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Rogers network outage hits millions of Canadians
STORY: Toronto residents swarmed coffee shops looking to connect their wireless devices on Friday, as a major outage of Rogers Communications’ mobile and internet networks caused disruptions across Canada.Many, like Cam Rosenstein, didn’t realize how widespread the issue was:”I ventured out, I said, ‘I might as well just go pick up a coffee at Starbucks’ and saw about 75 people hanging out here, everybody on their phones. It dawned on me that obviously it’s not just me, or my system or, my building – because I thought maybe it was just my building but there is a problem with service and everybody said that ‘yes, it’s a nationwide problem.'”Emergency lines like 911 and banks, including automated machines and cashless payment systems, took a hit.Many customers who didn’t have cash were turned away from stores.Rogers, which has about 10 million wireless subscribers and over 2 million retail internet subscribers, dominates Canada’s telecom sector.Earlier this year, Canada’s competition bureau blocked Rogers’ attempt to take over rival Shaw Communications in a C$20-billion deal, saying it would hamper competition in a country where telecom rates are some of the highest in the world. Friday’s outage has added to concerns about competition… with some analysts making the point that more independent competition is needed to drive network investment.
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