In northwestern British Columbia, numerous customers faced disruptions in internet and phone services due to copper theft, leading to an outage that started at 10 a.m. PT on Tuesday. The incident was caused by a fiber cut resulting from copper theft on a third-party carrier’s network in Alberta. CityWest, the affected company, confirmed that the outage impacted its long-distance traffic, affecting home phone, internet, and television services.

CityWest managed to restore services for most customers by 7 p.m. PT, covering areas from Prince George westward, including Terrace, Prince Rupert, Haida Gwaii, the North Coast, Bulkley Valley, and the Nechako and Kitimat Valley. The company explained that typically, network traffic would be rerouted through an alternate route between Prince George and Vancouver during such outages. However, this backup route was also impacted by wildfire activity at the time, limiting the ability to circumvent the disruption.

Meanwhile, KPU Communications, which collaborates with CityWest to provide services in parts of southern Alaska, reported that the outage extended into the United States due to a burned CityWest fiber path in Clinton, B.C., and a significant fiber cut on a secondary path through Rogers caused by thefts in Calgary and Whitecourt, Alberta.

Despite the outage, Northern Health in B.C. assured that all hospitals in the region remained operational, with internet connectivity maintained through Starlink satellite backups. This incident marked the third major outage in four months in northwestern B.C. caused by attempted copper theft, highlighting the challenges posed by the region’s geography on telecommunications infrastructure.

In response to these recurring incidents, CityWest is actively working to enhance the resilience of the region’s network infrastructure by expanding the number and diversity of routes, including the development of a new fiber backbone along Highway 37. This initiative aims to reduce reliance on external telecommunications companies’ infrastructure and mitigate the impact of simultaneous disruptions on the network’s functionality.