Sunday telecommunications outage in the Yukon, N.W.T. and Nunavut resolved

Northwestel says it has resolved the issue which caused telecommunications outages across all three territories on Sunday.

"An equipment issue at a Northwestel site in Northern B.C. caused intermittent cellular, landline, TV, and internet disruptions in parts of our operating area today," Northwestel Spokesperson Matthew Bossons told CBC in an email.

"We are pleased to inform you that these services are now operating normally."

In the Yukon, customers saw disruptions in landline calling, cellular service, internet, and T.V. Only local and long-distance calling were affected in Nunavut and the N.W.T., Northwestel said in a social media update at 11 a.m.

Yukon Protective Services first acknowledged the outage at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday. The N.W.T. RCMP put out a press release about the outage at 2 p.m. the same day. 

"The RCMP have been made aware of a communications disruption affecting 911 services, landlines and some cellular carriers across the Northwest Territories," said Cst. Josh Seaward, a spokesperson with the Yellowknife detachment.

"In the event that 911 or landlines are not working, people requiring urgent police assistance will have to attend their local detachment in person, where members will be available to assist them."

Michelle Klaben is a spokesperson with the Yukon Emergency Measures Organization.

"There is currently Northwestel site that is down in northern B.C., which means we are on our backup system, so that's the microwave tower," she told CBC on Sunday morning. "With the backup system, there will be intermittent or spotty service." 

Klaben said in the Yukon, the biggest impact was on internet speed and cellular data services.

"Right now, Northwestel is prioritizing landline and cell phone calling and text services rather than data, so people will be able to call 9-1-1 if needed," she said.

The incident follows a number of outages and service issues throughout the summer months in the North. 

"We look forward to the completion of the Dempster Fibre Project and having the Canada North Fibre Loop operational," said Bossons.

"If this infrastructure had already been in place, today's disruption would not have affected Northerners' internet services."