Northwestel said it had resolved the issue that caused communications outages across three regions on Sunday.
“We experienced equipment issues at our Northwestel facility in northern British Columbia, causing intermittent cell phone, landline, television and internet outages in parts of our operating area today,” Northwestel spokesman Matthew Bossons told CBC in an email.
“We are happy to announce that these services are currently operating normally.”
Landline, mobile, internet and television calls were disrupted in Yukon, while Northwestern said in an 11 a.m. social media update that only local and long distance calls were affected in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.
The Yukon Sheriff’s Office first became aware of the outage at 10:30 a.m. Sunday. The Northwest Territories RCMP issued a press release about the outage at 2 p.m. the same day.
“The RCMP is aware of communications disruptions to 911 services, landline phones and some mobile phone providers across the Northwest Territories,” said Sergeant Josh Seaward, spokesman for the Yellowknife division.
“If 911 or landline telephones are not working, anyone needing emergency police assistance should attend in person to their local police station where members will provide assistance.”
Michelle Craven is a spokesperson for the Yukon Emergency Preparedness Authority.
“Right now, our Northwestel facility in northern British Columbia is down and we’re operating on a backup system, which is the microwave tower,” she told CBC on Sunday morning. “On the backup system, service will be intermittent or irregular.”
Craven said internet speeds and mobile phone data services were most affected in Yukon.
“Currently, Northwest El is prioritizing landline and mobile phone call and text service over data so people can still call 911 if necessary,” she said.
The incident comes after multiple power outages and service disruptions occurred throughout the summer in the north.
“We look forward to the completion of the Dempster Fibre project and the start of operations on the Canada North Fibre Loop,” Bossons said.
“If this infrastructure was already in place, today’s disruptions would not have affected internet services for people in the north.”
