Canada hit by massive mobile, internet outage

Ottawa, July 9 (IANS) Canada's largest mobile and internet provider Rogers has suffered a major outage, with bank ATMs and emergency service hotlines affected.

Friday's outage also affected passport offices and Canada's ArriveCAN app which is used for border control, reports Xinhua news agency.

In a statement, Rogers confirmed that the outages are currently affecting its wirelines and wireless networks but the reason behind is still unknown.

The outage began at around 4.30 a.m. (local time) on Friday and internet traffic had dropped to around 75 per cent of its normal level.

Bell, another telecom giant, said its network is operating properly, but customers may be experiencing issues when trying to call or text Rogers subscribers.

Telus issued a similar statement, saying the network outage affecting Rogers customers is not impacting TELUS Internet, home phone or wireless infrastructure.

The country's telecom sector is dominated by the three large carriers: Rogers, Bell and Telus.

Rogers is the largest wireless services provider, with about 11.3 million subscribers across the country.

Experts said more competition should be introduced into this concentrated wireless services market, where the Big Three serve approximately 87 per cent of Canadian subscribers.

This is the second major outage to affect Rogers in just over a year.

In April 2021, customers reported intermittent disruptions while trying to access data or place voice calls.