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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

#201

Post by wvenable »

ryanbrunner wrote: post #167
rapind wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I wonder how many of them would actually buy them though. There's been attempts at mobile providers, sometimes offering prices that the big telcos won't try to match even to flood them out, and they tend to wither away.

Mobile providers have to make huge investments in infrastructure to provide reasonable coverage in Canada. It happens on a small scale but it's like an entirely different market from the main players.

Now I have little doubt that if foreign providers were allowed in Canada that Verizon or AT&T would be able to setup reasonable competition in short order.

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

#202

Post by jamal-kumar »

nabaraz wrote: post #158
jamal-kumar wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Wow, that's incredibly rude. I've never experienced something like that outside of Canada before.

Like what are you even paying roaming for if they pull stuff like that? Is there any acknowledgement that some of us are actually abroad most of the time?

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

#203

Post by joelmeckert »

jamal-kumar wrote: post #97
edgefield wrote: post #56

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…

My Rogers plan is $90 for 65 GB of data, it is unnecessary (average use for me is 4 GB/month), but better than going over or throttled. When I was supporting an MPLS Rogers fibre connection, we had zero downtime in 2.5 years.

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

#205

Post by ncann »

planarhobbit wrote: post #191

I’m surprised there’s no chiming in from Bell customers. I’m on their Fibe or whatever plan, no issues all day whatsoever. My phone lines, however, are all down, as is merchant processing etc etc. Really strange day but not unexpected. We “know” the telcos are screwing us but we don’t have a way to gang up against them, as people easily buy into their feelgood propaganda.

From what I've heard, some Bell lines are really just Rogers lines with a Bell label on top

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

#206

Post by bawolff »

jeromegv wrote: post #30
bawolff wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To a certain extent yes. But its not like rogers literally has a monopoly. The isp i use is doing fine.

When there is so little choice, it's essentially an Oligopoly.

As long as there are at least 2 choices, it should be possible to have an independent backup.

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

#207

Post by christinamltn »

guerrilla wrote: post #128
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…

> - Can't figure out what's going on (AM radio is non stop commercials) Don't you have public service? Isn't that what CBC Radio One is, with no commercials?

The outage took down some CBC stations https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6514376

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

#208

Post by pseudoramble »

LawnGnome wrote: post #80
pseudoramble wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ah okay, this helps a bit. Not in Canada so I wasn't aware. Thanks for clarifying.

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

#209

Post by bawolff »

pj_mukh wrote: post #152
UkrainianJew wrote: post #121

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.

Its already illegal if its foreign physical goods that are being imported (https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/sima-lmsi/brochure-eng.html ). I guess they could extend that.

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

#210

Post by vvillena »

UkrainianJew wrote: post #121

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…

Isn't this a simplified version of what Rockefeller did with the oil market more than a hundred years ago? Drive out competition by financing any extra costs with profits from the markets where there's no competition.

Such behavior spawned lots of laws designed to prevent it from happening again. And, just like the telecoms extort huge subscriptions from their clients using extreme product bundling, politicians engaged in ideology and law bundling to get voters to flock to them attracted by some laws, enabling them to enact (or in this case, repel) the laws preventing them from going back to 19th century capitalist practices.

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