Massive internet outage leaves Toronto residents without service

To make the Monday after the first snowfall of the season in the midst of a pandemic even worse, a slew of citizens of Toronto and other parts of the GTA who use Carrytel internet are currently experiencing a huge outage that seems to have been ongoing since yesterday.

5 hours now, still no internet @Rogers @RogersHelps #shittysunday

— Leigh (@britishsnoman) November 2, 2020

Customers of the company who live in Toronto, Brampton, Mississauga, Ottawa, and elsewhere in Southern Ontario have been taking to social media to complain of a complete lack of internet —particularly concerning for those who rely on it for work, school, or, you know, life in general.

Btw Carrytel buys from Rogers.
Just entered Rogers Internet in search of Twitter.
People complaining that Rogers is trash and has been down for hours.https://t.co/F6ivNQ8V3v

— Deb from Toronto דבורה 🇨🇦🌊 (@Deb27158071) November 2, 2020

Carrytel, which is a smaller provider that uses Rogers lines, tweeted out that there was an outage of its R-Cable in Ontario. 

"One of our fibers to our Data Center was cut," Carrytel wrote around 4:30 p.m. Sunday. "Our technicians are on the site to work on that. Unfortunately, there is no ETA at this moment."

Fix this. People have to work from home, school from home, online job interviews etc. This is unacceptable.

— CRCreations (@CRCreations3) November 2, 2020

It clarified in a later tweet that it is a fiber cable not owned by Carrytel — so, presumably, a Rogers cable — that is down. Rogers, meanwhile, does not acknowledge any issue with its own service.

And as of 10:30 a.m. on Monday, there had yet to be any progress, with technicians still on the scene working to restore service.

"Due to the critical nature and severity of the issue, it is taking longer than usual," the company informed customers. "We are so sorry to tell you that there is still nothing new received at this moment."

Many thought that the snowfall may have had something to do with the problem, but the true cause has not yet been revealed.

rogers internet outage again, what a crap provider. I hate that they have a monopoly on telecom services in Canada 😫

— rach (@moonescaIation) November 1, 2020

Internet users are frustrated with the disruption, to say the least, as well as with the telecom situation in this country compared to others.

As many have aptly pointed out, the industry is monopolized by Bell and Rogers, with smaller, slightly cheaper companies relying on the big two for their infrastructure.

The failure of Carrytel provide an ETA for resumption of service has only served to stoke people's anger.

A representative for Rogers told blogTO, though, that the problem is specifically a Carrytel one, and not a Rogers one.

And while Bell and Rogers screw there customers over, the internet services themselves are parasites that can only exist as long as Bell and Rogers exist. When Bell and Rogers die, the net work is no longer maintained and the internet ends.

— VIP BUNNY (@VipBunny) November 1, 2020

At the time of publication, an outage map still shows huge swaths of customers affected in Ottawa, Montreal, Kitchener, and the largest outage in the GTA — with customers across Toronto, Richmond Hill, Markham, Brampton, Vaughan, and surrounding suburbs still going without internet service.