History and stories
The day Canada's debit cards stopped working
Shops across Canada could not take debit cards, even ones that did not use Rogers. Some simply closed for the day.
1 min readStory
The short version
In July 2022, a Rogers network failure cut internet and mobile service for millions and took down the national debit payment network.
The story
On July 8, 2022, Rogers Communications, one of Canada’s largest telecom providers, had a nationwide failure. Internet and mobile service went down for more than 12 million customers, including customers of smaller providers that rent Rogers’ network.
The damage went beyond Rogers’ own customers. Interac, the system that handles debit card payments in Canada, relied on Rogers and went offline. Businesses across the country could not take debit cards, whatever internet provider they used. Some stores closed for the day. Some people could not reach 911 from their mobile phones.
Afterward, the Canadian government required telecom providers to help each other during outages and to let customers roam onto rival networks in an emergency.
Why it mattered
It showed how much of a country’s daily business can depend on a single network. Stores lost debit payments even though their own internet worked, because the payment system behind every card machine relied on the provider that failed. A business can do everything right and still be stopped by a supplier’s supplier.
The lesson today
Most businesses depend on a single internet connection for payments, phones, email and cloud software. When that provider has a bad day, everything stops. A second connection from a different provider, set to take over automatically, keeps the doors open. It is worth knowing which of your suppliers depend on a single provider too.
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