Northwest B.C. faces 3rd large

Northwest B.C. faces 3rd large-scale internet outage in months

Previous 2 outages in region were caused by cable thieves

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Many customers across northwestern British Columbia are without internet and phone service on Tuesday, once again due to copper thieves.

In an update Tuesday afternoon, CityWest said a service outage that began around 10 a.m. PT was caused by a fibre cut from copper theft on a third-party carrier's network in Alberta.

The network carries CityWest’s long distance traffic, the company said. Home phone, internet and television services are all impacted.

"Technicians are currently en route to the affected site and have the equipment required to complete repairs," said CityWest marketing campaign co-ordinator Fiona Scrivens in an email.

The outage spans much of north and central B.C., from Prince George heading west, including Terrace, Prince Rupert, Haida Gwaii, the North Coast, Bulkley Valley, and the Nechako and Kitimat Valley.

Under normal circumstances, network traffic would be redirected through a secondary route between Prince George and Vancouver, she said. However, that route is being impacted by wildfire activity, limiting the ability to work around the outage, she added.

"CityWest is working closely with our telecommunications partners to restore connectivity as quickly as possible," Scrivens said.

The carrier is treating the repair as a priority, the company said, and it expects service to be restored Tuesday evening.

Rogers outages in B.C., Alberta

KPU Communications, which provides service to some parts of southern Alaska with CityWest, confirmed the outage extended into the U.S.

It said a CityWest fibre path through Clinton, B.C., was burned in a wildfire.

A secondary path through Rogers experienced a large fibre cut due to thieves in Calgary and Whitecourt, Alta., it added.

CityWest is working on securing a path through Telus, KPU said.

On its website, Rogers says it expects the fibre cut in Alberta to be repaired by around 7 p.m. MT Tuesday.

Some of its customers in Prince George, Dawson Creek, Fort St. John and other nearby communities are affected.

"Technicians [are] on site and repairs continue, most customers' services are restored," said the update on the Alberta page.

In B.C., Northern Health reported all of its hospitals in the region remained open, and its facilities are connected to the internet via Starlink satellite backups.

But it said some services at individual locations may face temporary interruptions or slowdowns.

3rd outage in 4 months for northwestern B.C.

This is the third time since May that northwestern B.C. has suffered large internet and telecommunications outages due to attempted copper theft.

Earlier this month, Telus service was disrupted after cable thieves damaged the company's equipment in the Mount Hayes area along Highway 16.

That echoed a similar incident in May when copper thieves attempted to steal cables, knocking out Telus service from Burns Lake to Haida Gwaii.

Geography in northern B.C. creates challenges for telecommunications infrastructure, Scrivens said.

Communities are separated by significant distances, and there are fewer major fibre routes available to carry traffic in and out of the region.

When more than one is disrupted at the same time, the impact is far-reaching.

The company is working to increase the number and diversity of routes that serve the north, including the development of a new fibre backbone along Highway 37, with the aim of reducing dependence on infrastructure owned by other telecommunications companies, Scrivens added.

"Our focus is on building a network with more options when disruptions occur," she said.

"So when events like [this] happen, it's less likely to have such a widespread impact on the communities we serve."

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