Thousands cut off from internet, cell service in Hudson’s Hope, Chetwynd after truck rips down lines

HUDSON’S HOPE, B.C. — Approximately 4,000 customers in Chetwynd and Hudson’s Hope faced a cell and internet service outage due to a truck tearing down fibre and copper lines. 

On Thursday, February 26th, some people in Chetwynd and Hudson’s Hope were not able to access the internet, TV, wireless services or make calls between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. MST.  

Travous Quibell, mayor of Hudson’s Hope, told Energeticcity.ca: “I was able to get in touch with some representatives from TELUS government relations [team], we had a few back and forth emails…but a discussion on exactly what was going to be done to restore service in Hudson’s hope, given that the timeline to have the root cause of the problem repaired, was unclear.”

Quibell shared he was able to get some service at the district offices in Hudson’s Hope. 

A TELUS spokesperson, in a written statement, told Energeticcity.ca: “Thursday morning around 10 a.m. PT, a trucking company hauling an oversized load tore down our fibre and copper lines, disrupting internet, home phone, TV and wireless services for some of our customers throughout Chetwynd and Hudson’s Hope.” 

Quibell said: “TELUS is our only service provider at Hudson’s Hope so we didn’t have the option of roaming on to another service provider for emergency services.” 

According to the TELUS spokesperson, an emergency roaming was activated with a network partner in Chetwynd and a satellite device was deployed in Hudson’s Hope to provide 911 access and a partial wireless connectivity as crews worked to repair the extensive damage. 

All services were fully restored by 11 p.m. MST the same evening, TELUS said. 

“We’ve got a commitment from TELUS to have some follow up conversations about how we can mitigate outages like this in the future and how we can prevent them,” Quibell said. “So we look forward to a discussion with TELUS about what we can do to make the service more secure and more reliable.”

A TELUS spokesperson said it understands how critical connectivity is and apologized to the community for the interruption.