Circumstances around how a road construction company severed Northwestel Inc.’s fibre optic line Monday morning are under investigation, says a Northwestel official.

Joel Witten said today he was unable to say, for instance, whether the construction company had called for a line location before digging.

Nor was he able to confirm the name of the company.

“We are going to have a full investigation on our side,” said the director of product development.

“Our first responsibility was to get it back up and functioning.”

Witten said the service was fully restored by 4 p.m. Monday.

The line was cut before 10 a.m. along the Alaska Highway corridor between Muncho Lake and the Liard Hot Springs in northern B.C.

Northwestel dispatched a crew from Whitehorse by helicopter and one by road.

Witten said he doesn’t believe the severity of the cut was that bad. The helicopter crew was able to make repairs and restore service without the assistance of the truck crew.

There is definitely a cost attached, given the time of the two crews and helicopter time, he pointed out.

Witten said Northwestel handles complaints from customers who were affected by the outage on an individual basis.

The disruption of Internet services affected the Yukon, the Mackenzie Valley and Nunavut.

Mike Pemberton, vice-chair of the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce, said today the loss of service has a substantial impact on the business community.

As soon as he heard the problem was a cut fibre optic line, he closed the two cell phone stores he manages and sent staff home, he explained.

Pemberton said he also closed Erik’s Audio Video and Ashley Furniture Homestore and sent staff home just before full restoration was achieved.

“It’s definitely an enormous loss all the way around,” he said.

“Not just for us, for everybody.”

Pemberton said he accepts that accidents happen.

But when there are cases where third parties are at fault for not calling for a line location or for other reasons, he said, there should be stiff penalties imposed to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Monday’s disruption also emphasizes the need to have a backup fibre option link to the south, he said.

The Yukon government announced last fall it has chosen the Dempster Highway corridor to Inuvik as the route for a redundant fibre link instead of going through Alaska.

The N.W.T. government is providing $90 million to finance a fibre optic line up the Mackenzie Valley to Inuvik under a 3-P or public-private partnership with Ledcor and Northwestel. The line is expected to be operational later this year.

Having a Dempster Highway link will provide redundancy for both territories, officials have acknowledged.

Pemberton explained that while Northwestel and the Yukon government are pursuing a fibre optic line up the Dempster Highway corridor to Inuvik (see story, this page), Yukoners have to accept it will come with a price.

“I think we absolutely need redundancy, but I think the public needs to buy into it,” said the chamber’s vice-chair.

“I think it is a great, great thing to have redundancy, but the public needs to be aware there is a cost to redundancy.”

Pemberton said Northwestel can’t be expected to pay the entire cost, as its customers base in the Yukon is just not large enough to support such an investment.

The N.W.T. government is financing a fibre optic line to Inuvik.

See Uffish Thoughts.