What caused the outage in northern British Columbia?

The outage was caused by thieves intentionally cutting Telus fibre-optic cables in the Mount Hayes area along Highway 16 on 2 August 2026. The damage disrupted landlines, mobile services and internet for most of northwestern British Columbia, affecting residential and business customers.

When were services restored after the cable theft?

Telus announced that most internet-based services in the region were restored by approximately 10 p.m. on 2 August 2026. The outage had begun in the early afternoon after the cables were severed, leaving many without phone or internet access for several hours.

Which outlets reported on the Telus outage?

Six left-rated outlets carried the story, all through digests: Burns Lake Lakes District News, Smithers Interior News, Kitimat Northern Sentinel, Houston Today, Omineca Express and Caledonia Courier. No centre- or right-rated outlets ran the story, according to the reports below.

All stories

16px

Science & Tech7 outlets ran this3 min read

Telus restores service after cable theft cuts internet across northern British Columbia

Thieves severed fibre lines near Mount Hayes on 2 August 2026, knocking out landlines, mobile and broadband for most of the region

MediaBias Comparison Desk

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised

This article was written at the MediaBias News desk from the one-paragraph digests an aggregator publishes for each of the outlets listed below it, together with 2 of those outlets' own reports read in full. How we do it

5 Aug 2026, 10:45Updated 5 Aug 2026, 11:35

Telus restores service after cable theft cuts internet across northern British Columbia

What this story says

Telus restored most internet-based services in northwestern British Columbia by 10 p.m. on 2 August 2026 after an outage that began in the early afternoon.
The outage was caused by thieves intentionally cutting fibre-optic cables in the Mount Hayes area along Highway 16.
The damage disrupted Telus landlines, mobile services and internet for most of northern British Columbia, including areas near Vanderhoof.
No centre- or right-rated outlets carried the story, according to the reports below.

Telus announced that most internet-based services in northwestern British Columbia were restored by approximately 10 p.m. on 2 August 2026. The outage began in the early afternoon after thieves intentionally cut fibre-optic cables in the Mount Hayes area along Highway 16. The damage disrupted Telus landlines, mobile services and internet across most of the northern region, including areas near Vanderhoof.

The company confirmed that the cables were severed deliberately, though it is unclear whether the thieves targeted the infrastructure for resale or sabotage. The affected fibre line carried communications for residential and business customers, leaving many without phone or internet access for several hours.

What the coverage left out

None of the centre- or right-rated outlets below carried the story. The left-rated digests did not report whether Telus had identified suspects, what security measures were in place to prevent future incidents, or how much the repairs would cost. The digests also did not specify whether emergency services were affected by the outage.

Tags:#TelecomOutage #CableTheft #BritishColumbia #Telus #InfrastructureSabotage

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

All six left-rated digests below led on the restoration of services by 10 p.m. on 2 August 2026. They reported that the outage was caused by thieves cutting Telus cables in the Mount Hayes area along Highway 16, and that the damage disrupted landlines, mobile services and internet for most of northwestern British Columbia. The digests from Smithers Interior News and Caledonia Courier also specified that the optic fibre line was cut near Vanderhoof.
The digests did not include statements from Telus beyond the announcement of service restoration. None of the left-rated digests mentioned whether the thieves were apprehended or what their motives might have been. The reports focused on the cause of the outage and the extent of the disruption rather than the investigation or broader implications.

Centre

We hold no leaning breakdown for this story, so there is nothing to report about the centre.

Right

We hold no leaning breakdown for this story, so there is nothing to report about the right.

Read it at the source

7 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.