Canada Affected by Massive Mobile and Internet Outage

Rogers, Canada's largest mobile and internet provider, has experienced a major outage, affecting bank ATMs and emergency service hotlines. According to Xinhua, the outage on Friday also affected passport offices and Canada's ArriveCAN app, which is used for border control.

Rogers confirmed in a statement that outages are currently affecting its wireline and wireless networks, but the cause is unknown. The outage began around 4.30 a.m. (local time) on Friday, and internet traffic had dropped to about 75% of normal levels.

Bell, another telecom behemoth, stated that its network is operational, but customers may encounter difficulties when attempting to call or text Rogers subscribers. Telus issued a similar statement, stating that the network outage that is affecting Rogers customers has no effect on TELUS Internet, home phone, or wireless infrastructure. The country's telecommunications industry is dominated by three major carriers: Rogers, Bell, and Telus. Rogers is the largest wireless service provider in Canada, with approximately 11.3 million subscribers.

More competition, according to experts, should be introduced into this concentrated wireless services market, where the Big Three serve roughly 87 percent of Canadian subscribers.