'A complete write off': Rogers outage takes its toll on Waterloo Region

Some small businesses, hospitals, and residents of Waterloo Region are still feeling the lingering effects of the Rogers outage.

For Toyko Smoke in Waterloo's Bridgeport Plaza, service was still spotty and slow on Saturday, July 9.

"It was a complete write off yesterday," said manager Nick Miller. "Some transactions [today], which are normally five second transactions in a POS system, can take up to five minutes."

The shop closed up all day Friday due to the outage and lost an estimated $4,000 in sales.

"People placing orders online, we couldn't even get their online orders in because no internet service," said Miller.

Sarah McQueen, co-owner of Recharge & Play Wellness Café, says she's wondering how such an outage can be prevented.

"Our phone lines are down, our internet is down and all of our programs and system run off of the internet,” said McQueen on Friday. "There are ways we can work around it, but it is pretty significant how much it's impacted the business."

Experts warned, at the height of the outage, technology used in the healthcare field was at risk.

"It's important to know it's not just cellphones and computers, it's anything that's connected in with the Rogers infrastructure," said cybersecurity and tech consultant Ritesh Kotak. "You have VOIP lines, you have medical equipment in some cases that may have a Rogers SIM card attached to it."

The Public Interest Advocacy Centre based in Ottawa is now asking Canada's telecom regulator (CRTC) to hold an open inquiry into yesterday's failure.

A FEW LINGERING EFFECTS FOR LOCAL HOSPITALS

While no major equipment failures were reported at Waterloo Region hospitals Friday, St. Mary's Hospital officials say some communication issues were still lingering into Saturday.

A spokesperson for Cambridge Memorial Hospital says their wireless and landline connections were offline, which added to the challenges the full-capacity and short-staffed hospital is facing, like wait times in the ER.

They add that they don't anticipate the challenges will get better over the short-term, but that patients in the ER will be cared for on a priority basis.

Meanwhile, Grand River Hospital officials say they saw some delays in discharging patients and were unable to contact family members as well as health system partners that were impacted by the outage.