Between October 20 and 25, the Galaxy 15 satellite passed near the Anik F2 satellite, which is used by Northwestel to service satellite communities. Galaxy 15 is owned and operated by Intelsat. This was an extremely rare situation and had the potential to cause Long Distance and Data service interruptions for some Northwestel’s customers. (See the attached list of satellite serviced communities.)

Telesat, the operators of the Anik F2 satellite, and Northwestel worked together to implement a comprehensive mitigation plan and successfully avoided any significant impacts or service interruption for Northwestel customers.

Northwestel and Telesat will now be reversing the mitigation measures put in place and returning all services to normal levels.

Northwestel wishes to acknowledge the assistance it received from Telesat and appreciates all that was done to protect the service provided to these important communities.

It would also like to thank all of the employees who have been involved in this project, their efforts were very much appreciated.

 

Yukon (1) - Old Crow

 

BC (2) - Telegraph Creek, Fort Ware

 

NU - all communities

 

NWT (11) -

Trout Lake

Nahanni Butte

Lutselk'e

Gameti

Ekati

Wekweeti

Deline

Colville Lake

Paulatuk

Sachs Harbour

Ulukhaktok

 

Any media inquiries should be directed to:

Sunny Patch

Corporate Communications Manager

Northwestel

(867) 455-4245

 

Paul Bush

Vice President, North American Sales

Telesat

(613) 748-8700 x2532