(Toronto) Rogers Communications finally believes it knows what happened to its network in the aftermath of a widespread outage that left millions of Canadians without mobile and internet service, in addition to causing problems for the police, the courts, to Service Canada, broadcasters and Interac technology, among others.
Posted at 8:02
Updated at 6:12 p.m.
“We now believe we have identified the cause, which is a network system failure following a maintenance update to our core network, which caused some of our routers to malfunction early Friday morning,” company president and CEO Tony Staffieri said in a statement.
“We unplugged the equipment in question and rerouted traffic, which allowed our network and services to come back online over time as we managed the volumes returning to normal,” he said. -he adds.
Late Saturday afternoon, the telecommunications giant confirmed that all of its services had been restored and that its networks and systems were almost fully operational.
Interac also announced Saturday morning that its services are back on track after the outage prevented customers from using their debit cards to make purchases.
On Twitter, the company apologized for the inconvenience and announced plans to add a vendor to bolster its network redundancy and prevent some of its services from being crippled again.
The outage, which lasted all day and extended into Friday evening, also led to an official apology from Rogers.
We know how much our customers rely on our networks, and I’m sincerely sorry. The fact that some clients were unable to contact emergency services is particularly troubling; and we are dealing with the problem which is an urgent priority.
Tony Staffieri, company president and CEO
The company reiterated that it will proactively credit all customers affected by the outage and will have more information to share about compensation soon.
“Once again, we sincerely apologize to our customers for this disruption and will proactively offer credit to all customers.
“You don’t need to contact us to get the credit, as it will be automatically applied to your account,” reads a tweet from the company.
Impacts across the country
Interac spokesman Bryan Bossin said Friday that the company’s debit and wire transfer services were unavailable across Canada.
The outage therefore disrupted operations at several merchants, but also in the courts, transport networks, credit card providers and police forces. Many financial transactions also had to be postponed.
Among the most concerning disruptions were connection issues with some 911 emergency services, as several Canadians said they were having trouble getting the line.
Both Toronto and Ottawa police have warned that connection issues could impact their 911 service.
“If your call fails, please try again or call from another landline or cell phone,” Ottawa police wrote on Twitter.
The Thunder Bay police have even created a temporary 911 email address to allow people who are unable to use the telephone network to reach emergency services.
Courts have also been affected. In Montreal, a hearing for fashion mogul Peter Nygard was pushed back a week due to the inability to use the videoconferencing system.
On Twitter, Service Canada wrote that “the power outage at Rogers affected some call centers and offices, including passport offices.”
The Canada Border Services Agency had also warned that travelers might not be able to complete their submission using the ArriveCAN app.
“For the duration of the outage, affected travelers should submit their information using the Traveler Details Form, which must be completed prior to arrival at the border, if unable to do so through ArriveCAN,” specified the agency.
Hard copies of the traveler’s proof of vaccinations, as well as their government-issued documents, were required.
Ontario particularly affected
In health, the Scarborough Health Network, which manages three hospitals in the Toronto area, asked all of its doctors who were to do teleconsultation on Friday to go to their place of work until the outage is over. settled.
In the evening, the show of Canadian singer The Weeknd scheduled for Toronto also had to be postponed less than an hour from the start of the event due to the breakdown.
Downdetector, a website that monitors outages, says people started reporting issues with Rogers’ service around 4:30 a.m. Friday, and by 7 a.m., 20,000 issues had been logged.
Customers in Toronto, Kitchener, Moncton, Ottawa and Mississauga made the most reports on the website, with 45% reporting a total outage, 29% reporting mobile internet issues and 26% reporting fixed internet problems.
According to data from Downdetector, it appears the outage also affected independent networks, which often use Rogers’ signal.
Last year, the company suffered a massive outage caused by a software update that left customers without service.
“The outage is a good example of the lack of competition in telecommunications in Canada,” said the executive director of McMaster University’s master’s in public policy program, Vass Bednar, in an interview.
Canada’s telecommunications sector is dominated by three major carriers — Rogers, Bell and Telus — and their hold on the industry has long been a concern to industry experts, who have repeatedly called on regulators to increase competition for mobile and internet services in Canada.
The Competition Bureau is currently opposing Rogers’ plan to buy Shaw Communications for $26 billion, despite the planned sale of its Freedom Mobile business to Quebecor.
According to Mme Bednar said the fact that many services, ranging from 911 to public transit, were affected on Friday proves the need for increased competition.
“But unless people switch providers today or new public options suddenly appear, there’s not much more we can do right now, other than maybe heed the anger and frustration of people,” she added.
The federal government concerned
In a press release, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, said Friday that the government is monitoring the situation closely.
“We are aware of the outage at Rogers. My team is in contact with the company. We have expressed how important it is that this situation be resolved as soon as possible. We also stressed the importance of the company communicating quickly and clearly with affected customers,” the minister wrote.
Minister Champagne also spoke directly to the CEO of the company on Friday evening. He told him in particular of “the frustration of millions of Canadians”.
The Public Interest Advocacy Center has also asked the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to launch an investigation into the outage under the Telecommunications Act. The CRTC confirmed that it had received the application and was reviewing it.