All N.W.T. communities reconnected after nearly a week without telecommunication service
Telecommunications services for communities in the N.W.T., some of which have been disconnected for about a week, have now been restored.
In an update sent Thursday morning around 11 a.m., Northwestel said that every N.W.T. community now has connectivity — including Kakisa.
The community of about 40 people was without telecommunications service since Friday evening, according to Northwestel. That led to an evacuation order being issued via letter by the territorial government.
The wildfire remains about 14 kilometres from the community.
On Aug. 17, the communities of Enterprise, Fort Resolution, Fort Smith and Hay River lost internet and cellular services. Northwestel restored services earlier this week, including intermittent landline phone issues.
Northwestel technicians installing a series of OneWeb LEO dishes in Inuvik NWT to rapidly augment local capacity when fire burnt through a fibre line. (Supplied/NorthwesTel)
The community of Jean Marie River, which also lost service that day, was fully reconnected on Wednesday.
"In the face of an unprecedented natural disaster, our frontline crews have stepped up to get communities connected in the incredibly challenging conditions," Northwestel President Curtis Shaw said in a statement.
Service, however, remains congested in other areas, including the Beaufort Delta region.
"People are able to connect to internet, landline phone and cellular service," reads the update.
The company is bringing in back up infrastructure to try and boost capacity in Inuvik, said Andrew Anderson, a spokesperson with Northwestel.
"There is limited capacity into these communities and so in peak periods, people will experience slow internet speeds."
Anderson added that the company has not been able to access the site of Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link damage due to ongoing wildfire activity.
