Yellowknife experiences 'major disruption' of telecom services as fibre line damaged

Adamaged fibre line led to a "major disruption" of telecommunication services into Yellowknife and the surrounding area on Wednesday night, Northwestel confirmed in a statement early Thursday morning.

In the statement, emailed to media outletsafter 1:40 a.m. Thursday, Northwestel said the fibre line was damaged at about 8 p.m. local time.

Several Yellowknife and Behchoko residents reported widespread television and internetdisruptions in service on social media Wednesday evening.

According to the statement, Northwestel technicians responded to the disruption immediately and performed temporary repairs, and service has been restored.

The telecommunicationsprovider will now investigate the cause of the damage and complete full repairs to the fibre line, according to the statement.

"We will not comment on the nature or cause of the damage while this investigation is ongoing," the statement reads."We apologize to the customers who were impacted by this unfortunate disruption."