‘Vast majority’ of customers’ services restored: Rogers Communications

Rogers Communications says the vast majority of its customers have had their power restored and technical teams are continuing to work hard to bring everyone back online Saturday morning after a widespread network outage the day before. On Friday night, it said that mobile and internet service was starting to be restored after the outage affected customers across Canada since that early morning. The outage pushed businesses and organizations to notify customers their operations were being affected by Rogers and that delays and service interruptions should be expected.

The outage caused trouble for 911 services and debit transactions. The Toronto-based telecommunications company offered no timeline for when service may be restored to all customers. Tony Staffieri, chief executive and president of Rogers, says in an open letter that the company apologizes for the service interruption.

He gave no explanation for the outage or how many customers were affected. Staffieri says Rogers is committed to understanding the cause and would make changes to meet and exceed expectations in the future. He says Rogers would proactively credit all customers, with more information to be made available soon.

Following our previous updates, we have now restored services for the vast majority of our customers and our technical teams are working hard to ensure that the remaining customers are back online as quickly as possible. pic. twitter.

com/IobL7Dze6i — RogersHelps (@RogersHelps) July 9, 2022   Expert says far-reaching implications of Rogers outage shows need for competition The widespread outage on Friday had many warning the incident is a sign that oligopolistic telecommunications companies need more competition. “The outage is illuminating the general lack of competition in telecommunications in Canada,” said Vass Bednar, executive director of McMaster University’s master of public policy program. The country’s telecom sector is dominated by three large carriers — Rogers, BCE Inc.

and Telus Corp. — and their hold on the industry has long been a concern of academics, who have called for regulators to increase competition for mobile and internet services in Canada. The Competition Bureau is currently fighting Rogers’ plans to purchase Shaw Communications Inc.

for $26 billion despite the planned sale of its Freedom Mobile business to Quebecor Inc. because the regulator feels the deal would only bolster Rogers’ monopoly and not create a viable fourth carrier. RELATED: A timeline of key events in the Rogers-Shaw deal When the outage began Friday, Rogers, Shaw and the Competition Bureau had just wrapped a two-day mediation period that ended with no resolution.

The Rogers-Shaw transaction already has approval from shareholders and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, but remains subject to review by the Competition Bureau and the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. Federal Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagnes has long been monitoring Rogers and its Shaw deal, but on Friday chimed in about the outage. “This unacceptable situation is why quality, diversity and reliability are key to our telecom network,” he tweeted.

My statement on the current Rogers outage: pic. twitter. com/2OYQlH5SCf — François-Philippe Champagne (FPC) ???????? (@FP_Champagne) July 8, 2022   When everything from 911 services to GO Transit is impacted by a Rogers outage, the reach of telecommunications companies is very obvious, Bednar said.

“But unless we’re going to see people switching their providers today or new publicly run options suddenly springing up, there’s not much more that we can do right now other than perhaps factor in people’s anger and frustration, as the pending Rogers-Shaw deal is considered. ” She added that people should be compensated for the disruption. “It’s a huge expense to Rogers, but even a modest decrease on people’s bills would acknowledge some kind of deficit.

” Rogers said in a statement late Friday afternoon that some customers have already raised the question of credits. “Of course we will be proactively crediting all customers and will share more information soon,” the statement said. Beanfield, an independent fibre network operator, called the outage “every telecom provider’s nightmare,” but said it was also an example of why it has long been concerned with the lack of rivals for Rogers, Telus and BCE.

“A lack of competition and choice can lead to a building with the population of a small town going completely dark- cut off from all communications,” the company said on Twitter. “If you can’t even get help from a neighbour, where do you go? How do you call 911?” The business implications are likewise tremendous, the company added. “The consequences of such an outage for the financial sector, the lack of functioning ATMs, of working bank branches, can be catastrophic,” it said.

“Not to mention the independent businesses across the country with no way of processing payment. ”.