‘No network is flawless’: Wildfires underscore resiliency challenges for telecoms

Article content

As wind-driven wildfires raged on the Hawaiian island of Maui last summer, killing more than 100 people and destroying thousands of buildings, a communications blackout kept many residents in the dark.

The power outages worsened an already devastating situation in areas such as the town of Lahaina, home to about 13,000 people, where evacuation orders and emergency communications for first responders were disrupted.

Article content

In addition to all cell phones and landlines being out in Lahaina, the area also faced a multi-day outage of commercial electrical service.

Authorities are still putting the pieces together to understand how much went wrong throughout the incident. A key lesson emerged from the Maui wildfires: resilient communications networks are critical when disaster strikes.

Companies and regulators in other jurisdictions, including Canada, are taking note amid increased wildfire activity in remote areas.

“We need to understand the limitations that may exist in networks, as well as have plans that will account for the potential loss of our typical sources of information,” said Jennifer Sunrise Winter, a professor of communications at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

“Ideally, you'll have multiple options in case something goes wrong.”

Last month, wildfires that damaged fiber lines near Fort Nelson in British Columbia knocked out cell phone and internet services for days in the north of the province, as well as in the Yukon and Northwest Territories.

While Northwestern Telecommunications Company worked to quickly restore service, the outage reinforced the risks faced by residents of rural and remote areas of Canada during natural disasters.

Article content

Article content

It's an issue that Canada's communications regulator is keenly aware of. There are still two ongoing consultations on the subject – one examining ways to improve telecommunications services in the Far North and another on how providers can report and notify major service outages.

“The reality is that no network is flawless. Canada has some of the best quality networks in the world, but it is It is impossible to predict and prevent every possible failure.”

“While our networks continue to grow in complexity and the threats we face, including those from extreme weather or malicious actors, are as volatile and unpredictable as ever, the consequences of not being prepared will be dire.”

Transportation companies are turning to artificial intelligence and satellite solutions

Canada's three largest providers say they have robust plans in place to mitigate the effects of wildfires on their infrastructure.

Bell Canada and Rogers Communications Inc. are promoting and Telus Corp. for various common elements of their strategies, such as year-round reviews of grid stability, having fuel-powered generators in key areas to support electricity, and collaborating with regional emergency management teams.

Article content

Companies are also working on unique initiatives.

Through a partnership between Rogers and the BC Wildfire Service, AI cameras were installed on two of the carrier's BC towers in April, with plans to install three more.

Pano AI cameras are designed to detect smoke up to 24 kilometers away, allowing fire crews to see live feeds of potential wildfire smoke and, if necessary, respond more quickly.

“Every minute counts,” Aaron Bulik, director of strategic initiatives and innovation at the BC Wildfire Service, said in an interview.

“The sooner we discover something… the better because we can use that to send our resources more quickly back to Earth.”

Satellite communication is also seen as a potential solution to keep customers connected during emergencies, especially in remote areas.

Telus announced last year that it had successfully piloted technology that allows smartphones to send and receive voice calls and text messages using satellites. Testing was conducted in partnership with TerreStar Solutions Inc. Montreal-based non-terrestrial network services provider Skylo.

Article content

Rogers has teamed up with SpaceX and Lynk Global to provide satellite-to-phone connectivity, while Xplore Inc., a New Brunswick-based rural internet provider, committed to providing satellite internet in remote locations last fall after launching the Jupiter 3 satellite into space.

“In an emergency, people see (satellite) as a great alternative or redundant connection because you can literally take it with you,” said Rob McMahon, assistant professor of media and technology at the University of Alberta.

Fiber is still the “king”: Telus

McMahon pointed to limitations of “untested” satellite technology, including potential capacity issues compared to fiber.

“As more and more users are connected to the Internet, how will this degrade service?” Adding satellite technology is still expensive for the average user, he said.

Bell and Telus highlighted their growing fiber networks, which the former said in a recent press release “are more resilient to extreme weather conditions, reducing the frequency and length of weather-related outages.”

“Fiber is king,” Phil Moore, Telus' vice president for emergency response, said during a presentation at an Ivy Business School event last month.

Article content

“We had fiber lines where the poles burned down at the bottom and they're actually swinging, and the network is still up and running. It's totally fine.”

Despite these steps, there are still gaps when it comes to preparing Canada's telecommunications sector for potential outages caused by wildfires, McMahon said.

He pointed to the barriers facing rural and remote areas, which often have limited infrastructure compared to more populated centers – in terms of access to roads inside and outside the country, as well as communications channels.

Remote areas face redundancy gaps

One of the biggest risks to emergency connectivity is a lack of “path diversity,” such as redundant infrastructure or distinct technologies that can carry network communications if a line goes down, McMahon said.

That's the case for the Western James Bay Telecom Network, an Indigenous-owned non-profit company that provides fiber internet service to residents living on Ontario's James Bay coast from Moosonee through Fort Albany, Kashechewan and Attawapiskat.

“They rely on one regional transportation network that goes up and down,” McMahon said.

Article content

“If this line is cut, it will be cut.”

The industry standard is generally two transmission routes to keep networks running in the event of an emergency, Telus Moore said.

He added: “But it is a big country.”

While Moore said Telus is “slowly building” a third route across Canada, he noted that Canadian telecommunications companies face challenges that their global counterparts do not. The most important of which is the cost of building networks in Canada, which is considered expensive compared to other large countries due to factors such as size, density and terrain.

However, with increased wildfire activity in recent years, Moore said Telus has also boosted its spending on network resilience. This includes removing vegetation around its cell towers and other critical infrastructure in areas where dry conditions have increased the risk of fire spreading.

“When you invest in reliability, it's like buying insurance,” Moore said.

“Communications are poor, and we are all very aware of that. No matter how much you invest in it, it is still vulnerable to all the different climate risks that we face.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:T, TSX:RCI.B, TSX:BCE)

Article content