More from the President and CEO of Rogers
Click here for the July 24th, 2022 message to Rogers customers.
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Debit Down @ Many Retailers
Interac is still down in some areas due to the Rogers outage after issuing this notice on Facebook:
“There is a nationwide Rogers outage that encompasses all their business and consumer network services. This is impacting INTERAC Debit and INTERAC e-Transfer. INTERAC Debit is currently unavailable online and at checkout. INTERAC e-Transfer services are unavailable at most financial institutions, impacting the ability to send and receive payments. We are waiting for updates from Rogers on their time to resolution.”
Rogers and Telus have outages through-our Canada but mostly concentrated in Ontario, where some credit card services are also down. But some service has been restored and will be restore shortly according to this statement from Rogers.
Those choosing to use free wi-fi service using their mobile devices should use VPN services to secure their devices.
UPDATE – July 9th, 2022 : The following was just posted on Twitter:
Following our previous updates, we have now restored services for the vast majority of our customers and our technical teams are working hard to ensure that the remaining customers are back online as quickly as possible. pic.twitter.com/IobL7Dze6i
— RogersHelps (@RogersHelps) July 9, 2022
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Rogers & Netflix
Rogers has decided to extend their Netflix offers to their existing Ignite subscribers, in lieu of the Shomi subscription that was included in some of their packages.
The offer, which will include a six month subscription to the Netflix Standard Plan, will be made available November 30th, 2016. And current members of Netflix will also be able to obtain a credit for this membership.
Unfortunately data caps will be an issue to some Ignite subscribers, who will need to limit their viewing to a select number of concerts, music documentaries and films in standard definition to avoid a data overage fee of $1.50/GB.
Existing Ignite users with unlimited usage plans will be able to view films in high definition but at about 4 GB each these films can burn through a 100 GB or 200 GM monthly usage limit quite quickly. And although newer Ignite subscribers have 125 GB and 250 GB monthly usage limits, they will also need to keep an eye on the amount of films, etc they view to avoid the data overage fees.
This of course depends on a person’s surfing habits. For example, i’m not a gamer, I watch television broadcasts on cable/PVR and I already own my favourite films on DVD and Blu-ray so i’m not expecting to stream a significant amount of content off Netflix. But even I am considering an upgrade to an unlimited usage plan because i’m a regular Youtube and Facebook user.
The success of this partnership will also depend on Netflix Canada’s content, that they have been promising to extend.
I haven’t been a Netflix Canada member for months so I don’t know if they’ve had some improvements. But i’m going to give them a chance for those six months.
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Rogers Video Ends Renting Services
Rogers Video stores across Canada will no longer rent DVDs or Blu-ray discs tomorrow.
Starting this week this chain will offload their film stock at reduced prices leaving Canadian consumers with very limited options in regards to renting films.
Cable and satellite subscribers will continue being able to rent films on their digital boxes and Canadians with access to high speed connections have access to online film rental services like Cineplex, Cinemanow, iTunes, Netflix and Youtube. But it appears the mail services and kiosks are now the only viable options for people who do not have access to cable, satellite and high speed internet services.
Unfortunately the kiosk services offered by Zip and Best Buy are limited to major cities at the moment, though they will probably expand in response to the demand. And the cable, satellite and high speed internet options remain expensive.
The current rental fee for recent high definition releases on my digital cable service is $7.99. And if I were to rent these films online in 720p I would use an average of about 4 gigabytes worth of usage per film towards my usage limit.
I am hoping that the digital cable rental fee will be reduced in response to public demand. But at the moment I am also testing out The Movie Network and Moviepix as a cheaper alternative, though releases on The Movie Network still appear to be subjected to a considerable delay.
As it stands I appear to prefer Moviepix for the channel’s selection of classic films and will likely subscribe to this service until Bell’s Fibe TV service is introduced to my neighbourhood.
I will probably dabble in online film rentals, within strict limitations, and use Zip.ca‘s services as my main source for newer releases.
As previously reported on this blog, Zip will be expanding their kiosks. And I believe theater companies like Cineplex, Empire and AMC will eventually offer kiosk services in their locations in respond to the demand left by Roger Video‘s departure.
I am also hoping for a national expansion of the Best Buy branded kiosks to Best Buy and Mac’s locations through-out Canada.
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Cloud Services & PVRs At Risk ?
Ottawa professor Micheal Geist has posted an interesting entry on his blog about the potential risks for Cloud services and the usage of personal video recorders in Canada after the passing of Bill C-11.
Apparently telecommunication giants Rogers and Shaw and voiced some concerns about provision 31.1 (5) in Bill C-11 :
Subject to subsection (6), a person who, for the purpose of allowing the telecommunication of a work or other subject-matter through the Internet or another digital network, provides digital memory in which another person stores the work or other subject-matter does not, by virtue of that act alone, infringe copyright in the work or other subject-matter.
Concerned about the vagueness of this provision, the Liberal Party Of Canada had attempted to introduce an amendment in committee but failed.
On March the 26th, the House Of Commons will be in session and the amended version of Bill C-11 will likely pass through its third reading shortly after.
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Rogers Ends Throttling
CBC Television reports that Rogers will end throttling by the end of this year.
Their internet traffic management will be phased out slowly beginning next month.
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