Rogers outage causes headaches, affecting debit payments and government services

A major outage to Rogers’ networks is causing headaches across Canada Friday morning.

In a statement shared to social media, Rogers said it is “aware of issues currently affecting our networks” and said the company is working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

The outage means Rogers cell and Internet services are down, and the issues have affected electronic payments and other services as well.

Online banking service Interac said the outage is affecting debit transactions “online and at checkout,” along with e-transfer services.

Government services were affected as well.

In a statement on social media, Passport Canada said the Rogers issues were affecting their call centres and offices. Passport backlogs and long wait times have been reported at passport offices recently, and the outage is likely to make the situation worse.

According to the Regina Police Service, some Rogers customers may not be able to connect to 911. The 911 system is fully operational, the police service noted, and anyone who can’t reach the emergency line on their mobile phone should try using a landline or a different device.

Rogers shared an online tool allowing people to see if their services are affected.

Experiencing service interruptions? For the latest details and to see if you may be impacted, click here: https://t.co/6wEzj0op8K

— RogersHelps (@RogersHelps) April 1, 2020