Friday’s network outage left many feeling uneasy because technology had failed.
Seniors Advocate Cecile Cassista says for the elderly who have previously lived without technology, it creates even more skepticism, “Some are using technology and some are struggling with it. So it would turn you off when basically saying do I really want to be connected to technology when it goes out like that? I need to be more independent.”
Cassista adds, that with land phones now digital, safety for seniors is a concern because if they were in need of help, they had no way of connecting with the outside world.
“We rely so solely on technology these days and I think we need to change our line of thinking in that area,” Cassista says.
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.
With files from Tara Clow and Brad Perry
