Damaged cables playing havoc with communications

Many Northwestel Inc. customers in the Yukon, Northwest Territories (N.W.T.) and B.C. may have had their telecommunications services disrupted Monday and again today.

Many Northwestel Inc. customers in the Yukon, Northwest Territories (N.W.T.) and B.C. may have had their telecommunications services disrupted Monday and again today.

At about 3 p.m.Monday, a fibre optic cable was damaged by a road construction crew working between Beaverlodge and Wembly in northern Alberta.

Customers in the N.W.T. saw Internet and Latitude Wireless data services affected.

Those in the Yukon and B.C. experienced problems with long-distance telephone service to the south and all Bell Mobility as well as Internet and Latitude Wireless data services.

“As long as you were calling within the Yukon, there was no problem,” Anne Kennedy, Northwestel’s director of communications, said today.

But those calling the south from the Yukon or B.C. likely received a message indicating that all circuits are busy.

Customers in all three jurisdictions could still go online, but Internet service was slow and congested.

By 6 p.m., crews had fused the glass fibres of the damaged cable, restoring services on a temporary basis.

Permanent repairs will be completed in a few days and should not cause any disruption to services.

A similar loss of telecommunications service occurred some time around 11:00 this morning.

In the Yukon and B.C., long-distance telephone service to the south, Internet service and Bell Mobility services have all been disrupted.

In the N.W.T., Internet service is slow.

Latitude Wireless voice service outside Whitehorse is working but data services will be slow or will appear to be out of service due to network congestion.

Northwestel Latitude Wireless voice service is working but data services will be slow or will appear to be out of service.

The problems were ongoing as of press time this afternoon.

The source of the disruption appears to be another cut fibre optic cable in the same areas of northern Alberta, but this hasn’t been confirmed, Kennedy said late this morning.

She said Northwestel was waiting for a damage report from the company that owns the cable.

That company has dispatched a work crew to drive the stretch of highway in the area to find the source of the outage.