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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

#71

Post by jonahrd »

amscanne wrote: post #60
Johnny555 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people in the USA understand bloated telecoms with monopoly power that means they don't need to compete. In my neighborhood, I have one effective ISP, that is the cable company (who offers phone+internet+cable), the other is an old-school phone company who offers DSL (with bonded DSL, up to 12mbit). I thought that I could get a slow DSL connection to back up my cable, but no, there's some neighborhood line co…

I have a lot of experience in both places. Americans may think think they do, but I don’t think so. As bad as Comcast and others are in the USA, I have found them to be far more efficient and competitive than Rogers or Bell in Canada. Same for banks in Canada. It’s unbelievable what they do and get away with. And airlines. Rather, Airline. I believe there’s a cultural element here: Canadians are more risk adverse and…

I'm a US citizen, Canadian permanent resident.

I think it has to do with the fact that historically much of Canada's lands/provinces were literally just land owned by very massive British crown corporations. Massive corporations are baked into the history of Canada as a political entity.

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

#72

Post by brandon272 »

I see a lot of people noting the lack of communication and updates from Rogers.

To me it would be shocking if they were providing updates. Canada’s telecommunication monopolies are not known for their customer service and, even worse, they seem to have internal corporate cultures of entitlement and arrogance that drive an “F U” attitude in general when it comes to external communications and accountability. So you won’t see a post mortem. You won’t see timely updates. You certainly will never see some kind of status page!

I’m sure Rogers will be forced to do a post-mortem for large commercial clients where contractually required, but I highly doubt we will hear a word from them about the cause of this or what was/is being done to rectify it. They probably have an ETA but feel no obligation to share it.

Rogers isn’t alone. I would expect the same behaviour from Bell or Telus. Canada has serious issues when it comes to its big telco carriers and it represents major risk to the Canadian economy.

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

#73

Post by Scoundreller »

amscanne wrote: post #60
Johnny555 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people in the USA understand bloated telecoms with monopoly power that means they don't need to compete. In my neighborhood, I have one effective ISP, that is the cable company (who offers phone+internet+cable), the other is an old-school phone company who offers DSL (with bonded DSL, up to 12mbit). I thought that I could get a slow DSL connection to back up my cable, but no, there's some neighborhood line co…

I have a lot of experience in both places. Americans may think think they do, but I don’t think so. As bad as Comcast and others are in the USA, I have found them to be far more efficient and competitive than Rogers or Bell in Canada. Same for banks in Canada. It’s unbelievable what they do and get away with. And airlines. Rather, Airline. I believe there’s a cultural element here: Canadians are more risk adverse and…

At least the Canadian banks and airlines have international operations.

TD has more US than Canadian branches.

But Rogers, Bell, Telus? Nobody has heard of them ex-Canada unless they’re an ex-resident with bad memories.

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

#74

Post by anonymousab »

Spoom wrote: post #52
acoard wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Imagine Bell was down too. What then? I really hope this results in the CRTC starting to allow more competition. I hope, but I'm not optimistic.

I think we're most likely going to see them using this as justification to let Rogers get their way even more. Maybe the CRTC will try to convince the rest of the government that it's a reason to give away more cash and preferential treatment to Rogers and Bell as well.

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

#75

Post by throw7 »

Johnny555 wrote: post #51
tomComb wrote: post #31

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 cons…

I think people in the USA understand bloated telecoms with monopoly power that means they don't need to compete. In my neighborhood, I have one effective ISP, that is the cable company (who offers phone+internet+cable), the other is an old-school phone company who offers DSL (with bonded DSL, up to 12mbit). I thought that I could get a slow DSL connection to back up my cable, but no, there's some neighborhood line co…

I (america) also have only one internet provider to choose from (Spectrum TV, formerly Time Warner Cable). It's really annoying as just barely a mile away, my neighbor has a choice to use Verizon DSL (and does). -.-

I dropped TV and a landline a long time ago, and use cell (google-fi/t-mobile).

The annoying thing is all the spam mail I get from spectrum to bundle all the above for much lower than I'm paying now for an introductory rate. I don't want to play that game but it kills me what I could be saving for at least 6 months to a year.

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

#76

Post by Scoundreller »

jonny_eh wrote: post #68
StayTrue wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At my local supermarket debit was down but credit card (Visa) was working.

That would make sense, since only Interac relies on Rogers, and it processes debit cards, not credit cards.

Could be one of two things:

1) the site has connectivity so only Interac is down

2) the site has no connectivity and can process credit transactions offline and queue them (don’t tell anyone their expired card will work), but not for debit.

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

#77

Post by dylan604 »

throw7 wrote: post #75
Johnny555 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people in the USA understand bloated telecoms with monopoly power that means they don't need to compete. In my neighborhood, I have one effective ISP, that is the cable company (who offers phone+internet+cable), the other is an old-school phone company who offers DSL (with bonded DSL, up to 12mbit). I thought that I could get a slow DSL connection to back up my cable, but no, there's some neighborhood line co…

I (america) also have only one internet provider to choose from (Spectrum TV, formerly Time Warner Cable). It's really annoying as just barely a mile away, my neighbor has a choice to use Verizon DSL (and does). -.- I dropped TV and a landline a long time ago, and use cell (google-fi/t-mobile). The annoying thing is all the spam mail I get from spectrum to bundle all the above for much lower than I'm paying now for a…

Spectrum is so incompetent that even if you were a Spectrum subscriber, they'd still spam you with those offers.

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

#78

Post by dylan604 »

gsatic wrote: post #63
tomComb wrote: post #31

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 cons…

Most people also don't realize telcos rake in more revenue than the entire tech sector. And that it is no where close to enough to maintain or upgrade the pipes. Cloud has been built on lot of assumptions that are close to breaking point.

The entire tech sector would not exist without the telcos. So there's that

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

#79

Post by doubled112 »

EngCanMan wrote: post #36
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…

My reseller connection (Start.ca) is down, and Telus’ cell phone service becomes near unusable because of the extra load.

I expect the device I send this from will be offline again in the next few minutes, but I’m willing to be pleasantly surprised.

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

#80

Post by LawnGnome »

pseudoramble wrote: post #67
walrus01 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in telecom and tell this to nearly everyone who asks me about Canada, and its ISP/telecom market and competition... "Canada is an endangered species protection wildlife reserve park for dinosaur telecoms" It's a travesty that the government is actually going to let Shaw and Rogers merge to even further concentrate power in the hands of a few families and reduce market competition.

In the article, it mentions that the Canadian government blocked this merger. I believe it said that was in April though. Has that changed, or did I misread what the reporting said? Just want to clarify in case I missed something.

The Canadian government have put up a mild roadblock that will be addressed with non-substantive changes to the structure of the merger, enforced by a little known, toothless regulatory agency who will be instructed to look the other way.

The regulatory environment Canadian telcos operate in is completely captured.

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