'I'm frustrated': Some Rogers customers in Ottawa without service for second day
The cross-country telecom chaos hasn’t ended for everyone, but the majority of Rogers’ millions of customers are relieved to be reconnected to the world Saturday.
Despite the telecom giant saying “the vast majority” of their customers have had their service restored, many are still left without full connection.
“Yeah, I’m frustrated,” said Kanata resident John Hansen.
His cellular service was restored late Friday, but as of early Saturday, Hansen was still without internet access.
"I'm glad I had an over-the-air antenna for the TV so I could at least watch TV that way. It makes you think about what you're gonna do as a backup for the internet, kind of like when your power fails."
As of Saturday morning, Rogers said service had been restored for “the vast majority” of its clients, and the company provided the following explanation for what happened.
“We’ve narrowed the cause to a network system failure following a maintenance update that we did late Thursday evening, early Friday morning,” said Rogers President and CEO Tony Staffieri.
“These are typically very routine updates in our core network. That update caused some of the routers in our system to malfunction, and that malfunction caused traffic overload and, as a result of that, the whole system just shuts down.”
While service was returned for many to start the weekend, it didn’t come without challenges.
“Yesterday was a nightmare for sure,” said Ottawa resident Sally Thomas, who was without service Friday.
She said that for people with disabilities like herself, the impact was substantial. She could not reach her support worker and struggled to book a ride with Para Transpo.
"Thousands of people with disabilities are adversely affected when they can't reach care givers, can't call 911, can't call Para Transpo, the list is extensive."
Businesses too were left cleaning up the mess. Preston Hardware spent Saturday morning charging purchases made Friday.
"Our credit machines were down, cash registers were working but cash only, and so to make it convenient for our customers, we took down their credit cards and processed it this morning," said Robbie Ibrahim, the store manager.
The outage was an inconvenience to millions, and still is for some, but Rogers promises they won’t be phoning it in, the company plans to invest more money to prevent this from happening ever again.
“So that they can rely and we can earn their trust again on the Rogers network,” said Staffieri.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
There's actually no such thing as vegetables. Here's why you should eat them anyway
The rumours are true: Vegetables aren't real — that is, in botany, anyway. While the term fruit is recognized botanically as anything that contains a seed or seeds, vegetable is actually a broad umbrella term.
BREAKING Israeli forces seize Rafah border crossing in Gaza, putting ceasefire talks on knife's edge
Israeli tanks seized control of Gaza’s vital Rafah border crossing on Tuesday as Israel brushed off urgent warnings from close allies and moved into the southern city even as ceasefire negotiations with Hamas remained on a knife’s edge.
The Met Gala was in full bloom with Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Mindy Kaling among the standout stars
The Met Gala and its fashionista A-listers on Monday included Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya and a parade of others in a swirl of flora and fauna looks on a green-tinged carpet lined by live foliage.
Canadian cadets rock mullets and place second at U.S. military competition
Sporting mullets, Canadian Armed Forces officer cadets placed second in an annual military skills competition in the U.S.
'It looked so legit': Ontario man pays $7,700 for luxury villa found on Booking.com, but the listing was fake
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Noelia Voigt resigns as Miss USA, citing her mental health
Noelia Voigt, who was crowned Miss USA in November 2023, has announced she is resigning from her role, saying the decision is in the best interest of her mental health.
Putin begins his fifth term as president, more in control of Russia than ever
Vladimir Putin began his fifth term Tuesday as Russian leader at a glittering Kremlin inauguration, setting out on another six years in office after destroying his political opponents, launching a devastating war in Ukraine and concentrating all power in his hands.
Winnipeg man admits to killing four women, argues he's not criminally responsible
Defence lawyers of Jeremy Skibicki have admitted in court the accused killed four Indigenous women, but argues he is not criminally responsible for the deaths by way of mental disorder – this latest development has triggered a judge-alone trial rather than a jury trial.
Mediterranean staple may lower your risk of death from dementia, study finds
A daily spoonful of olive oil could lower your risk of dying from dementia, according to a new study by Harvard scientists.