Rogers service restored after Canada-wide outage, blames router malfunction

Ottawa, July 10 (BNA): Rogers Communications Inc. (RCIb.TO) said Saturday that its services are close to operating at full capacity after a major outage it blamed on a router malfunction after maintenance work.

According to Reuters, the outage at one of Canada’s largest telecom operators has shut down banks, transportation and government incomes for millions of people.

“We now believe we have reduced the cause of network system failures following a maintenance update on our core network, which caused some of our routers to fail early Friday morning,” Rogers CEO Tony Staveri said in a statement.

Canadians crowded cafes and public libraries that still had an internet connection and hovered outside hotels to catch a signal on Friday. The country’s Border Services Agency said the outage affected the mobile app for incoming travelers while cashless payment systems stopped working. Police across Canada said some callers cannot reach emergency services via 911 calls. Read more

The outage, Rogers’ second in 15 months, sparked outrage from Canadians and calls for the government to expand competition in the telecoms sector.

With about 10 million wireless subscribers and 2.25 million retail internet subscribers, Rogers is the largest 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) control 90% of the market share in Canada.

Financial institutions and banks, including Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) and Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO), said Friday that outages have disrupted their services. The Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) said ATMs and online banking have been affected.

In the statement, Staveri said the company will “proactively” lend to affected customers on Friday and invest in its network and technology.

Last year, Rogers attributed a major outage to a bug associated with the Ericsson software upgrade (ERICb.ST).

On Saturday, Ericsson said 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 the telecoms sector, adding to criticism about the company’s industrial dominance.

Earlier this year, the Canadian Competition Bureau blocked Rogers’ bid to acquire rival Shaw Communications (SJRb.TO) in a C$20 billion deal, saying it would hinder competition in a country where telecom prices are among the highest in the world. The merger is still waiting for the final verdict.

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