Many Canadians without cell, internet service after nationwide network outage

Canadians are contending with significant cellular, internet, and cable service disruptions on Friday following an outage at Rogers Communications, one of the nation's biggest telecommunications companies. Those in Ontario and Quebec, the country's most populous provinces, are bearing the brunt of the burden, though the outage's effects can reportedly be felt nationwide, reports The New York Times.

Issues began sometime early Friday, Canada's CBC notes. It seems Rogers has yet to detail the cause of the outage or provide an estimated time frame as to when service might be restored, the Times adds.

"We know how important it is for our customers to stay connected," the company said Friday. "We are aware of issues currently affecting our networks and our teams are fully engaged to resolve the issue as soon as possible." The outage is said to be impacting some banking services and transactions, as well as police services, where callers may be unable to get through to 911, per CNBC.

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To try and circumvent the lapse in service, customers gathered in places like coffee shops and public libraries where alternative networks were offered, Reuters reports.

Meanwhile, fellow Canadian telecom company Bell took the opportunity to let its customers know "its network is just fine," joke MobileSyrup, in reference to a tweet from Bell concerning the outage.

Elsewhere, of course, the memes have already begun.