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MP’s Looking At Rogers Outage

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Parliamentarians are looking into the outage at Roger’s earlier this month.

Kenora MP Eric Melillo calls the outage unacceptable.

“The Rogers outage never should have happened and I believe its the result of federal policy failures,” states Melillo.

“That’s why our party is calling on the Industry minister to review the regulations on our telecommunications infrastructure and security and as well looking at competitiveness.”

Melillo is demanding a full report to parliamentarians.

“Outlining the specific cause of this outage and the steps that will taken to address it in that respect.”

Melillo would also like to see the government prohibit telecommunications companies from getting larger and limit mergers like the one between Shaw and Rogers.

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Ottawa Demands Immediate Action After Rogers Outage

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Canada’s industry minister is demanding immediate action from the country’s telecom companies after last week’s Rogers outage.

François-Philippe Champagne met with the heads of Rogers, Bell and Telus on Monday to discuss ways to improve the resiliency of the network across Canada.

“I told them in essence that this was unacceptable. Full stop,” Champagne said of the nationwide outage that affected millions of Canadians.

Champagne said the companies must enter into a formal arrangement within 60 days to cover three areas of concern.

They include mutual assistance during outages, emergency roaming, and a communication protocol to better inform the public and authorities during telecommunications emergencies.

Champagne said the agreement is similar to what the FCC in the United States has enacted to improve network resiliency during disasters.

“All these measures taken together will add resilience to our network and make sure we are better prepared if anything similar were to happen again,” he said.

Champagne said these initial steps will be in addition to any recommendations that come from the CRTC inquiry that will investigate the root cause of the outage.

Over the weekend, Rogers said it believes the outage was caused by a network system failure in one of its core networks following a maintenance update which caused some of its routers to malfunction.

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Network System Failure Likely Cause Of Rogers Outage

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A network system failure following a maintenance update is believed to have caused Friday’s widespread Rogers outage.

Tony Staffieri, president and CEO of Rogers, outlined the details in a letter sent to customers over the weekend.

Staffieri said the network system failure in its core network caused some of its routers to malfunction early Friday morning.

“We disconnected the specific equipment and redirected traffic, which allowed our network and services to come back online over time as we managed traffic volumes returning to normal levels,” Staffieri said in the letter.

Services were restored to a “vast majority” of customers by Friday evening, and Rogers said its networks and systems are “close to fully operational.”

The day-long outage affected internet, TV, home phone and wireless services across the country starting early Friday morning.

Interac services were also impacted by the outage, leaving Canadians unable to send or receive e-transfers, or use their debit cards.

“We’re particularly troubled that some customers could not reach emergency services and we are addressing the issue as an urgent priority,” said Staffieri.

While 911 services themselves were not directly impacted by the outage, some Rogers customers were unable to connect when dialing 911.

Staffieri said their team of leading technical experts and global vendors continue to investigate the root cause of the outage and “identify steps to increase redundancy in our networks and systems.”

“We will take every step necessary, and continue to make significant investments in our networks to strengthen our technology systems, increase network stability for our customers, and enhance our testing,” he said.

Rogers said it will proactively credit all affected customers, adding that more information will be shared soon.

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UPDATE: Rogers Restores Services To ‘Vast Majority’ Of Customers

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Rogers says it has restored services for the “vast majority” of customers affected by a widespread network outage on Friday.

In a tweet posted by the telecom giant around 7 a.m. Eastern Time on Friday, it said technical teams were working hard to get the remaining customers back online as quickly as possible.

“As our services come back online and traffic volumes return to normal, some customers may experience a delay in regaining full service,” reads the tweet.

It is still unknown what caused the outage or how long it will take to restore services to everyone, but Rogers said it will proactively credit all affected customers, adding that more information will be shared soon.

The day-long outage affected internet, TV, home phone and wireless services since early Friday morning, with Downdetector reporting a massive spike in reported issues shortly after 4:30 a.m. Eastern Time. It also affected wireless providers Fido, chatr and cityfone, which use the Rogers’ network.

Rogers first acknowledged the problems in a tweet shortly before 9 a.m. Eastern Time.

“We are aware of issues currently affecting our networks and our teams are fully engaged to resolve the issue as soon as possible. We will continue to keep you updated as we have more information to share,” said the tweet.

In a statement issued late Friday evening, Rogers president and CEO Tony Staffieri said he takes full responsibility for ensuring the company earns back the trust of consumers.

“We know going a full day without connectivity has real impacts on our customers and all Canadians,” wrote Staffieri. “On behalf of all of us here at Rogers, Rogers for Business, Fido, chatr and cityfone, I want to sincerely apologize for this service interruption and the impact it is having on people from coast to coast to coast.”

Staffieri said they are committed to fully understanding the root cause of the outage and will make “all the changes necessary to ensure that in the future we meet and exceed your expectations for our networks.”

The nationwide Rogers outage also impacted Tbaytel’s Mobility network.

“We apologize and recognize that the Mobility outage was frustrating and disruptive to your day. Unfortunately, this outage inconvenienced you and customers across the country,” stated Tbaytel on its Facebook page Saturday morning. “A proactive credit for the time of the outage will be issued to our Tbaytel Mobility postpaid customers. Your invoice will be automatically credited next month. You do not need to contact us.”

Interac services were also impacted by the Rogers outage.

Some people reported that they could send or receive e-transfers, while others were not able to take money out of their banks, and many businesses were only able to accept cash.

In a tweet around 10 a.m. Eastern Time on Saturday, Interac confirmed its services had been restored.

“As Rogers has restored connectivity after their system wide outage, INTERAC services are now fully available,” read the tweet.

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‘Software Update’ Led To Rogers Outages

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Rogers says a recent software update led to intermittent wireless service outages across the country on Monday.

The problem affected Tbaytel customers in northwestern Ontario for much of the day.

Chief technology officer Jorge Fernandes says their network operations centre first noticed issues early Monday morning.

Fernandes said they later determined that a recent Ericsson software update “affected a piece of equipment in the central part of our wireless network.”

“That led to intermittent congestion and service impacts for many customers across the country,” Fernandes wrote in a statement.

The intermittent outages also affected Rogers for Business, Fido and chatr.

Rogers tweeted early Tuesday morning that services had been restored to the “vast majority” of customers.

“I want to sincerely apologize for the significant impact and frustration that this has caused,” said Fernandes.