Canadian telecom company Rogers is experiencing a major outage that started early this morning affecting landlines, cellular and internet connections across Canada. Downdetector listed thousands of reports of the issue when people started getting up around 5AM ET and unable to get online.
Rogers first tackled the malfunction in a tweet from his official support account just before 9AM ET, then went silent for a few hours. In a statement given to The edge and tweeted at around 11:30 a.m. ET, Rogers said, “We are currently experiencing an outage in our wired and wireless networks and our technical teams are working hard to restore services as soon as possible. On behalf of all of us at Rogers, we offer our sincere apologies to our customers , and we will continue to update you as we have more information to share, including when we expect the service to be available again. Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve this issue.”
On behalf of all of us at Rogers, we offer our sincere apologies to our customers, and we will continue to update you as we have more information to share, including when we expect the service to be available again. pic.twitter.com/JIjGRUzxe5
— RogersHelps (@RogersHelps) July 8, 2022
Cloudflare Radar shows that communication between its load-sharing network and Rogers in Canada is exhibiting its normal overnight pattern before reaching essentially zero around 3-4 AM ET and registering a flat line ever since. At the same time, there was a massive spike in BGP announcements for the network indicating changes to the routing, but it is unknown if this was a trigger for the incident or happened as a result of the network going offline.
Internet network disruption tracker NetBlocks shared real-time data showing that Canada’s national connectivity has dropped to just 75 percent of normal levels.
ℹ️ Update: Internet and Telecommunication Outage in #Canada is underway, with a quarter of the country’s observable connectivity currently disabled; stats show big impact on Rogers/Fido and some smaller network providers pic.twitter.com/HbcoM7PRKB
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) July 8, 2022
A report from CBC News noted that Rogers daughter Fido is also having issues. The article says issues have impacted card payment processing and ATMs across Canada. A CBC radio station in Kitchener, Ontario is also offline, and some telephone services for Ottawa’s transit agency are disabled. Photos from Toronto show people crammed into coffee shops or going to the library to access Wi-Fi now that their other options are offline.
TekSavvy Customer Service has told customers the outage extends to “Ontario, Quebec and the Eastern Provinces,” with no ETA for resolution, as the CBC reports Thunder Bay operator Tbaytel says the Rogers outage is nationwide.
Toronto Police Department tweeted early this morning after some people in the city experienced connectivity issues calling 911. “The Rogers Network is experiencing some technical difficulties,” according to the Toronto Police Operations Twitter account. “We are working to resolve these issues.” In a continued tweetPolice confirmed that their 911 center is operational and advised anyone who needs to call to stay on the line if they connect and call again if they don’t.
On Twitter, the Bank of Montreal told customers the outage at Rogers “affects all financial institutions, causing disruptions to Interac services, BMO’s toll free numbers and transaction processing.”
ℹ️ Update: Internet and Telecommunication Outage in #Canada is underway, with a quarter of the country’s observable connectivity currently disabled; stats show big impact on Rogers/Fido and some smaller network providers pic.twitter.com/HbcoM7PRKB
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) July 8, 2022
Update July 8, 9:52 AM ET: Added information about the Bank of Montreal.
Update July 8, 11:20 AM ET: Persistent outage noted, added information from Cloudflare Radar, TekSavvy, and Tbaytel.
Update July 8, 11:33 AM ET: Additional statement from Rogers.
Update July 8, 12:40 PM ET: Added last update of NetBlocks.
