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Rogers network outage across Canada hits banks, businesses and consumers

reuters.com

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Re: Rogers network outage across Canada hits banks, businesses and consumers

#31

Post by tomComb »

People in other countries probably don't understand just how powerful - and depended upon - the big telecoms are here in Canada.

They have no presence outside the country - they are so bloated and inefficient they couldn't compete - but they are omnipresent here.

There are lots of people who depend on Rogers for home Internet, home phone, mobile phone, TV, and home security, not to mention business services that consumers also depend on, like the payment networks that are down.

Plus their media properties, which probably come in useful when the government starts to think about allowing more competition or decreasing the taxpayer money being funneled to them.

Re: Rogers network outage across Canada hits banks, businesses and consumers

#32

Post by tra3 »

Staying with the inlaws that use Rogers' reseller for wired internet.

Using Fido for mobile internet access (also by Rogers).

Zero internet. It's wild to discover how reliant I am on the internet:

- Can't get around this city (no waze, gmaps).

- Can't figure out what's going on (AM radio is non stop commercials)

- Can't figure out where we might get some internet (maybe WeWork somewhere? How do you find one without internet)

This is just wild. Almost as critical as no water, or no power in the winter.

Re: Rogers network outage across Canada hits banks, businesses and consumers

#33

Post by lotsofpulp »

acoard wrote: post #8
Victerius wrote: post #4

Interac is down because Interac uses Rogers' network. Interac's backup network also happens to be with ... Rogers. Canadians across the country can't use debit cards, regardless of their financial institution. Credit and cash only. E-transfers are unavailable. Fun for people trying to pay their bills online. And that's just the financial side of the situation. Millions of people have lost Internet and phone service.…

It's hard to understate the impact of this across all of Canada. As someone who uses Apple Pay for almost every transaction, this underlines the fragility of a "cashless society." Also, around half my team are unable to effectively work today. We all work remote, and half the team's home internet is on Rogers, which is down. Some people are tethering, but people who are also on Rogers for their wireless are out of lu…

> this underlines the fragility of a "cashless society."

And a society that refuses to invest in robust infrastructure.

Re: Rogers network outage across Canada hits banks, businesses and consumers

#34

Post by routerl »

In Toronto, here's a small and non-exhaustive list of affected services:

- Point of sale machines. Supermarkets are accepting only cash.

- ATMs. Several banks are incapable of dispensing cash.

- Public transit ticketing systems. The TTC is effectively running for free, today.

- Public bicycle rental stations.

- Public parking locations.

How long before the public realizes that we are not Rogers' customers, but its hostages?

Re: Rogers network outage across Canada hits banks, businesses and consumers

#35

Post by alphaomegacode »

randlet wrote: post #20

The lack of communication from Rogers for an event of this magnitude is quite something. Three tweets[0] with zero useful information so far today. The first one not coming until ~4 hours after the interruption started. [0] https://twitter.com/rogers/

The timing of that update tweet is what gives pause for concern. If it were the same or similar thing as to what took down their network nationwide in April, it seems reasonable that they'd just say something like "Hey guys, sorry but the network is down due to ."

A lot of us are in IT and for a network of national importance in a "developed nation" to be taken offline so easily is worrisome.

Re: Rogers network outage across Canada hits banks, businesses and consumers

#36

Post by EngCanMan »

tra3 wrote: post #32

Staying with the inlaws that use Rogers' reseller for wired internet. Using Fido for mobile internet access (also by Rogers). Zero internet. It's wild to discover how reliant I am on the internet: - Can't get around this city (no waze, gmaps). - Can't figure out what's going on (AM radio is non stop commercials) - Can't figure out where we might get some internet (maybe WeWork somewhere? How do you find one without i…

Still no internet at all? I have a suspicion that you found some…

Re: Rogers network outage across Canada hits banks, businesses and consumers

#37

Post by tr1ll10nb1ll »

I'm using a Roger's number in India currently.

Unfortunately, I've been using that number for most of my 2FA so essentially, I've been unable to access a lot of services because of this (ones where I didn't use Authy/Google Authenticator).

Lesson learnt: use a separate VoIP business phone number instead.

Re: Rogers network outage across Canada hits banks, businesses and consumers

#38

Post by tvhahn »

The Canadian telecom space is dominated by 3 primary companies -- Telus, Bell, and Rogers. They form an effective oligopoly that is quite detrimental to the Canadian consumer.

In the ISP space, there is a bit more competition. Namely, Shaw provides additional coverage in some regions of the country. However, Rogers wants to buy Shaw. You can imagine how bad that will be for Canadians.

I do wonder what the Rogers outage is about. Ransomeware? State attack? Something stupid? If anything, it shows how we should not have critical infrastructure centralized. Competition between ISPs is important.

Re: Rogers network outage across Canada hits banks, businesses and consumers

#40

Post by bibstha »

tr1ll10nb1ll wrote: post #37

I'm using a Roger's number in India currently. Unfortunately, I've been using that number for most of my 2FA so essentially, I've been unable to access a lot of services because of this (ones where I didn't use Authy/Google Authenticator). Lesson learnt: use a separate VoIP business phone number instead.

Are you using Wifi calling to receive 2FA? What would you change to?
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