenance work.

An outage at one of Canada’s largest telecom operators shut down banking, transportation and government access for millions of people.

“We now believe we have narrowed down the cause of the network system failure following a maintenance update on our core network that caused some of our routers to go down early Friday morning,” Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri said in a statement.

Canadians flocked to cafes and public libraries that still have Internet access, and scurried outside hotels to catch the signal on Friday. The country’s border services agency said its mobile app for incoming travelers was hit by an outage when cashless payment systems stopped working. Police across Canada said some callers were unable to reach emergency services with 911 calls. read more

Rogers’ second suspension in 15 months drew anger from Canadians and calls for the government to expand competition in the telecommunications industry.

With approximately 10 million wireless subscribers and 2.25 million retail Internet subscribers, Rogers is the top provider in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province and home to its largest city, Toronto. Rogers, BCE Inc (BCE.TO) and Telus Corp (T.TO) Controls 90% market share in Canada.

Financial institutions and banks, including Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) and Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO), said on Friday that the strike had disrupted their services. Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) It said its ATMs and online banking services were affected.

In the statement, Staffieri said the company would “progressively” borrow money from affected customers on Friday and invest in its network and technology.

Last year, Rodgers was responsible for a major breakdown due to a collision linked to Eriksen (ERICb.ST) Software upgrade.

Ericsson said on Saturday that it was aware of the outage and was in regular contact with the company to restore service.

Critics said the outage demonstrated the need for more competition in telecommunications, adding to criticism of the company’s industry dominance.

Earlier this year, Canada’s Competition Bureau blocked Rogers’ bid to take over rival Shaw Communications. (SJRb.TO) The C$20 billion deal will stifle competition in a country where telecommunications tariffs are among the world’s highest. The merger is still awaiting a final verdict. read more

Akansha Khushi reports in Bangalore; Additional reporting by Subanta Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Alison Williams, Diane Croft and Chris Rees

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