Rogers Lets Down Canada

Canada is on hold because since this morning, there’s no email and we cannot use debit cards to buy anything. Why? Rogers outage. Use cash then. No, families could not rush to the nearest ATM to withdraw hard cash because some of the banks are powered by Rogers. Poor kids. On such a lovely day, they did not understand that daddy’s money card did not work.

Rewind. Don’t exaggerate. You are right. Only people with e-mail like madashell@rogers.ca are affected. Rogers ‘largest wireless service provider in Canada’ is down. I’m quoting its website, which claims it has 10 million subscribers.

I’m not a Rogers customer but my Ontario friends are, because Rogers is as Canadian as hockey. It is as old as some of the maple trees Canada is famous for. That is immaterial today, 8 July ‘22 because it’s not only subscribers that could not move an inch, but many banks and business in general.

It’s Friday. The sun is shining and the weather is sweet (lyrics from a song). That means most cars and foot traffic lead to The Forks, an indoor and outdoor entertainment centre, in our tiny hometown. It was not packed to capacity today.

Reason? Rogers outage. Debit and credit cards made us forget that money in paper form - green, blue or brown dollar bills - is a means of payment. I was the lucky one because I had $25 I was going to use next week at the barber shop.

How did the Rogers outage affect The Forks? When I presented my $20 to the cashier, he explained that some food vendors use Rogers for both debit and credit cards. Others used it for just debit cards, so customers paid with credit cards.

It’s ironic that only a few days ago, I posted a piece about how we are Wi Fi hostages.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.