Telus tackles 400% spike in Calgary copper theft as thousands lose phone service

Telus is dealing with a 400 per cent increase in theft and vandalism of major copper wires in Calgary this year as thousands of Calgary customers have lost access to landline, internet and cable service in recent months.

The company saw 20 major events in Calgary in 2023, compared to four last year.

But it's not just a Calgary problem — the number of incidents nationally is up 103 percent this year.

Brian Lakey, vice president of Telus' Reliability Center, told CBC News that Canada has had 57 major incidents affecting customers this year, compared to 28 last year.

“We're seeing about 68 million minutes of customer downtime and degradation related to cable theft, and that's a 750 per cent year-over-year increase,” said Lakey, co-chair of the Canadian Telecommunications Network Resilience Task Force.

Lakey says thefts are also on the rise, affecting customers more and taking longer to repair. Vandalism often takes down cell towers and power lines, he said.

“In that situation, consumers are left without emergency services, so they can't access 911 — like EMS, fire, police — and if it affects both their cell service and their landline, they have no way to call for help.”

Another challenge Telus faces with copper wire theft is that they don't know until someone calls to report they've lost service, Brian Lakey said. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

As of Sunday, about 3,000 residents in the southeast community of Ogden did not have access to phone service, Lakey said. According to the company's website, the outage began on the morning of December 8 and is not expected to be resolved until December 22.

In August, a similar outage occurred in a number of northwest communities after the copper cable theft in Bowness, knocking out service to several hundred customers.

The story continues

Minor disturbances

Copper wire theft does not always affect hundreds or thousands of residents.

Earlier this month, cell phone-less Steve Tarzwell lost landline service for 12 days. He also lost internet connection for a couple of days.

Tarzwell, who lives in the northeast Calgary community of Martindale, says he's heard of several neighbors affected by this particular outage.

“It reminded me that you're not 100 percent guaranteed the service you're going to get,” Tarzwell said.

He said he would not have been able to contact emergency services if he had needed to, but he understands the impact is much worse on others, such as the elderly who cannot contact loved ones and those who need it. Call to fill and deliver prescriptions.

“It's frustrating that I paid for the service but I didn't get it.”

The value of copper on the scrap market is exacerbating theft problems across the country. (CBC)

Tarzwell has filed a formal complaint with the Canadian Telecommunications Services Complaints Commission, which he says he learned while working for a telecommunications company in British Columbia.

The day after phone service was restored, he received an email from Telus promising to provide credit for the interrupted service.

He has since received compensation and says he is happy with the results.

Strengthen security measures

As for Lakey, he says Telus has specialized teams working 24/7 to make repairs as quickly as possible and get customers back in service as quickly as possible.

The company is also working with local and federal authorities to increase security around high-activity areas and prevent theft, he said.

“I also say if people see something suspicious, in some cases it can take a few days to set up and be ready for a copper theft … Call Crime Stoppers or local authorities,” Lakey said.

He said it's a big red flag if people are working around utility poles without a truck emblazoned with the Telus logo or another utility provider's logo.

Lakey also apologizes to all Telus customers who were affected by the outages.

“A responsibility that I take very seriously in my role is to make sure that our customers can be contacted, and most importantly, that they can be contacted in an emergency. That's our responsibility, it's my responsibility to make sure that happens.”