An extensive outage that Canada’s top mobile and internet providers suffered had an impact on bank ATMs and emergency assistance hotlines.
Government operations have been disrupted by the Rogers Communications issue. According to the company, it is acting fast to address the problem.
The second outage in 15 months has no recognised cause at this time. It began at around 4:30 ET (08:30 GMT). According to internet monitoring organisation NetBlocks, internet traffic had dropped to around 75% of normal levels by Friday morning.
With a stake in everything from cable TV to hockey, Rogers is the cellular carrier for almost 11 million Canadians.
Toronto’s police department said that certain mobile phone users were having issues dialling 911 despite being “fully functioning.”
The police recommended people call back if the call didn’t go through and to stay on the line as long as possible if it did.
The Ottawa police tweeted that if your call is unsuccessful, please try again or call from a landline or cellphone with a different carrier.
The outages also disrupted passport offices, courthouses, and transit payment systems.
The on-call medical staff has been asked to report to work by the Scarborough Health Network, which manages hospitals in Toronto until the issue is resolved.
After jail employees were unable to connect disgraced fashion mogul Peter Nygard to a videoconference system, a court hearing for him in Montreal, Quebec, was postponed.
In metropolitan areas, people have flocked to cafes and other sites offering functional Wi-Fi.
On Friday afternoon, the vice-president of Rogers said that the business was still looking for the “root cause” of the issue.
At the right moment, we don’t have an ETA on when the situation will be fixed, said Kye Prigg.
In a little over a year, Rogers has experienced two sizable disruptions. Customers encountered periodic outages in April of last year when attempting to use broadband or place voice calls.
