Canadian telecom giant's network outage impacts cellphones, internet nationwide

OTTAWA, July 8 (Xinhua) -- A massive network outage of Canadian telecom giant Rogers has caused problems of mobile services and internet connectivity nationwide since Friday morning, local media reported.

The outage is also affecting banking services, 911, passport offices and Canada's ArriveCAN app which is used for border control.

Rogers confirmed that the outages are currently affecting its wirelines and wireless networks but the reason behind is still unknown.

Bell, another telecom giant, said its network is operating properly, but Bell customers may be experiencing issues when trying to call or text Rogers subscribers.

Telus issued a similar statement, saying the network outage affecting Rogers customers is not impacting TELUS Internet, home phone or wireless infrastructure.

The country's telecom sector is dominated by the three large carriers: Rogers, Bell and Telus. Rogers is the largest wireless services provider, with about 11.3 million subscribers across the country.

Experts said more competition should be introduced into this concentrated wireless services market, where the Big Three serve approximately 87 percent of Canadian subscribers.