Northwestel struggles with Sanikiluaq phone service

Long distance telephone and other telecommunication services now appear to be restored in Sanikiluaq, following a lengthy outage caused by bad weather and snow build-up on a satellite dish.

At around 6:30 a.m. Feb. 18, the community lost local phone, long distance and internet services.

After snow was removed from a satellite dish, some functions were restored, but a long distance outage continued to keep the community cut off from the rest of the world.

As of this morning, a team of technicians from Northwestel were waiting for foggy weather to clear up in Sanikiluaq so they could fly into the community to restore long distance telephone service.

“Northwestel recognizes the urgency and inconvenience of this situation. It is our priority to restore service immediately,” a Northwestel statement said.

A Northwestel spokesperson did not immediately answer a telephone message seeking more information.

However, a call placed to Sanikiluaq late in the afternoon of Feb. 19 confirmed that long distance service had been restored.