Telus called the weekend service outage in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. a “fairly bizarre and uniquely Canadian turn of events.”
Damn beavers.
According to Telus, TV, cell and internet service went out early Saturday morning in northeastern British Columba to about 900 of the community’s 2,000 residents.
“The cause of this fibre cut is fairly unique — beavers have chewed through our fibre cable at multiple points, causing extensive damage,” Telus said in a statement.
“Our team located a nearby dam, and it appears the beavers dug underground alongside the creek to reach our cable, which is buried about three feet underground and protected by a 4.5-inch thick conduit. The beavers first chewed through the conduit before chewing through the cable in multiple locations,” Telus added.
The company says additional crews were called in to do the repairs.
“We have some overlapping wireless service in the community from other nearby cell towers, but cell phone service will be spotty or disrupted for many of our customers in the area. About 900 Internet customers and 60 TV customers are also affected by this disruption.”
The local community news paper, The Tumbler RidgeLines, trumpeted the good news Sunday evening when connectivity was restored: “If you can read this, internet has been restored!”
“You can’t make this stuff up,” the outlet posted. “Here’s the note from Telus. Seriously. Blame Canada.”
Main photo: Not the guilty beaver. Instead, a file image from Devon Wildlife Trust/Facebook
