Vandalism causes widespread Telus service outage in northwest Calgary

Telus is dealing with a widespread outage of internet, TV and phone landline service in northwest Calgary because of vandalism.

The company says service has been out in Bowness, Dalhousie and Varsity since 2 a.m. Saturday.

That's when Telus says vandals cut and stole several sections of its cables near the old pedestrian bridge in Bowness.

It says several hundred customers are affected.

Telus says the damage is extensive, and crews are working around the clock to fully restore service.

It is bringing in specialized equipment, replacement cables and additional technicians.

It is also working closely with police to investigate the vandalism.

Meanwhile, some residents are upset with what they call a lack of communication about the issue from Telus over the past five days.

One resident is concerned seniors without cellphones have no way to call 911 in an emergency.

She says she was told by one Telus representative that the outage was due to wildfires while another rep confirmed the problem was external to her residence and said her ticket report number was cancelled.

"My real complaint with Telus is it's a communications company and their communication has been terrible.," said Barbara Jenkins, who lives in Varsity.

The outage is also affecting intercom buzz-in systems in some residential complexes.

Telus says it does not have an estimate on when services will be restored.

It says cellphone services are not affected.