Ms Gillian Giesbrecht reports

MTS PHONE SERVICE IN GODS LAKE NARROWS, WASAGAMACK, ST. THERESA POINT AND GARDEN HILL CONTINUING TO EXPERIENCE DISRUPTION

Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. customers in Gods Lake Narrows, Wasagamack, St. Theresa Point and Garden Hill are continuing to experience disruption to their phone service.

Lightning struck MTS facilities in Gods Lake Narrows during a recent thunderstorm, damaging telecommunications equipment that supports the residential telephone network in these areas. Other MTS telecommunications services, such as Internet, wireless and FleetNet 800, were not affected and continued to operate as they did prior to the storm.

While the affected services were fully restored earlier today, an additional failure has occurred in the network equipment. MTS believes this failure is linked to the original lightning strike. MTS technicians continue to work toward restoring service as quickly as possible and ensuring all damaged equipment is replaced. This process is likely to take several days. MTS will provide further updates as the process moves forward.