Fibre optic breakdown on Hudson coast caused by road maintenance

Road maintenance on the Billy Diamond highway near Chisasibi damaged a fibre optic cable, causing a three-day internet outage in seven Hudson coast communities earlier this month.

“They were installing a new guardrail section,” said Daryl Combden, Kativik Regional Government’s administration director, who gave the update to KRG council Monday during meetings this week in Kuujjuaq.

“When they put in one of the guardrail posts, they struck the cable. The contractors did not know they did it.”

According to two news releases published by service provider Taamani Internet, the damage occurred around 1 p.m. on Sept. 2. Service was reinstated on Sept. 5. The outage affected people in Kuujjuaraapik, Umiujaq, Inukjuak, Puvirnituq, Akulivik, Ivujivik and Salluit.

KRG dispatched technicians to fix the problem on site.

All Taamani internet users on the Hudson coast affected by the break will be offered a $100 credit as a way of “saying thank you for your patience and collaboration,” Combden said.

He said problems such as these may happen again until the fibre optic cable is fully installed across all of Nunavik. When finished, the system will have a redundancy where if one side breaks, all communities will still have access to their fibre optic connections through the other side.

He said he expects the system will have that full redundancy by 2027.

On Monday, councillors from the affected communities were quick to point out that there was a lack of communication between Taamani and its clients during the internet outage.

Paulusi Angiyou, representing Puvirnituq, said in Inuktitut through an interpreter that people could not do anything at all because no one was answering phones or emails at Taamani.

At a Kativik Regional Government meeting Monday, Puvirnituq Mayor Paulusi Angiyou asks questions about slow or non-existent responses to customers from Taamani, Nunavik’s fibre optic and satellite internet provider, after a fibre optic cable break cut internet in six communities earlier this month. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)

He pointed out that this has been a recurring problem where some people report waiting a year for Taamani to provide answers to their concerns.

Combden said Taamani’s customer service representatives “are doing a good job.”

“Maybe there is not always somebody on the seat,” but when they are there “they are busy,” he said, adding the company is dealing with job vacancies that might affect customer support.