Copper theft causes Telus outage in Ogden affecting landlines, 911 service (2024)

A copper theft on Monday caused a Telus outage that continued into Wednesday, affecting hundreds of homes in Calgary’s Ogden neighbourhood.

Telus confirmed the cause of the outage was copper wire theft, and that the incident caused “severe damage” to Telus cables in and around Ogden.

The start time of the incident is listed as 11:13 a.m. Monday.

Landline phones were affected, which the telecommunications company says would affect 911 calls. TV and internet services were also briefly affected. Telus says wireless services are unaffected, and suggests using a cellphone to stay connected during emergencies.

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An emailed statement from Telus says TV and internet services were restored Monday morning, and teams are now focused on restoring landline phone services. Telus estimates 650 customers are experiencing disrupted services as a result of the theft.

It is aiming to have services fully restored by Aug. 6.

Telus said it partners with local police, and has invested in security cameras, specialized locks and fencing to combat copper theft.

The Ogden incident follows a string of copper wire thefts and attempted thefts from telecommunications companies across Canada, with stakeholders calling for steeper penalties for those damaging critical infrastructure.

Perpetrators of copper theft are typically charged with theft under $5,000, “which is the same as stealing a bicycle,” said Eric Smith, senior vice-president of the Canadian Telecommunications Association.

Smith said these types of crimes have much more serious ramifications.

“It impacts critical telecommunications infrastructure that supports emergency services, hospitals, government, financial services and, really, just people’s day-to-day life,” he said.

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“In the U.S., it’s actually considered terrorism, because you’re damaging telecommunications . . . a little stronger language there. We’d like to see something that sort of matches the ‘life safety’ impact of it,” said Brian Lakey, vice-president of the Reliability Centre of Excellence.

Two separate Rogers (previously Shaw) service outages in Calgary in May left thousands of customers without internet or phone services for the better part of a day.

The Canadian Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee noted that January saw a 100 per cent increase in incidents year-over-year, with a 49 per cent increase in outage duration.

— With files from Steven Wilhelm

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