A damaged fibre-optic line left Haida Gwaii and a large portion of northwestern B.C. without reliable internet, cellular and telephone service for much of Aug. 2.
The outage began shortly after 1 p.m. Sunday and stretched from west of Fraser Lake through communities including Smithers, Terrace, Kitimat and Prince Rupert and onto Haida Gwaii. TELUS customers lost combinations of internet, television, home phone and cellular service.
TELUS said thieves intentionally cut company cables in the Mount Hayes area along Highway 16, causing significant damage to its fibre lines. Crews were dispatched to the site while the company worked with RCMP following the incident.
Emergency roaming was activated in much of the affected area, allowing some TELUS mobile customers to connect through another carrier for basic calls and messaging. Emergency officials also advised that 911 remained available through wireless fallback arrangements where another network could be reached.
Most internet-based services across northwestern B.C. had been restored by approximately 10 p.m. Sunday.
The Aug. 2 outage was the second major telecommunications disruption in the region linked to attempted cable theft in just three months.
On May 4, TELUS services were disrupted in communities including Masset, Prince Rupert, Terrace, Hazelton, Smithers and Burns Lake after vandals attempting to steal copper cables cut through fibre lines. TELUS activated emergency roaming during that outage as well.
And, apparently not wanting to let an article about internet outages become dated before it even reached the printing press, the Northwest went offline again on Aug. 11.
As Haida Gwaii News prepared this edition for print Tuesday afternoon, CityWest was reporting an unplanned outage affecting customers from Prince George west, including communities across Haida Gwaii.
CityWest said the latest outage was caused by a fibre cut during an attempted copper theft on a third-party carrier’s network in Alberta. Complicating matters, the company said its secondary route between Prince George and Vancouver was also affected by nearby wildfire activity, limiting its ability to reroute traffic around the damaged line.
CityWest said technicians were expected to begin repairs and service was anticipated to return within a few hours. At HGN’s print deadline, however, the outage was still ongoing.
For Haida Gwaii, these outages are becoming a little too familiar. A cut hundreds of kilometres away can knock out phones, internet and payment systems here, leaving businesses scrambling and residents figuring out which service, if any, still works. By Aug. 11, it was happening all over again.
Fortunately, the HGN office has Starlink. So while much of the Northwest may once again be staring at uncooperative modems, the newspaper presses, or at least the files heading toward them, will keep moving.