Bell says crews are still working to fix major damage to its network in Oakville after a road construction crew, not affiliated with the company, cut into its infrastructure on August 13. The incident damaged fibre cables about 30 feet underground, affecting customers in Burlington, Oakville, and Hamilton.
On August 13, Bell posted on X: “Some customers in the Burlington, Oakville and Hamilton region may be experiencing a TV service interruption. Customers can continue viewing their content via the Fibe TV App on their streaming device and TV while the issue is being resolved.”
Later that day, the company added: “Service issues in Burlington, Oakville and Hamilton area may take several days to repair due to a fibre cut by a third party. Some customers may also be seeing slower Internet speeds as our crews work to repair the damage.”
Here’s a photo of the site:
In an August 14 update, Bell said: “Services are stable for the majority of our customers as our crews were able to mitigate the damage while we work on a full repair. A road construction crew in Oakville, not affiliated with Bell, caused extensive damage to our infrastructure cutting 30 ft into the ground. We’re working around the clock to fully repair the fibre cables. We realize service interruptions are frustrating for our customers. We’re continuing to work with companies who are digging in the vicinity of our network infrastructure to help avoid such issues from occurring.”
Bell says the first step involves fully excavating the damaged area to replace the fibre cables. Due to the size of the area and its proximity to a busy highway, crews expect to work for several days to finish the repairs.
On late Thursday, Bell said, “Excavation in the Oakville area is ongoing to prepare for the repairs of over 300 fibres. Due to the large area and proximity to a busy highway, excavation will extend well into Friday.”
“Crews will work continuously for several days to complete the repairs. Despite the damage, Bell services remain stable,” added Bell.
That’s annoying for Bell and its customers to have a third-party cut fibre cables. What’s nice to see is Bell sharing real-time updates unlike other telecoms that won’t even mention outages online, aside from asking to take conversations into direct messages.
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