CRTC asks Northwestel to detail service outages across the North

Northwestel has been forced to explain some of the outages northern communities have endured over the last year.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)askedNorthwestelto detail outages in the North, following media reports of Yellowknife's two widespread outages this summer.

Those outages included widespread interruptions to internet, cellphone and long-distance service in and around Yellowknife that "severely stifled local business and services," according to a letter the CRTChad sent to Northwestel'svice-president and chief financial operator in August.

The CRTC asked for a list of outages lasting more than four hours since last July, the steps taken to address them, and any security measures the company is planning on implementing to address vandalism to its infrastructure.

In its written response, dated Sept. 16, Northwestel said there have been 40 outages in the North since July 2018,including five considered "major." Fifteen werein Yukon, nine in the Northwest Territories, 11 in Nunavut, and five in northern British Columbia.

Major outages in Yellowknife, Whitehorse, Norman Wells

Major outages are categorized as those impactingmore than 1,000 people, according to Northwestel, whichprovides telecommunications servicesto the three northern territories, along with parts of northern British Columbia and northern Alberta.

Two of the major outages happened in Whitehorse:onein December2018and another in April of this year. Both were due to equipment failures, the company's report said.

Two were recorded in Yellowknife:one in May, and one during the Folk on the Rocks music festival in July. A less-publicized outage also took place in Norman Wells, N.W.T., in July.

There was anothermajor outage in Yellowknife in August thatwasn't included in the data provided to theCRTC.That outage lasted nearly 10 hours and causedsome businesses to close their doors temporarily.

The Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce has estimated that Yellowknife's summer outages cost the local economy close to $10 million.

Northwestel combating outages

Many of the details surrounding the outages were redacted for confidentiality and security reasons, Northwestel wrote.

In the Northwest Territories, the outages in May and July were all due to "transport failure" a disruption to fibre flowing into the community, such as the line being cut,whichhappened twice in Yellowknife this summer.

RCMP are investigating Yellowknife's July and August cases as potential acts ofvandalism, and are still looking into whether the incidents are connected.

Northwestel's response to the CRTC's request for security measures to address vandalism was not made public.

However, Northwestel wrote thatit already has plans to combat some outage causes, such as extra generators in cases of power outages, noting that "commercial power supplies in northern communities can be very unreliable."

The company wrote that in cases like this summer's in Yellowknife, it has mechanisms to help employees quickly find where the disruption is.

The company also pointed to a $79-million project withthe federal and territorial governmentsto develop a 777-kilometrefibre optic transport network along the Dempster Highway. It would connect Dawson City, Yukon, with Inuvik at the end of the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link.

It's unclear what, if any, steps the CRTC might take with the information provided by Northwestel. In an email, CRTC spokesperson Patricia Valladao wrote: "We are reviewing the various information and will determine if additional steps are required."