Northwestel: Yukon fibre line vulnerable to damage

Northwestel is looking at ways to strengthen Yukon's broadband connection, following yesterday's territory-wide outage.
Internet and some phone serviceswere down for several hours yesterday afterthe only fibre optic line into Yukon was accidentally cut, near Watson Lake.

"Obviously this is a reality of working in a remote operating area as we do," said Andrew Anderson, spokesperson for Northwestel.

"There is always work to do, and there is considerable work to do in the North,to ensure more robust redundancy throughout the entire network."

The company believes the line was accidentally cut by excavation work being done near Watson Lake.

Andersonsays there is a back-up microwave network for Yukon but it has limited capacity, and so becomes easily congested.

Yukon premier Darrell Pasloski issued a statement Wednesday evening, saying his government remains committed to establishing a new fibre optic link "that will provide redundancy for Yukon's telecommunications network."

The premier declined an interview with CBC, but said hisgovernment will announce a plan for telecommunications"in the coming months."

'No protection at all'

Northwestel'slone fibre line into Yukon runs alongside the Alaska highway, oftenburied but sometimesvisible above ground. Wednesday was not the first time the line has been damaged, disrupting service in the North.

Photos circulating on social media Thursday showa narrowline, clearly suspended off the ground. Devon Golubicspotted it while driving through a construction zone on the Alaska Highway two weeks ago, saying the cable had"no protection at all." Thephotos of the exposed fibre line generateda lot of interest and comment on social media.

"We had to stop for a pilot car during road construction and noticed this line and it clearly says on it 'the fibre optic cable line,'" Golubicwrote to CBC.

Northwestelhasconfirmedthat thecable in the photos is the territory'sfibre line. The company says a 3.5 kilometre section of linecurrently runs abovegroundthrough the woods near Rancheria, and will be reburied once highway construction in the area is complete.

The company admits the narrow line isoften vulnerable to damage.

"Northwesteloccasionally has to rebury sections of underground fibre in areas where they've been washed out," spokesperson AdriannKennedy said. She asks anybody who sees exposed cable to call the company.

"This allows our technicians to rebury and protect the line," she said.