Rogers Communications is experiencing a system wide outage / Photo: CHAT News Today

By Meghan Cobb

‘It’s been a hectic day’: Rogers network outage impacts cellular, internet and payment services

Jul 8, 2022 | 4:39 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – A complete, system-wide outage at Rogers Communications is causing disruptions to cellular, internet and payment systems to millions of customers across Canada.

The outage began early Friday morning, and as of 4 p.m MT, the network is still offline.

Residents and businesses in Medicine Hat have felt the impact of the outage in their cell and internet service, and Interac Debit payments have been down most of the day. Residents have reported some ATMs are experiencing issues processing withdrawals.

Pamela Quann learned of the outage while trying to get her morning coffee.

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“I went to three different Tim Hortons to get coffee and they were all down,” said Quann. “That’s when I realized something was going on.”

Quann planned to have a picnic with her family at Echo Dale Regional Park, but says she wasn’t able to get the groceries she needed because of the outage.

“I went to an ATM but it only let me get out $40,” said Quann. “After that, it wouldn’t give me a transaction balance and it wouldn’t let me take out anymore.”

Quann wasn’t the only Hatter who found out about the outage while trying to get a coffee. Some local coffee shops had to break the news to customers starting their day.

The Rogers outage has impacted Interac Debit purchases / Photo: CHAT News Today

“We’ve had come pretty disappointed customers on their way to work, and of course they hadn’t allotted time to get cash,” said Jade Eld, a barista at Station Coffee.

Meanwhile, other customers, like Donna Robinson, had to dig for change to pay for their drink.

“I was hoping I had enough cash on me,” Robinson said. “I think I had five cents more than I needed. I don’t know what I would have done, I could have been in a real pickle and been asking somebody for money.”

Elsewhere in the city, people trying to fill up their gas tanks today had intermittent success at the pumps. Laurie Wilson tried six different stations before going to the bank to get cash.

“It’s been a hectic day, I just came back from the bank,” said Wilson. “I had to go all the way up there to get money for gas.”

Earlier, there were reports debit cards from ATB and Royal Bank were working, but as the day went on, more customers started to struggle with their cards.

“I went to Superstore, Petro-Canada, Co-op,” said Wilson, an ATB customer. “It was the same thing trying to get an oil change.”

Credit cards seem to be working at most businesses, although customers are encouraged to bring cash to make sure their transaction can be completed.

Rogers is providing updates on the outage through Twitter

Rogers has been tweeting updates on the outage. The telecomm giant is reassuring customers it has “every technical resource and partner fully deployed to solve the problem.” At this time, the cause of the outage is unknown and there is not ETA for when services will return.

Rogers experienced another outage in April 2021 when mobile customers were unable to place calls and text messages, or open their internet browsers. That outage was attributed to a software issue.