Rogers customers across the country are starting to see some services return after waking up Friday morning with no internet, T.V., home phone or wireless services.
The network outage, which began just after 2 a.m., has affected customers nationwide. As of 10:50 p.m. Friday, a number of customers have begun to see their services restored.
Downdetector Canada, a website that tracks technology failures, was the first to confirm the outage.
In a statement issued Friday morning, the telecommunications company reassured its customers its technical teams were working to resolve the service disruption across its wireline and wireless networks.
“On behalf of all of us at Rogers, we sincerely apologize to our customers, and we will continue to keep you updated as we have more information to share, including when we expect service to be back up. Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve this issue,” the statement said.
Angry customers were quick to take to social media to voice their frustration about the service outage.
“I love that Rogers is having a nationwide outage with no estimate on when it’ll be up and running,” tweeted one Rogers customer.
Another displeased customer wrote “this Canada-wide Rogers outage really highlights the dangers of monopolized industries. When one malfunction can put half of a country’s economy on pause, we have a big problem.”
Many businesses who rely on Rogers have reported their debit service is also down as a result of the outage. Interac, the interbank network that links financial institutions and other enterprises had most of its debit systems taken offline due to the outage. Interac’s e-Transfer service was also unavailable for many. Some businesses have been able to accept major credit cards along with cash.
In an update at around 5:40 p.m., Rogers officials said they were still working to restore service. They added that customers will be compensated for the issue.
“Some customers have raised the question of credits and of course, we will be proactively crediting all customers and will share more information soon,” a statement from the company read.
At 9:53 p.m., Rogers tweeted another statement confirming wirelesss services are beginning to return.
“Our wireless services are starting to recover and our technical teams are working hard to get everyone online as quickly as possible,” Rogers officials said. “As our services and traffic volumes return to normal, we will continue to keep our customers updated.”
The telecommunications giant has yet to say what the possible cause of the outage is.
Late Friday evening, Rogers President and CEO Tony Staffieri issued a statement about the outage and offered an apology to customers.
“We don’t yet have an ETA on when our networks will be fully restored but will we continue to share information with our customers as we restore full service,” Staffieri said. “We know going a full day without connectivity has real impacts on our customers, and all Canadians. On behalf of all of us here at Rogers, Rogers for Business, Fido, chatr and cityfone, I want to sincerely apologize for this service interruption and the impact it is having on people from coast to coast to coast.”
Staffieri also added that Rogers is fully committed to understanding the root cause of the outage and said the company will make any necessary changes to “exceed” expectations for all Rogers networks.
“I take full responsibility for ensuring we at Rogers earn back your full trust, and are once again there to connect you to what matters,” Staffieri said.
The full statement can be viewed here.
A similar outage blamed on a “software update” at one of Rogers telecom equipment suppliers also left customers without service for an extended period of time in April 2021.
On behalf of all of us at Rogers, we sincerely apologize to our customers, and we will continue to keep you updated as we have more information to share, including when we expect service to be back up. pic.twitter.com/JIjGRUzxe5
— RogersHelps (@RogersHelps) July 8, 2022
