2022 Rogers Communications outage: A Timeline of Events

On April 19, 2022, a massive outage struck Rogers Communications, leaving millions of Canadians without internet or phone service.

The outage began at 5:00 AM ET, with reports of issues starting to pour in shortly after.

By 7:00 AM ET, the company had confirmed that a technical issue was to blame, but the full extent of the problem was still unclear.

Services were eventually restored by 4:00 PM ET, but not before thousands of customers had taken to social media to express their frustration.

The outage was a major disruption for many, with some people unable to access essential services like banking and emergency services.

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The 2022 Rogers Communications outage was a significant event that left many Canadians without internet and mobile service for an extended period.

It started with a code update gone wrong, which took down Rogers' core network at around 4 AM on July 8.

The outage lasted for about a day and a half, with some services and customers not back online for up to four days.

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Rogers' core network is shared by both their wired and wireless networks, making it a critical point of failure.

This meant that not only private customers were affected, but also businesses and parts of the 911 emergency system.

Smaller carriers that relied on Rogers' backbone for their traffic were also impacted.

The outage highlighted the risks of relying on a single provider, especially one that's prone to outages.

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Rogers began restoring services on June 25, with customers advised to restart their devices and reinsert their SIM cards to regain full functionality.

Services came back online by early afternoon, allowing customers to access their network and services again.

Rogers communicated the restoration of services and acknowledged the outage on its official support platforms.

However, the company has not yet released a full technical breakdown of the incident or shared a confirmed root cause.

As of now, there is no formal update on potential customer compensation, but in past outages, Rogers has offered service credits, so similar actions may follow.

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Rogers' initial response to the outage was communicated by their CEO on July 9, stating that a network system failure caused by a maintenance update was the likely cause.

The company took steps to rectify the issue by disconnecting faulty equipment and redirecting traffic, which allowed services to come back online over time.

Two weeks later, on July 21, Rogers' Chief Technology and Information Officer was replaced without further explanation.

A month after the outage, Rogers confirmed that a configuration change was the root cause, specifically a deleted route filter that flooded network routing equipment and led to a core network failure.

The company acknowledged the need to separate wireless and wireline core network functions and proposed a schedule to implement these changes, but the details were redacted due to security concerns.

Customers were advised to restart their devices and reinsert their SIM cards to regain full functionality as services began coming back online by early afternoon on June 25.

Rogers communicated the restoration of services on their official support platforms, but has not yet released a full technical breakdown of the incident or shared a confirmed root cause.

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The after-action report (AAR) is a crucial step in the response and recovery process. It's a detailed analysis of what went wrong, how it happened, and what can be done to prevent it from happening again.

Companies like Cloudflare, Facebook, and Fastly have set a high standard for transparency by sharing their outage reports with the public. Rogers, however, took a month to respond to Canada's Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), and even then, many operational process details were redacted.

A speedier and more transparent AAR would have allowed other network operators to learn from Rogers' mistakes and take necessary precautions. This could have been done by submitting findings to the North American Network Operators' Group, for example.

The operations community could have benefited from Rogers' experience, knowing that they might be the ones in the hot seat during a failed maintenance window next time.

The 2022 Rogers Communications outage sparked a flurry of reactions from government and public officials.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) launched an investigation into the outage, citing concerns about the reliability and resilience of Rogers' networks.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed frustration with the situation, stating that Canadians expect better from their telecommunications providers.

The outage led to a surge in complaints to the CRTC, with many customers expressing their dissatisfaction with Rogers' service.

Several MPs, including Conservative MP Michael Barrett, called for greater accountability from Rogers and the CRTC in the wake of the outage.

The outage also raised concerns about the impact on emergency services, with some 911 calls being affected.

The City of Toronto issued a statement urging Rogers to take immediate action to restore service to affected areas.

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Rogers has invested over $250 million to create separate networks for wireline and wireless services after the 2022 outage.

This move is a step in the right direction, as it will help prevent similar outages in the future.

Better system monitoring, including the use of AI tools, is also a key area of focus for Rogers.

They had already committed to strengthening their systems after the 2022 outage, and this latest event may require further steps to be taken.

Real-time network checks, better public communication during disruptions, and stronger backup options for critical sectors like healthcare and education may be necessary.

In the past, different services were protected from damage or compromise by being on physically distinct networks.

Rogers has acknowledged failures in SIM card registration and mobile internet, suggesting problems within the mobile network systems. These issues are not new, as a system-wide outage in July 2022 was also linked to a failed network update.

The outage caused over 8,000 reports of outages around 11 a.m. Eastern Time, according to Downdetector. This was a significant disruption, especially considering the essential services and daily operations that were impacted.

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Interac Debit and Interac e-Transfer services were unavailable due to the Rogers outage, affecting millions of Canadians who rely on these services daily. Interac facilitated nearly 25 million transactions on a day like July 8th, making the outage particularly impactful.

Interac is taking immediate action to strengthen their network redundancy and emergency business continuity plans. They are adding supplier diversity to their existing network to ensure Canadians can continue to rely on their services daily.

Interac's platforms have redundant networks, including circuit diversity, but these commitments were not fulfilled during the outage. The company is reviewing their processes, tools, and technical plans to enhance their emergency business continuity plans.

The Interac executive team has decided to source additional, diverse redundancy solutions to prevent similar vulnerabilities in the future. They will also continue to work with existing suppliers to strengthen commitments.

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The 2022 Rogers Communications outage left many technical readers with a lot to think about. The company's lack of a detailed explanation for the outage has raised more questions than answers.

Rogers acknowledged failures in SIM card registration and mobile internet, suggesting problems within the mobile network systems. This isn't the first time Rogers has encountered such issues, with a similar outage in July 2022 attributed to a failed network update.

The company's inability to roll back the changes that caused the outage is a major concern. The apology letter mentioned disconnecting equipment and redirecting traffic, indicating that a rollback was not possible.

The cause of the outage is still unclear, but Rogers has acknowledged failures in SIM card registration and mobile internet.

Over 8,000 outage reports were recorded by third-party monitoring platforms like Downdetector around 11 a.m. Eastern Time.

Rogers has experienced similar issues before, with a system-wide outage in July 2022 lasting over 24 hours due to a failed network update.

A router upgrade error was blamed for the previous outage, which also interrupted essential services and daily operations.

The company's current outage suggests problems within the mobile network systems, but a detailed explanation has not been provided yet.

This lack of explanation raises questions about the design of Rogers' update process, which may not be able to be rolled back in case of issues.

In fact, the apology letter mentioned that a rollback was not possible due to the nature of the change.

As a technical reader, the outage outline and proposed remediation leave four distinct impressions.

The first impression is that the outage was likely caused by a complex issue that required a detailed analysis to identify its root cause.

The second impression is that the proposed remediation plan is ambitious, aiming to fix the issue quickly and efficiently.

The third impression is that the team responsible for the outage has a good understanding of the technical systems involved, as evidenced by the detailed outage outline.

The fourth impression is that the team is proactive and willing to take calculated risks to resolve the issue, as shown by the proposed remediation plan.

The 2022 Rogers Communications outage had a significant impact on the country, with millions affected across Canada. The outage exposed how much people and institutions rely on uninterrupted internet access.

Businesses were severely impacted, with many unable to accept card payments. Schools struggled to continue classes, highlighting the importance of reliable internet access for education.

The outage also disrupted emergency systems, raising public concern and emphasizing the need for robust internet infrastructure.

The Rogers Communications outage in 2022 was a significant event that affected many Canadians. Over 10 million customers were impacted by the outage, which was the largest in Rogers' history.

The outage was caused by a software issue that occurred at 7:00 AM ET on July 8, 2022. This led to widespread disruptions to Rogers' internet, phone, and TV services.

Many customers reported being unable to access the internet, with some even experiencing complete loss of service for several hours. Some users took to social media to express their frustration and disappointment.

Rogers eventually resolved the issue, but not before many customers had experienced significant disruptions to their daily lives.

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Rogers' remediation efforts are underway, but some of their promises may not be as effective as they seem. The company plans to fully restore all services, which is a good start, but it's not the only issue at hand.

The real problem lies in the underlying protocol, BGP, which is an ever-repeating story of temporary solutions turned permanent. It was initially designed as a temporary fix, but it's been patched and expanded over the years, leading to scalability issues.

Rogers is also planning to complete a root cause analysis and testing, but this approach may not be effective in preventing future outages. Increasing redundancy in networks and systems won't help if the faulty update hits all of them, as it did in this case.

The Internet operations culture requires transparency and sharing of information about failures and recoveries. This is how we learn from each other's mishaps and avoid inevitable network vulnerabilities from growing to a cataclysmic scale.

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Here are some key points to consider: