Canada's Rogers Communications is enduring an hours-long wireless outage that is impacting mobile customers across the country.
Rogers continues to apologize for the outage, but has yet to offer any info about the source of the outage or an estimate on when it might have the problem resolved. In a tweet posted Monday afternoon, Rogers stressed that residential and business wireline Internet services are not impacted.
We sincerely apologize to our customers. We know connectivity is critical & are working hard to restore services for customers who continue to experience wireless interruptions. Residential & business wireline internet services aren't impacted. We will continue to provide updates
— RogersHelps (@RogersHelps) April 19, 2021
While the timing is never good for a widespread cellular service outage, the timing of this one is particularly ugly given that Rogers and Shaw Communications are in the midst of a proposed $20.8 billion merger that views 5G and mobile growth potential as a key driver for the deal. And just last week, Rogers, which bills its 5G network as the "largest and most reliable" in Canada, announced it had expanded its 5G network into more towns and cities in Manitoba and Ontario.
The outage is impacting Rogers's postpaid and Fido prepaid wireless subscribers, with CBC reporting that the issues appear to be most prevalent in southern Ontario and Montreal. Rogers ended 2020 with 9.68 million postpaid subscribers and about 1.26 million prepaid wireless subs.
Meanwhile, several policies forces, including the Peel Regional Police in Ontario, posted warnings that 911 calls placed via cell phones on the Rogers network may not go through.
#PRP wants to notify our community that @Rogers cellphone service is currently dealing with a Canada-wide outage. We want to inform everyone that if you call 9-1-1 and hang up, our communicators are unable to call back, so please stay on the line. #911Awareness pic.twitter.com/FWBPeh2mXs
— Peel Regional Police (@PeelPolice) April 19, 2021
Related posts:
Shaw deal would make Rogers king of Canadian cable/broadband (Light Reading)
Experts warn of economic implications from Rogers wireless outage (The Canadian Press)
— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading
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