Telecommunications restored across the N.W.T., Yukon, and Nunavut

Internet, cell phone and landline calling have been restored across the Yukon, and Nunavut, and Northern B.C., says telecommunications provider Northwestel.

Service has also been restored in parts of the Northwest Territories that were left without service Saturday, but there is still damage to fibre optic lines in the territory caused by a wildfire burning between Kakisa and Jean Marie River.

Crews were working to repair those lines on Sunday afternoon, and Northwestel is hopeful full service will be restored across N.W.T. by the end of the day on Sunday, spokesperson Catherine Newsome said.

Until those fibre lines are restored, people in some parts of the N.W.T. might still experience some problems with internet connectivity.

"If you are in the South Slave, Yellowknife area, things are great. You've got your long distance back. Everything should be working perfectly for you," explained Tammy April, vice president of customer experience with Northwestel.

"When you're continuing up the Mackenzie Valley into the Beaufort Delta, you will have long distance and landline service, you'll have mobility service, but you'll be finding that your internet is a bit congested."

In the Yukon, April said crews were able to repair a kilometres-long stretch of fibre optic line near Fort Nelson, B.C., on Saturday night.

"By midnight we had all Yukon communities up and that also led to service, albeit congested service, for the McKenzie Valley and Delta," April said.

The outage also hamstrung emergency officials. Julia Duchesne, a spokesperson with Yukon Protective Services said officials had to rely on "old-fashioned" ways of communicating with the public.

"Within about half an hour of the telecoms going down, we had ham radio operators across Whitehorse and a little further afield activated," she said.

"So we were able to have radio operators stationed with Yukon Emergency Medical Services and with our local radio stations as the radio stations were trying to get information on air and that really allowed us to start passing information around more quickly."