2011.05.19 Rogers network failure continues (RESOLVED)

2011.05.19 1252 PST Issue seems to be resolved.

After alerting clients and other people known to be experiencing the issue we received notice from our carriers that Roger's announced the problem is fixed.  Tests show that turning 3G back on does not cause a recurrence of the problem  though we will continue to monitor the situation.

The explanation we received was:

"An upgrade to the 3G network caused data corruption on a {phone} switch"  resulting in failed calls.

We would recommend all clients turn 3G back on unless it seems to cause a  problem. Please report any issues immediately. Thank you.

2011.05.19 0835 PST First public announcement of a Roger's  issue.

An apparent recent upgrade to the Rogers 3G network has disabled calling  certain numbers from phones on the Rogers wireless network if you have 3G  enabled. Due to the nature of the problem it did take us a few days to confirm  the nature of the issue and get 3rd party coraboration.

We are have tested / confirmed the issue is with Roger's devices ourselves by this process:

1) Test a call to a number that is ringing busy on from a roger's phone (at  this point we can confirm cellular users only - we are not certain about  Roger's VoIP services - they may or may not be seeing a similar issue).

2) Change your phone's network settings to use 2G or other option (NOT 3G)  and save the settings

3) Repeat the test call - it will go through.

Several clients have reported long waits on Roger's customer support lines,  and a message that says something to the effect of  "due to an upgrade we  have higher than normal call volume please try again in 48 hours".

We will most more information as it is available.

To Change a BlackBerry (OS 6 - others should be  similar):

To affect the change on a BlackBerry please go to the Options, then "Networks and Connection", "Mobile Network", and change the "Network Mode" from "3G & 2G" to just "2G" - this will decrease your data speed but allow you to call  numbers which were ringing busy.

Note the image below is from a Telus phone which does not suffer from the  problem but was available to help us show how to work around it.