The GwaiiTel internet network will be offline for several hours on April 16, 2020. (Public Domain Pictures photo)

The GwaiiTel internet network will be offline for several hours on April 16, 2020. (Public Domain Pictures photo)

UPDATE: GwaiiTel internet network restored

Customers should still expect period interruptions throughout Saturday afternoon

  • Apr. 16, 2020 12:00 a.m.

The GwaiiTel internet network was restored on Saturday afternoon after being down for several hours.

In an update posted to Facebook shortly after 1 p.m. on April 18, the Haida Gwaii telecommunications service provider said the network had been restored, but customers should still expect period interruptions throughout the afternoon.

“The link [is] back up and running now, but the tower team is still testing and optimizing the new antenna,” the post said. “There may be periodic, short interruptions for the next few hours as they complete this work.”

ALSO READ: Telus to take charge of TV and internet on Haida Gwaii following acquisition of Gwaii Communications

The outage was necessary to facilitate installation of a new, 12-foot-wide antenna at the Mount Hays broad band radio tower site near Prince Rupert.

The antenna was built in Texas and transported up to the tower by helicopter on Thursday so that crews could assemble it on Friday morning and pull it up the antenna, however, the work was postponed to Saturday morning due to wind.

On Jan. 31, Haida Gwaii lost all internet communications for days due to a technical issue with the radio tower. Inclement weather conditions had caused significant damage to the radio link infrastructure.

GwaiiTel owns the internet infrastructure, which provides service to GwaiiCom.

ALSO READ: Gwaii Tel pushes for complete fibre-optic coverage

Do you have something to add to this story or something else we should report on? Email:karissa.gall@blackpress.ca.


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