A cut fibre line south of Fort Nelson, B.C. Monday morning caused disruptions to phone services across the territories and northern B.C.
Technicians with Northwestel were able to repair the problem Tuesday morning. Until then it was causing intermittent disruptions to long-distance phone service, 1-800 calling and wireless services like cellphones.
The company is blaming the disruption on a section of buried fibre “damaged by environmental factors,” according to a Tuesday press release.
While working on the problem, Northwestel rerouted traffic along a different path, but customers struggled to make calls for the day.
Callers trying to use their cellphones or reach someone else’s cellphone often had their calls fail or got the message that “all circuits are busy.”
Local calling between landline phones were not affected. Neither was video or Internet service.
Landline access to 911 was not impacted but cellular 911 may have been, the company said at the time.