This is what caused the Rogers outage across Canada yesterday
Rogers and Fido service is finally back up and running today after a massive network outage that left customers across Canada without the use of their phones for nearly 24 hours.
Residents who use the Big 3 provider were confused and exasperated when they found themselves unable to use their cellular data, talk and text features starting shortly after midnight on Monday morning.
Any ETA on this outage? . My husband and I both have Rogers and we both working from home. It played havoc today with my work day. 😪
— Beauty66 🇨🇦🏒 (@Beauty66) April 19, 2021
Many went without any use of their devices, naturally a lifeline for work, general communication and more, until around 7:30 p.m. — more than 19 hours after the issue began.
Though Rogers said that only "some" wireless customers were impacted, the disruption had massive ramifications for businesses, virtual schooling, emergency services and people trying to book COVID vaccines.
Service outage tracker downdetector.ca cited tens of thousands of complaints in every province and most key urban centres nationwide.
Dear @Rogers, get your shit together —- Your customers are *literally* missing calls from pharmacies to receive vaccines. This is insane. The blackest comedy. What the true fuck is happening. CC: @RogersHelps
— Jason Hudson (@_JasonHudson) April 19, 2021
The cause of the problem in the end turned out to be a recent Ericsson software update, something that the company's chief technology officer revealed in a statement in which he also apologized to those among the 11 million-strong customer base who were affected.
"We know how much you rely on us and yesterday, we let you down. On behalf of all of us at Rogers, we sincerely apologize," he wrote Tuesday morning.
"You have the commitment of our entire team, and our network partner Ericsson, that we will learn from what happened yesterday, to help ensure that this never happens again."
@RogersHelps fixed it for you. Sending you a bill for $50 for the service interruption. Or you can sign up for the ignite plan at $125 per month for unlimited service interruptions! Terms and conditions apply! pic.twitter.com/shioULGiXh
— Matt (@matt0126matt) April 19, 2021
Swedish multinational Ericsson has been helping Rogers to roll out Canada's first 5G network since last year.
Though the telecom giant still stands by the fact that the interruption was "intermittent," it's apparent that many were left without any service for the entire duration of the outage, which stemmed from the software update that unexpectdly impeded "a piece of equipment in the central part of our wireless network."
It wasn't intermittent. For everyone I know there was no service between 8am to now. A lot of 40+ rogers/fido customers missing important vaccine calls today. Hopefully they don't run out vaccinating Bell customers over the next week.
— Landry Sharke (@ArscottMarlon) April 19, 2021
The snafu, which of course had to take place in the middle of a pandemic when so many are working from home, has left customers understandably incensed and asking for compensation or swearing off the company completely.
