Rogers wireless services 'starting to recover,' company says

Rogers said Friday evening it is beginning to see its wireless services return online following a nearly day-long nationwide network outage.

"Our wireless services are starting to recover and our technical teams are working hard to get everyone back online as quickly as possible," the company said in a statement.

"As our services and traffic volumes return to normal, we will continue to keep our customers updated. As previously announced, we will be proactively crediting all customers and will share more information on that process soon."

Rogers CEO and president Tony Staffieri said in a late Friday night statement:"We don’t yet have an ETA on when our networks will be fully restored but we will continue to share information with our customers as we restore full service."

The Rogers network outage has affected several mobile and internet services, banks, debit purchases, passport offices and Canada's ArriveCAN app.

While the reason behind the outage is still unknown, a spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino confirmed to CTV News that the outage was not due to a cyberattack.

The company said earlier in the day that it "will be proactively crediting all customers and will share more information soon."

The company's shares were down 73 cents at $61.54 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday.

"On behalf of all of us at Rogers, we sincerely apologize to our customers, and we will continue to keep you updated as we have more information to share, including when we expect service to be back up."

In a statement to CTV News, Bell said its "network is operating properly, but Bell customers may be experiencing issues when trying to call or text Rogers subscribers. Calls and texts between Bell customers or to other providers are not impacted." Bell is the parent company of CTV.

Telus issued a similar statement, tweeting: "The network outage affecting Rogers customers is not impacting TELUS Internet, home phone or wireless infrastructure."

Minister of Innovation Science and Industry Francois-Philippe Champagne said in a statement that along with speaking to the CEOs of Bell and Telus, he also spoke to the head of Rogers and "shared with him the frustration of millions of Canadians."

"Everyone is in solution mode, willing to help," Champagne said on Twitter.

Rogers and its subsidiary Fido also experienced a nationwide cellular service outage in April 2021, which it blamed on a software update.

Speaking to CTV News, Champagne said the federal government would investigate to make sure the situation Friday "does not happen again."

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) confirmed it received, and is reviewing, a request from the not-for-profit Public Interest Advocacy Centre to launch an inquiry under the Telecommunications Act.

"I know the CRTC is going to be meeting with Rogers tomorrow and it just shows to all of us that quality, diversity and reliability of network is so essential in our daily lives," Champagne said.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said some travellers have had issues submitting their travel documents through the ArriveCAN app. Travellers are being advised to provide paper copies of their proof of vaccination and travel details via the traveller contact information form.

"For the duration of the outage, impacted travellers are required to submit their information using the Traveller Contact Information Form, to be completed prior to arrival at the border if unable to submit via ArriveCAN," CBSA said in a tweet.

Other government services have also been affected as both Service Canada and Canada Revenue Agency reported outages to their telephone lines.

Service Canada said in a tweet some call centres are experiencing network issues including passport offices, which have been overwhelmed for weeks because of passport issuing and renewal backlogs across the country.

"Our officials at the Government Operations Centre have engaged with Rogers and are monitoring any impact this outage may have on emergency services across Canada," said Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair in a tweet.

The online service tracker istheservicedown.ca reported issues from the telecommunications company since 4:40 a.m. EDT, with initial reports of network interruptions coming from Ontario.

The province's transit payment system Metrolinx reported issues with fare payments using debit and credit cards as bank service Interac said in a statement their online services had also been affected.

"There is currently a nationwide communications outage with a network provider which is impacting the availability of INTERAC services," Interac tweeted on Friday.

The federal opposition parties also weighed in on the widespread problems, with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh saying the outage "highlights the dangers of our monopolized industry," and is the consequence of a government "that is fixated on protecting the profits of telecoms giants."

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner is calling for an emergency parliamentary committee meeting on the outage "to understand how this happened and to make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Given the critical infrastructure that's affected, and that the CRTC itself is affected, the cause of the Rogers outage should be immediately explained," she tweeted.

With files from CTV News' Rachel Aiello and Adam Ward, The Canadian Press and Reuters