There would be no Netflix and Chill on Tuesday evening, as much of the communication service to the community dropped off the grid for awhile, with a significant outage for CityWest and some cellular service providers for the North Coast region.
Shortly before 5PM Tuesday the city's links to the outside world started to go down, with Internet service among the services that would be lost until the early morning hours of Wednesday.
At the same time cel phone service for some also dropped for the night, leaving many in the community to wait for the return to Service signal to arrive.
Those who took to the old fashioned land line to seek out some information from beyond the city limits would be greeted by the once familiar 'all circuits' are busy' message ... the long distance calls bouncing back without completion.
CityWest did make an announcement through their Social media platform on Tuesday, for those that somehow could access it ... the notice however, wasn't very detailed and offered little in the way of information as to the situation or where the apparent infrastructure deficit had happened.
The connections all came back sometime after the midnight hour, returning the region to the World Wide Web and communication options for the day ahead.
The last major internet/phone outage took place in June of this year, at that time, the situation was attributed to a Beaver with a dislike of hydro poles in the Bulkley Valley region.
The latest report on the situation is that the outage was related to a motor vehicle accident somewhere along the line.
Residents of the region, await the latest update towards what happened in the more recent communication breakdown.
Update: CityWest expanded on the outage of Tuesday and additional notes on Internet Service in the Northwest through their Social Media stream and website this morning.
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More notes on communication in the Northwest can be explored through our archive page.
Even though this incident is likely out of Citywest's control. To some these incidents are increasing in frequency.
ReplyDeleteCitywest needs to address that perception.
Better communication from a communications company would be ideal. If they choose not to communicate, it will further erode the trust and loyalty of their customer base.
And yes, the Connected Coast Project will create a redundancy, but we aren't there yet.
Will City West give an update on when exactly the Connect Coast project will be completed in Prince Rupert.
ReplyDeleteI am getting tired of milestones reached in other communities while City West in Prince Rupert seems to be stagnant.
Here is the data network for BC - https://www.canshield.ca/news/work-with-canshield-in-the-bc-interiors-internet-hub
ReplyDeleteTelus operates the existing line between Prince George and Terrace. They will be investing $17.5 Billion into their network in B.C.
Connected coast was announced in 2018 and is scheduled to complete in 2023, we are apparently only a third of the way through.
Time for our city to get out of the telecom business.
Funds raised from the sale of Citywest can be reinvested into our infrastructure.