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Long distance meltdown

Jillian Dickens
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 22/05) - People may have noticed problems with their phone line service last week as NorthwesTel struggled to restore long distance phone service that left some callers unable to phone south.

Problems were fewer service lines at Northwestel, resulting in either a fast busy signal or the recorded message, "This call not can be completed as dialled."

The situation began at another company, Telus' microwave radio site in Northern Alberta, which connects NorthwesTel's service path to the North.

"Early Friday morning signalling just totally went out of service on that path," said NorthwesTel spokesperson, Anne Kennedy. Before Friday, problems were only intermittent. Now it's only getting worse and Telus doesn't know when the problem will be resolved.

To avoid the faulty site, all calls south from Nunavut and NWT were redirected to NorthwesTel's central switching office in Whitehorse.

"This caused a lot more congestion and delays," said Kennedy. "But this way people have a better chance of completing their calls."

A Telus technician was sent to investigate the problem Friday morning. "As soon as humanly possible, we will identify the problem and get it fixed," said Telus spokesperson Allison Vale.