Residents of a Glenora apartment building in Edmonton say they went more than a week without cable and internet, following a Telus outage that began on May 25.
And the lack of service didn’t just mean no Netflix — it also disrupted the building’s emergency phone lines and visitor buzzer system, raising security concerns.
“Yesterday, I was told to be patient. Well, after nine days, we’ve been patient enough,” said resident Shelby Berezan, who’s been contacting Telus repeatedly about the problem. She reached out to Global News over the outage.
In addition to service cuts in units, Berezan said building infrastructure that relies on Telus — like the elevator emergency system — was also down. She expressed concern someone could get stuck with no way to call for help.
For Berezan, the isolation has been personal. “I need my services. I work online. I talk to my grandkids online. I talk to friends across Canada online,” she said. “It feels like COVID all over again. Isolated. Sad. I even feel like I went through a bit of a withdrawal.”
What frustrated her most was the lack of consistency in the answers she received. “Everyone tells me something different. There’s an outage. Equipment is broken. And the worst part is ‘be patient’.”
Her next-door neighbour, Jill Bosgoed, has also been affected. “I’ve been having to find other places to work for the last seven working days as of today,” she said. “I want Telus to get together, figure it out, and give me the services that I pay for.”
In a statement, Telus said the outage was caused by vandalism that left a fibre distribution hub in north Edmonton beyond repair. The company noted a 238% increase in copper theft incidents in Edmonton this year, and a 58% increase across Alberta compared to 2023.
“The initial cause of this network disruption was irreparable damage to a fibre distribution hub in north Edmonton caused by vandalism and requiring a full re-installation,” said a spokesperson. “We know how critical connectivity is to our customers and deeply appreciate their patience and understanding, especially in instances like these, where the extent of the damage and complexity of the repair work can take an extended period of time to address.”
Telus has urged residents to report suspicious activity to police or Crime Stoppers.
By Tuesday morning, services had been restored — but Berezan said she may not stick around as a customer, noting she was going to “give Shaw a call.”
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