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Interac is down because Interac uses Rogers' network. Interac's backup network also happens to be with ... Rogers. Canadians across the country can't use debi

Interac is down because Interac uses Rogers' network. Interac's backup network also happens to be with ... Rogers. Canadians across the country can't use debit cards, regardless of their financial institution. Credit and cash only. E-transfers are unavailable. Fun for people trying to pay their bills online. And that's just the financial side of the situation. Millions of people have lost Internet and phone service. Someone on Reddit wrote: "Maybe the worst part is that they have literally no open lines of communication. No twitter posts. All chat options (twitter, IG, FB, web based) are all unresponsive. Can’t call tech support, as the call will fail. Can’t even call billing or general inquires as it’s the same thing. Shit happens, I get it. But to leave your customers completely in the dark? Brutal. Just brutal."

acoard 4y ago
It's hard to understate the impact of this across all of Canada. As someone who uses Apple Pay for almost every transaction, this underlines the fragility of a "cashless society." Also, around half my team are unable to effectively work today. We all work remote, and half the team's home internet is on Rogers, which is down. Some people are tethering, but people who are also on Rogers for their wireless are out of luck. I'm not a Rogers customer anymore, but my boss showed me how you can't even login to their account anymore. Their website is down too, just timing out. Funny, I left Rogers last year and just last night a telemarketer phoned me asking me to return to Rogers. What a sign that I made the right call by politely refusing.
- kgraves 4y ago
  > It's hard to understate the impact of this across all of Canada. As someone who uses Apple Pay for almost every transaction, this underlines the fragility of a "cashless society." It seems like Bitcoin and crypto fared well during this outage.
  - jeromegv 4y ago
    If you could get on the internet to transact your crypto, that is.
    - kgraves 4y ago
      You can if you use cellular data to transact with Bitcoin, not everyone is using the Rogers network, but the banks in Canada were. So no online banking, withdrawals, payments in affected parts Canada.
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  > this underlines the fragility of a "cashless society." And a society that refuses to invest in robust infrastructure.
- brianpan 4y ago
  You don't need an internet connection to use Apple Pay. Unless you mean you didn't use credit cards before, the situation has been the same for the last 20-30 years when we stopped using carbon paper imprints.
  - acchow 4y ago
    The payment terminal still needs internet access to process your Apple Pay transaction
    - mynameisvlad 4y ago
      It does not for credit. Credit transactions can be batched offline and transmitted when things come back online. Debit must be online, though.
      - ehPReth 4y ago
        What happens if the transaction is over credit limit or if someone uses a fake (once valid but now cancelled, generated, etc) card?
- Spoom 4y ago
  Imagine Bell was down too. What then? I really hope this results in the CRTC starting to allow more competition. I hope, but I'm not optimistic.
  - anonymousab 4y ago
    I think we're most likely going to see them using this as justification to let Rogers get their way even more. Maybe the CRTC will try to convince the rest of the government that it's a reason to give away more cash and preferential treatment to Rogers and Bell as well.
  - paulhart 4y ago
    I'd suggest giving the CRTC a call with your thoughts... but their phone system is down :) https://twitter.com/CRTCeng/status/1545421218534359041 https://twitter.com/CRTCeng/status/1545421218534359041
- MAGZine 4y ago
  applepay works fine. not on the interac network.
  - KMnO4 4y ago
    Does Apple Pay work even with debit transactions?
    - jonny_eh 4y ago
      It likely only works with credit cards.
- nikanj 4y ago
  Tethering with Canadian data prices is..spicy. A Zoom call uses about a gig per hour with HD cameras, and you typically get about 10 gigs of data per month. Overages charged at one firstborn per gig
bawolff 4y ago
Its crazy that interac does not have backup independent connectivity.
- acoard 4y ago
  Truly, and hopefully this leads to change. But this is also a consequence of Canada's lack of competition with ISPs.
  - bawolff 4y ago
    To a certain extent yes. But its not like rogers literally has a monopoly. The isp i use is doing fine.
    - jeromegv 4y ago
      When there is so little choice, it's essentially an Oligopoly.
      - bawolff 4y ago
        As long as there are at least 2 choices, it should be possible to have an independent backup.
- paulhart 4y ago
  Apparently it does - with another Rogers connection.
  - da768 4y ago
    They probably bought into SLA clauses claiming Rogers won't have maintenance downtime on both circuits at the same time. That shouldn't be an excuse not to have a backup with another provider.
rkagerer 4y ago
It's hard to believe these jamokes don't have redundant providers. It's something I roll out to even my smallest consulting client...
acchow 4y ago
They have a system-wide outage. How can tech support help in any way?

acoard 4y ago

It's hard to understate the impact of this across all of Canada. As someone who uses Apple Pay for almost every transaction, this underlines the fragility of a "cashless society." Also, around half my team are unable to effectively work today. We all work remote, and half the team's home internet is on Rogers, which is down. Some people are tethering, but people who are also on Rogers for their wireless are out of luck. I'm not a Rogers customer anymore, but my boss showed me how you can't even login to their account anymore. Their website is down too, just timing out. Funny, I left Rogers last year and just last night a telemarketer phoned me asking me to return to Rogers. What a sign that I made the right call by politely refusing.

kgraves 4y ago
> It's hard to understate the impact of this across all of Canada. As someone who uses Apple Pay for almost every transaction, this underlines the fragility of a "cashless society." It seems like Bitcoin and crypto fared well during this outage.
- jeromegv 4y ago
  If you could get on the internet to transact your crypto, that is.
  - kgraves 4y ago
    You can if you use cellular data to transact with Bitcoin, not everyone is using the Rogers network, but the banks in Canada were. So no online banking, withdrawals, payments in affected parts Canada.
lotsofpulp 4y ago
> this underlines the fragility of a "cashless society." And a society that refuses to invest in robust infrastructure.
brianpan 4y ago
You don't need an internet connection to use Apple Pay. Unless you mean you didn't use credit cards before, the situation has been the same for the last 20-30 years when we stopped using carbon paper imprints.
- acchow 4y ago
  The payment terminal still needs internet access to process your Apple Pay transaction
  - mynameisvlad 4y ago
    It does not for credit. Credit transactions can be batched offline and transmitted when things come back online. Debit must be online, though.
    - ehPReth 4y ago
      What happens if the transaction is over credit limit or if someone uses a fake (once valid but now cancelled, generated, etc) card?
Spoom 4y ago
Imagine Bell was down too. What then? I really hope this results in the CRTC starting to allow more competition. I hope, but I'm not optimistic.
- anonymousab 4y ago
  I think we're most likely going to see them using this as justification to let Rogers get their way even more. Maybe the CRTC will try to convince the rest of the government that it's a reason to give away more cash and preferential treatment to Rogers and Bell as well.
- paulhart 4y ago
  I'd suggest giving the CRTC a call with your thoughts... but their phone system is down :) https://twitter.com/CRTCeng/status/1545421218534359041 https://twitter.com/CRTCeng/status/1545421218534359041
MAGZine 4y ago
applepay works fine. not on the interac network.
- KMnO4 4y ago
  Does Apple Pay work even with debit transactions?
  - jonny_eh 4y ago
    It likely only works with credit cards.
nikanj 4y ago
Tethering with Canadian data prices is..spicy. A Zoom call uses about a gig per hour with HD cameras, and you typically get about 10 gigs of data per month. Overages charged at one firstborn per gig

bawolff 4y ago

Its crazy that interac does not have backup independent connectivity.

acoard 4y ago
Truly, and hopefully this leads to change. But this is also a consequence of Canada's lack of competition with ISPs.
- bawolff 4y ago
  To a certain extent yes. But its not like rogers literally has a monopoly. The isp i use is doing fine.
  - jeromegv 4y ago
    When there is so little choice, it's essentially an Oligopoly.
    - bawolff 4y ago
      As long as there are at least 2 choices, it should be possible to have an independent backup.
paulhart 4y ago
Apparently it does - with another Rogers connection.
- da768 4y ago
  They probably bought into SLA clauses claiming Rogers won't have maintenance downtime on both circuits at the same time. That shouldn't be an excuse not to have a backup with another provider.

rkagerer 4y ago

It's hard to believe these jamokes don't have redundant providers. It's something I roll out to even my smallest consulting client...

acchow 4y ago

They have a system-wide outage. How can tech support help in any way?