Hundreds of people are waiting to have their landline service restored in southeast Calgary after an outage that started on Sunday night.
A TELUS spokesperson said in an email to Global News that copper thefts severely damaged TELUS cables in and around Ogden, disrupting home phone, internet and TV service for some customers.
While TV and internet services were restored by Monday morning, TELUS said 650 customers are still waiting to have their landline service restored.
“We’re waiting for phone calls from my wife’s doctors and from my doctors,” said Ogden resident Kelly LaRocque. “I’ve been trying to phone everyone and give them an alternative number.”
The Millican Ogden Community Association (MOCA) said it’s doing its best to make people aware of the outage, but added it’s tough to reach people who don’t have access to a computer or the internet.
“You always hear about the internet going down, but a landline going down, it literally is a lifeline for some people, ” said MOCA secretary Zev Klymochko.
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TELUS said that crews are working on splicing cables to restore service and have reported the incident to the Calgary Police Service (CPS).
CPS said between January and April there have been more than 100 copper wire thefts reported and nearly 300 were reported in 2023.
“We are looking into allegations of a copper wire theft incident that could have caused the outage,” CPS said in an email to Global News. “More information will be shared once available.”
Frustrated residents are now questioning what more can be done to protect these services.
“Let’s stop the sale of the stolen copper, or make it difficult or whatever you need to do,” LaRocque said.
The Canadian Telecommunications Association said across the country, incidents of theft and vandalism have increased about 200 per cent since 2022.
“Rising incidents of theft and vandalism targeting telecommunications sites are increasingly causing service outages in communities across the country,” said Nick Kyonka with the Canadian Telecommunications Association.
“These acts potentially make it impossible to contact 911 or other help in the event of an emergency, disrupt lives and business and impact hospitals and other critical services. These are not victimless crimes.”
Yonka added telecom providers have taken steps to increase security around cell sites and critical infrastructure and are advocating for the federal government to increase penalties for these crimes.
TELUS said it has invested in security cameras, specialized locks and fencing to combat copper theft.
The company expects landline service to be fully restored on Aug. 3.
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