A construction crew working in the area of Upper Liard cut Northwestel Inc.’s fibre optics cable Wednesday morning, Northwestel spokeswoman Adriann Kennedy said this morning.

“It was buried and it was severed by a construction crew,” she said.

“We are conducting a full investigation to determine the circumstances.”

The crew reported the severed cable, she said.

Kennedy said the crew did contact Northwestel in advance to identify the location of the underground cable, and a cable locate was conducted.

“Because there was a cable locate, we are not assigning any blame right now,” she said.

“We are going through everything thoroughly to make sure we understand what happened.”

Data service to the Yukon, Mackenzie Delta, Nunavut and communities in the Northwest Territories serviced by satellite was disrupted at 10 a.m.

A repair crew was dispatched by helicopter just before noon.

Service to customers was fully restored by 3:40 p.m. Wednesday, Kennedy said.

The outage affected Internet and cellphone service across the North, requiring banks and other businesses to adjust methods of customer service.

For some shops, it was cash only. The banks were handing limited levels of cash based on the production of identification and a bank card.

Northwestel does have some redundancy in data service through its microwave network, though capacity is limited, Kennedy explained.

In a press release issued Wednesday evening, after the service had been restored, Premier Darrell Pasloski said his government will make an announcement in the coming months regarding its effort to increase reliability in the territory’s telecommunications system.

“As your premier, I want Yukoners to know that our government is working hard to make territory-wide telecommunications disruptions, such as the one that occurred today, a thing of the past,” he said.

“When these types of disruptions occur, it affects everyone – individuals, businesses and government. That’s why our government remains committed to a new fibre optic link that will provide redundancy for Yukon’s telecommunications network.

“It is our goal to ensure that telecommunications services can be provided in a reliable, consistent and affordable way.”

Cabinet spokeswoman Elaine Schiman said details of what plans for redundancy the government is working on are not being released.

The government, however, has been actively funding research into the possibility of tying into Alaska’s fibre optic network through Skagway and an underwater cable down the Lynn Canal.

The Northwest Territories also has active plans to drive its fibre network north up the Mackenzie River Valley.