Canada: a major outage at Rogers blocks several operations in the country

Rogers, the Canadian telecommunications leader, is affected by an outage that affects financial institutions, emergency calls and businesses across the country. The cause of the outage was not known.

“We are currently experiencing an outage on our wired and wireless networks, and our technical teams are working hard to restore services as quickly as possible”, the group said in a statement. According to NetBlocks, a London-based site that monitors internet blockages around the world, one in four users no longer have access to the internet.

Rogers is Canada’s largest mobile service provider, with 11 million mobile subscribers and nearly three million Internet subscribers, according to its latest annual report.

For his part, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, has indicated be in contact with the Rogers group and pointed out “how important it is that this situation be resolved as soon as possible”. “We continue to monitor the situation closely and use all the tools at our disposal to ensure Canadians stay connected”he said on Twitter.

Police departments in several cities, including the capital Ottawa and the metropolitan Toronto, warn that although the 911 emergency number is operational, Rogers customers could have difficulty reaching it.

Also, the failure affects “all financial institutions in Canada”, reported the Royal Bank of Canada in a tweet. It causes disruptions to Interact transfers, which allow funds to be sent online. In addition, cafes and businesses in several cities in Canada indicate that they only accept cash payments.