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Rogers network outage across Canada hits banks, businesses and consumers

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

#91

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…

In Jersey City I can get xfinity (cable) Verizon 5g, or Fios 1gbit unmetered for $65 a month

It's probably the density and income levels that make it worth putting out the infrastructure

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

#92

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 wo…

Agreed, although, Rogers has had notably more vaguely explained outages. With this, if the CRTC does not revise their decision to let Rogers acquire Shaw (CRTC 2022-76), then, as Canadians, we must expect to continue to overpay for shotty telecoms. But hey, there's maple sirup and affordable health care.

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

#93
post #52
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'd suggest giving the CRTC a call with your thoughts... but their phone system is down :)

https://twitter.com/CRTCeng/status/1545421218534359041

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

#94
post #9

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.…

Its crazy that interac does not have backup independent connectivity.

Apparently it does - with another Rogers connection.

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

#95

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…

If you asked 100 Canadians if they’d prefer more competition to the telcos, 97 would say yes (1 works for Bell, 1 works for Rogers, 1 now works for the CRTC). We’re not risk adverse. It’s just that our government / regulator is captured.

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

#96
post #14

this is quite a significant outage and has been ongoing for over six hours now. would love to see a tech write up or blog post or even a Twitter hint but there seems to be absolutely zero transparency.

> ongoing for over six hours now Closer to 12 hours now I think. Certainly it was out at 7am EST this morning when I woke up.

Problems started to appear around 4am EST and services became completely unavailable by 4:40am EST.

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

#97

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…

Having lived in Canada and the US, with telecom plans with providers in both countries, I think Canada’s telecoms take it to a new level. To give you a sense of how distorted the market is, it was cheaper for me to keep my US Verizon wireless plan than to use Rogers, Fido, etc. when I lived in Canada!

I do this.

Unlimited (international!) roaming and everything isn't that expensive (Only about 100$) compared to whatever insane amount I'd be paying if I had some ripoff, under 5 gigabyte or whatever pittance data capped Canadian phone plan for no reason. I also maintain a Central American phone plan that doesn't cost me very much either (2$ every 3 months just to keep the number outside of the country and receive SMS/use chat apps basically, but I don't do roaming when out of that region - When in the region, I spend maybe 20$ a month).

Since the Rogers website is down (Great sales strategy!) I can refer anyone curious to a portion of their menu from some image I found; [1] 95$CAD (500MB until you hit overage) + 60$ for 'roam like home' (no mention of data, canadians still use SMS way too widely), and then probably more to up that data cap with no guarantee that applies to roaming? Yeah, no thanks! Oh yeah, the cops just install malware on your shit with reckless abandon, too. [2] I see no reason to consider Canadian nationality as anything but a nice passport at this point.

[1] https://cdn.mobilesyrup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/roger...

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/07/canada-police-...

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

#98
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Deploying infrastructure is not easy or cheap. But is clearly profitable if you can find investors to finance the capital spend.

Google have tried to enter the FTTH market thinking there must be opportunities to innovate and reduce the cost to consumers. But even they have struggled due to the complexities of deploying fiber in the existing built environment...

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

#99
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need an internet connection to use Apple Pay. Unless you mean you didn't use credit cards before, the situation has been the same for the last 20-30 years when we stopped using carbon paper imprints.

The payment terminal still needs internet access to process your Apple Pay transaction

It does not for credit. Credit transactions can be batched offline and transmitted when things come back online. Debit must be online, though.
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