Rogers crashes, communications stop
Rogers has been experiencing a wide outage on Friday, interfering with communications of all kinds across Canada. As a Fido customer, I have no phone service, for example. Some municipal services are affected, and Le Devoir says the Interac system is also disrupted.
Update: Radio-Canada posted at 6 pm that Rogers can’t guarantee that the system will be back up today. They also give a list of the services affected by the outage, Communauto being one of the local ones.
Second update: Most Rogers services are said to be back on Saturday morning. My phone doesn’t say “No Service” any more, either.
dwgs 13:38 on 2022-07-08 Permalink
Debit machines down everywhere, it’s either cash or credit.
EmilyG 15:06 on 2022-07-08 Permalink
I tried to send someone an Interac e-transfer this morning, and got a technical difficulties message.
Spi 16:16 on 2022-07-08 Permalink
I bet the STM wishes it could take cash at the booth today.
dhomas 19:04 on 2022-07-08 Permalink
The fact that they are not divulging the nature of the problem pretty much guarantees that it’s hacking/ransomware.
I feel for the users who are impacted, but much less for Rogers themselves. A multi-billion dollar company should have both the money and the resources to better protect themselves and their customers.
Kate 19:22 on 2022-07-08 Permalink
I don’t make many phone calls, but I’m finding I don’t like being completely without phone service either. Rogers/Fido better be ready with some discounts for everybody after this.
What would happen if there was a need for a public security alert this evening?
DeWolf 11:33 on 2022-07-09 Permalink
There didn’t seem to be too much impact on businesses here, but I happened to be passing through Ottawa yesterday and quite a few shops and restaurants had closed for the day – their entire payment systems weren’t working and they didn’t have any cash in the till. A lot of ATMs were down too, so it was even hard to take out cash.
Apparently, in Toronto, the whole bike share system shut down because of the outage.
mare 17:55 on 2022-07-09 Permalink
A friend from Ottawa arrived late to stay at my house after visiting the jazz fest after a really expensive taxi ride. The taxi’s credit card machine, which apparently does online verification, didn’t work, not even with credit cards, and they visited a few ATMs (meter running) that didn’t take debit, but also didn’t take credit cards. The Interac app the cabby helpfully suggested also failed, but fortunately I had just enough cash to cover his $35 (!) fare from St-Laurent/Rachel to Petite-Patrie.
I fon’t think Rogers will pay for all the relatively small amounts people accumulated like that because they 100% rely on their phone/internet connections to be ubiquitous.
But the money lost by businesses in Ontario with employees working from home who had a very unproductive day without connection (or a very productive one for some, without distractions) must be substantial. Some business have ‘guaranteed connection’ accounts, but doubtful those are valid for all their WFH employees.
Daisy 20:30 on 2022-07-09 Permalink
I feel vindicated in my supposedly luddite habits (having a landline, carrying a few hundred dollars cash in my wallet, etc.).