Massive telecom breakdown stuns Canadians
A major network outage at one of Canada's biggest telecom operators shut banking, transport and government access for thousands on Friday after the second widespread disruption to hit Rogers Telecommunications in a little over a year. Nearly every facet of life was disrupted. Canadians who typically work from home crowded into cafes and public libraries that still offered internet access. Air Canada, the country's largest airline, said its call centre was affected. Retailers' cashless pay systems went down, while banks reported issues with ATM services. The interruption added to concerns about competition in the industry and drew fresh criticism from customers about a lack of access to other providers. "Today we have let you down. We are working to make this right as quickly as we can," Rogers said in a statement. "Our technical teams are working to restore our services alongside our global technology partners, and are making progress." Rogers did not say when service might be restored. With about 10 million wireless subscribers and 2.25 million retail internet subscribers, Rogers is the top provider in Ontario. Along with BCE and Telus, Rogers controls 90 percent of the market share in Canada. Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from a number of sources, showed reports of outages starting from 4.30am Eastern time, topping off at more than 20,000 users by 7am ET. The reports dropped to around 7,700 by 2.30pm. Canadian financial institutions and banks including Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank Of Montreal said the outage had disrupted its services. Royal Bank of Canada said its ATM and online banking services were affected. The disruption also made transport and flight bookings more difficult at the height of the summer travel season. A spokesperson for Vancouver International airport, among Canada's busiest, said travelers could not pay for parking, use terminal ATM machines or purchase items at airport retailers due to lost internet access. (Reuters)