Northwestel phone service restored after overnight outage

Police had told Nunavummiut to outside Iqaluit to go directly to detachments in case of emergency

Northwestel’s telephone service is suffering “severe” disruptions in Nunavut, according to RCMP. (File photo)

By Nunatsiaq News

RCMP say cell and phone services has been restored in Nunavut.

Northwestel had been experiencing “a severe network outage” that impacted emergency calls and long distance services across Nunavut.

In Iqaluit, calls made from a landline to the emergency line at 979‐1111 were working, but a call made from a cell phone to the emergency line did not work, the RCMP said in a news release late Wednesday night.

“If you are in a community outside of Iqaluit, please go to the local detachment in case of an emergency,” the RCMP had stated in the release.

Police in the Northwest Territories also said Wednesday that communications services had been disrupted across that territory.

Northwestel said late Wednesday on Twitter that customers in the Yukon and Northern B.C. were also experiencing a disruption to internet, TV and phone services.

A spokesperson from Northwestel told CBC Yukon that a fibre line had likely been cut.

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(6) Comments:

  1. Posted by A on

    Their backup solution is to tell people to go to the detachment? The RCMP could get a bit more creative here. Maybe have a cellphone that people could call or text, and some kind of system to send them a message online. Of course not everyone in every community has access to cellphones or the internet, but it would still be way better than telling someone experiencing an emergency that the only solution is to go to the detachment.

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  2. Posted by Redfern on

    This is why we need fibre in the north…. oh wait…

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    • Posted by More on

      Can you please explain what you mean? Genuinely asking. Not trying to cause an argument with you.

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      • Posted by Inuktituusuu on

        Either the feds or the GN or an Inuit organization could get fibreoptic cables up here. Need to frack the ocean to survey the bottom before laying the cable. That won’t happen. Assuming a cable was laid and paid for by someone else, the telecom monopolies would seize control of it along with the benefits. No winners.

    • Posted by Light speed on

      If anything, this latest snafu with that appallingly built land cable between the Yukon and NWT demonstrates the proponents of a fiber link are totally correct in their thinking. We need redundancy from satellite.

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  3. Posted by cell on

    i found that some cell service did not work in Iqaluit, but it worked when i put in the 867 area code, instead of starting off with 979 or 975 the calls went through. odd.

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