Monday April 19, 2021 | VICTORIA, BC [Update at 3 pm, per a post by Rogers: The trouble started with intermittent issues with voice calls, SMS and data services. Not impacted were TV, home and business wireline Internet, and home phone services. The root problem was a recent Ericsson software update that affected a piece of equipment in the central part of our wireless network. That led to intermittent congestion and service impacts for many customers across Canada. Services will be brought back on gradually. | Update at 4:15 pm – still not up in parts or all of Greater Victoria area.] [Update around 5 pm – From a Tweet by Rogers @RogersHelps: Rogers wireless calls, SMS & data services started returning to normal. Will take several more hours for all customers and regions to have full service. “We will continue to work around the clock with our network partner Ericsson until that happens.”]
by Mary P Brooke, B.Sc., Editor | Island Social Trends
Without, so far, an explanation as to why, Rogers wireless voice and data services have been unavailable to customers in what looks like a wide range of locations across Canada, including Vancouver Island.
Tech support (by chat) on their MyRogers interface is vague, as is their Twitter post still after five hours of saying they’re working on the problem (it’s now 10:25 am Pacific Time). According to other posts in the Twitterverse, the service has been down since before midnight (therefore over 11 hours).
This is budget day in Ottawa, presently probably the most important federal budget in decades given the amount of debt the country is now carrying (and going deeper into) due to pandemic response spending.
Perhaps there is overload on the system related to setup of people preparing to participate in that debate and news coverage and commentary.
Tech support:
This was posted by Rogers around 5:15 am today: “Some wireless customers are experiencing an intermittent service interruption for wireless voice and data services. Our team is working quickly to restore services as soon as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience and will continue to provide regular updates.” | The Rogers service update page was last updated around 7:30 am (Pacific Time).
Modern reliance:
This unexpected outage is affecting people’s phones and ability to get their business day happening. It shows the vulnerability of the digital world that we rely on. If people are housebound during COVID-related isolation, wireless is even more essential a service.
Having services with more than one provider is one form of fail safe against total impact on a business or residential service.
