A network system failure following a maintenance update is believed to have caused Friday’s widespread Rogers outage.
Tony Staffieri, president and CEO of Rogers, outlined the details in a letter sent to customers over the weekend.
Staffieri said the network system failure in its core network caused some of its routers to malfunction early Friday morning.
“We disconnected the specific equipment and redirected traffic, which allowed our network and services to come back online over time as we managed traffic volumes returning to normal levels,” Staffieri said in the letter.
Services were restored to a “vast majority” of customers by Friday evening, and Rogers said its networks and systems are “close to fully operational.”
The day-long outage affected internet, TV, home phone and wireless services across the country starting early Friday morning.
Interac services were also impacted by the outage, leaving Canadians unable to send or receive e-transfers, or use their debit cards.
“We’re particularly troubled that some customers could not reach emergency services and we are addressing the issue as an urgent priority,” said Staffieri.
While 911 services themselves were not directly impacted by the outage, some Rogers customers were unable to connect when dialing 911.
Staffieri said their team of leading technical experts and global vendors continue to investigate the root cause of the outage and “identify steps to increase redundancy in our networks and systems.”
“We will take every step necessary, and continue to make significant investments in our networks to strengthen our technology systems, increase network stability for our customers, and enhance our testing,” he said.
Rogers said it will proactively credit all affected customers, adding that more information will be shared soon.
