Wet weather throughout January caused land and mudslides that damaged infrastructure across the province.
People, companies, and municipalities in B.C expressed alarm and frustration as cell phone service disruption continues throughout the province for the second day.
Many have complained that the telecommunications provider provides little if any, information about the full extent of service interruptions and when they might be.
1/2 Damage to a third-party’s fibre line near North Bend yesterday afternoon has impacted calling for some Bell Mobility and Virgin Mobile customers in BC. Mobile data, text messaging and calls to 911 are not affected. However, some customers may be experiencing disruptions…
— Bell Support (@Bell_Support) February 2, 2020
2/2 with making or receiving calls from landline numbers or customers of other wireless providers. Our crews continue to work with other carriers to restore full services as soon as possible.
— Bell Support (@Bell_Support) February 2, 2020
Recent rains in January have caused mud and landslides that infrastructure across the province was damaged. Most telecom customers started having problems early Saturday afternoon.
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Bell said third party fiber line near North Bend, B.C, broken Saturday. As a result, some customers can not call or receive calls from people on other networks.
Sunday afternoon, Telus said on Twitter that they have “identified problems affecting inter-operator calls.” But some Telus customers say they do not even have a dial tone on their landlines.
@TELUSsupport we have no dial tone, doesn’t seem like inter carrier problem?!
— peterawolfe (@peterawolfe) February 2, 2020
Rogers Communications said the landslide damaged fiber cable and cause blackouts. Rogers said to calls between subscribers are not affected, but Rogers customers may have trouble reaching out to people on other networks.
Internet service telecommunications company, which provides for the business, is also affected. Rogers said it is working to restore the service as soon as possible.
It is not clear how many people were affected by the service disruption, or if people are even aware of them. Bell said the text messages and mobile data is still available.
Urban and services that rely on telephone service to interact with the residents said the disruption affecting their ability to connect with people over the weekend.
Major disruptions to cell phone services are causing phone issues at city facilities and services.
If you are trying to get in touch with City of Vancouver:
· Try using our vanconnect app
· Try another cell phone service or a landline to call 311
Thanks— City of Vancouver (@CityofVancouver) February 2, 2020
Major disruptions to cell phone services are causing phone issues at city facilities and services.
If you are trying to get in touch with City of Vancouver:
· Try using our vanconnect app
· Try another cell phone service or a landline to call 311
Thanks— City of Vancouver (@CityofVancouver) February 2, 2020
We continue to have issues with our phone system. Our text service is not affected. Text 87.77.77 to reach Transit Police. Call 911 for emergencies. https://t.co/OCqbRjkab9
— Metro Vancouver Transit Police (@TransitPolice) February 2, 2020
Businesses that rely on phone service also complained about the outages.
1/2 Damage to a third-party’s fibre line near North Bend yesterday afternoon has impacted calling for some Bell Mobility and Virgin Mobile customers in B.C. Mobile data, text messaging and calls to 911 are not affected. However, some customers may be experiencing disruptions…
— Bell Support (@Bell_Support) February 2, 2020
B.C. RCMP said the issue was affecting non-emergency lines at several detachments, although the problem was not affecting 911 calls.
Please note that phone lines are currently down @BurnabyRCMP detachment.
9-1-1 emergency calls are NOT affected by this outage.
Updates will be provided when detachment phone lines are back in operation.
— Burnaby RCMP (@BurnabyRCMP) February 2, 2020
Kelowna, B.C., resident Barb Teichreb was shocked on Saturday when she wasn’t able to get through to any emergency services in her community.
Teichreb said she called 911 after she heard a loud alarm going off in the mobile home park where she lives. She got through to the dispatcher, but she said they didn’t know where Kelowna is or how to spell it.
When Teichreb hung up and tried calling local RCMP offices and fire departments, she wasn’t able to get through to any of them.
“If this would have been an emergency I would have died,” she said. “I felt completely, totally useless.”
E-Comm 9-1-1, which manages 911 calls in B.C., said the call wasn’t to put through to them, meaning the carrier likely put it through to the wrong place.
It’s not yet clear if that was a system-wide issue or one that just affected Teichreb.
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