Keremeos went back to its rustic
roots on Friday as many residents
and business owners learned
to cope without internet or cell
service.
Although the nearby Telus cell
tower didn’t burn down, fibre
cable that connects the wireless
site to the network was damaged
leaving most of Keremeos area
residents without service.
“It’s been a slow day,” Tyson
Schmauder, owner of Keremeos
Taxi said while holding his nonworking
Telus cell phone. “I’ve got
nothing all day. If anyone has been
trying to get through I apologize
but there isn’t anything I can do.”
Cell service and internet
stopped working just after 10 a.m.
on Friday and it would take about
13 hours to restore to most customers.
Residents using services related
to the Rogers network and
Chinacreek internet were not
affected.
The Review lost internet, debit
and phone service as our telephone’s
are operated through the
internet. Customers were understanding
but it made for a quiet
day.
Emmy Woroby from Emmy’s
Bake Shop said she lost quite a few
customers when she had to put up
a cash only sign in the window.
The sign was on the door
through the lunch hour, her busiest
time of day.
“It’s definitely been slow,” she
said. “You watch people come up
to the door and they see Cash Only
and they just walk away disappointed.”
Woroby did find out by another
business person that she could
switch her debit card machine to
be operated through the telephone
lines opposed to internet.
“At least we figured that out.”
The BC Liqour Store was only
accepting cash for some of the day
before their debit machines could
be switched over.
Customers did get to make their
purchases through the convenience
of debit cards and credit cards but
it came with a cost as transactions
were taking at least three times as
long to put through.
“It’s worth the wait,” one man
said as he walked through with his
purchase in hand.
Liz Sauvé a Telus media relations
employee said the outage was
unfortunate but that crews worked
as quickly as possible to restore
services.
“We appreciate everyone’s
patience as our crews worked to
restore the wireless site and all
wireless sites we needed to fix
during this particularly bad wildfire
season throughout the southern
interior,” she said.