Phone services, including the 911 landline, down in northern Vancouver Island

This article from The Toronto Star reports on phone service outages across northern Vancouver Island caused by vandalism to Telus infrastructure. Residents in Port McNeill, Port Hardy, Alert Bay, Campbell River, and Port Alice have lost landline, cellular, internet, and critical 911 landline services due to what Telus describes as intentional damage to their network equipment.

Emergency officials are advising residents to still attempt calling 911 but also seek help from neighbors if landline service remains unavailable. The outage has left multiple communities without essential communication services.

• Telus attributes widespread phone service outages to vandalism of their infrastructure equipment
• Multiple Vancouver Island communities including Port McNeill and Port Hardy are affected by the service disruption
• Emergency 911 landline service is compromised, prompting officials to advise seeking neighbor assistance when needed
• The outage impacts all communication services including home phones, mobile networks, and internet connectivity