A cut fibre optic cable knocks out phones (update)

OPP News Release

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Bell Canada is advising that emergency 911 service has been restored to all effected areas. Local exchange service may be sporadic until all other repairs have been competed.

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The OPP would like to advise a fibre optic cable has been cut Hwy 144 at Monteith Creek. This has affected telephone services in Gogama, Chapleau, Wawa, Hornepayne, Sault Ste Marie, Thessalon, Manitoulin Island and surrounding areas. Police are advising if you require emergency service attempt to contact those services using a cell phone. It is un-know how long the duration of the outage will be but Bell personnel are working to correct the problem.

Affected communities are working towards identifying Emergency Reporting Centres in the event of complete communications failure.

As these centres are identified, the affected communities media outlets will be notified.

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