Live data from Hacker News

Rogers network outage across Canada hits banks, businesses and consumers

reuters.com

151–160 of 403 posts

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

#151

I don’t understand have 911 service is impacted, doesn’t essential services have redundancy? Society is fragile

The actual dispatch appears to be fine. It’s just the network isn’t allowing mobile connections. Everyone has “No Service”.

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

#152

The utterly inefficient and overpriced Canadian telecoms exist only because we allow one specific behavior: 1. A new local player comes to town, builds their own infrastructure (e.g. connects one building to fiber) and starts offering competitive service. 2. Rogers/Shaw/Bell/Telus immediately offer better terms for the residents of that building. 3. The competitor runs out of money and leaves. 4. The telecoms revert…

Curious though what the government could do about this pricing scheme here? Seems like the solution is to setup a bureaucracy to watch pricing and then micro-manage the situation whenever its tried?

The ride-hailing services pulled this in various places around the world. Airlines in Canada did it as well. Feels like whack-a-mole.

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

#153
post #8

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…

Tethering with Canadian data prices is..spicy. A Zoom call uses about a gig per hour with HD cameras, and you typically get about 10 gigs of data per month. Overages charged at one firstborn per gig

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

#154
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No. "Crown Land" in Canada is owned by the provinces. There is no such thing as a "British Crown Corporation." Crown Corporations are a Canadian thing. I lived in Canada for 30 years and now live in the Scotland. CalMac and Scottish Water are not "Crown Corporations," but are nevertheless owned and controlled by the Scottish Ministers. This is contrast to BC Ferries, ICBC, and BC Hydro which are Crown Corporations. I…

>> No. "Crown Land" in Canada is owned by the provinces.

Crown land is owned by the Canadian Crown; the monarchy owns all crown land officially. It's administered by a split across federal and provincial jurisdictions.

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

#155
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No. "Crown Land" in Canada is owned by the provinces. There is no such thing as a "British Crown Corporation." Crown Corporations are a Canadian thing. I lived in Canada for 30 years and now live in the Scotland. CalMac and Scottish Water are not "Crown Corporations," but are nevertheless owned and controlled by the Scottish Ministers. This is contrast to BC Ferries, ICBC, and BC Hydro which are Crown Corporations. I…

In Canadila about half of the crown land is federal and the other half provincial. In 2013 11% was private, 41% federal crown and 46 provincial crown

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

#156

The utterly inefficient and overpriced Canadian telecoms exist only because we allow one specific behavior: 1. A new local player comes to town, builds their own infrastructure (e.g. connects one building to fiber) and starts offering competitive service. 2. Rogers/Shaw/Bell/Telus immediately offer better terms for the residents of that building. 3. The competitor runs out of money and leaves. 4. The telecoms revert…

Curious though what the government could do about this pricing scheme here? Seems like the solution is to setup a bureaucracy to watch pricing and then micro-manage the situation whenever its tried? The ride-hailing services pulled this in various places around the world. Airlines in Canada did it as well. Feels like whack-a-mole.

Promote fair competition.

Verizon tried to get in Canadian market in 2019ish but top three telecom formed a mafia and didn't let that happen. Same thing with Delta, would be a much better alternative to Air Canada.

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

#157

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…

It's not possible to pay with debit card in Canada because Interac is down, because Rogers is down. Many atm across the country aren't working. It's not just Rogers' client who are impacted, the whole banking ecosystem is impacted. Even rumors that Costco can only accept cash, the Capital One Mastercard network might be down. I don't see how Rogers could keep quiet on this, unless it's from some malicious actor.

Indeed, I can easily see them get dragged before a parliamentary inquiry.

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

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 SM…

I've heard they stop your service if your roaming is half of your data plan.

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

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Oddly enough, Telus is a medium-sized but well regarded player in the fiercely competitive market for outsourced call centres in the Philippines.

It's kind of funny that Telus, which at it's core is a merger of British Columbia Telephone Company and Alberta Government Telephones (tough to get more entrenched and bureaucratic than that) is actually a pretty innovative and diversified company... outside of their core telecom business where they're just as bad as the others.

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

#160
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>How long before the public realizes that we are not Rogers' customers, but its hostages? Won't happen. The average Canadians are one of the most sheep like docile people out there.

Remember when we all banded together to prevent Verizon from introducing competition into our market because it would “take Canadian jobs” and “give our hard earned dollars to the states”? That happened because of a hostile attack ad campaign by the big 3.

I'm not sure an aggressive astroturf campaign is the same as "us banding together". There was even an anti robellus site[1] set up.

[1] https://realfairforcanada.ca/

Post reply on HN