TORONTO — A Friday outage at Rogers, one of Canada’s largest telecommunications companies, caused major disruptions to internet, cable and cellphones, primarily in Ontario and Quebec, the most populous provinces. from the country.
The outage affected emergency services and some police departments, including law enforcement in Toronto and Ottawa, who were warning that some Rogers customers may not be able to connect to 911 calls. Banking services and Internet access are also affected.
“We know how important it is for our customers to stay connected,” the company said in a statement Friday morning, several hours after the outage began. “We are aware of the issues currently affecting our networks and our teams are fully committed to resolving the issue as soon as possible.”
The company has tens of millions of customers across Canada and approximately 23,000 employees.
Rogers did not provide any details about the cause of the outage or when service would be restored.
The Communications Security Establishment, the Canadian agency responsible for cybersecurity and other national intelligence functions, has offered assistance to Rogers, said Evan Koronewski, a spokesman for the agency.
It was unclear whether the outage could have been caused by an external intrusion into Rogers’ network.
In Hamilton, Ont., a town west of Toronto, workers at downtown cafes have been telling more and more customers they won’t be able to pay with debit cards, the mode dominant payment provider in Canada, due to the outage. Those without cash faced challenges as many nearby ATMs were also down.
Passport Canada said the outage also affected some of its call centers at a time when the summer travel season had increased passport applications.
The major service disruption comes as the company seeks to acquire Shaw Communications, in one of the largest telecommunications takeovers in Canada.
Ian Austen contributed reporting from Hamilton, Ontario.