Telus, Koodo waive select service fees for customers affected by Ottawa tornadoes

A total of six tornadoes touched down in the Ottawa-Gatineau area since last Friday, September 21st, 2018, with wind speeds reaching between 135 to 265 kilometres per hour.

According to CTV News, approximately 450,000 properties within the path of destruction were impacted.

Telus and Koodo have extended a helping hand to subscribers affected by the tornadoes by waiving voice, long distance, text and data overage fees until September 28th, 2018.

Ottawa and Gatineau, we’ve got you covered. We’re waiving all domestic voice, long distance, text and data overage fees for affected customers until Sept. 28 (or as long as residents are without power). Stay strong friends #thankyouottawa

— Koodo (@koodo) September 25, 2018

Telus and Koodo Mobile both tweeted, “Ottawa and Gatineau, we’ve got you covered. We’re waiving all domestic voice, long distance, text and data overage fees for affected customers until Sept. 28 (or as long as residents are without power). Stay strong friends.”

Ottawa and Gatineau, we’ve got you covered. We’re waiving all domestic voice, long distance, text and data overage fees for impacted customers until Sept. 28. Stay strong friends. @TELUSsupport pic.twitter.com/CDaBhKgSfi

— TELUS (@TELUS) September 26, 2018

Update 26/09/2018 3:55pm ET: Rogers and Bell both responded to MobileSyrup‘s request for comment.

Rogers’ statement is below:

“Our thoughts are with those affected by the devastating tornado and power outages in the Ottawa-Gatineau area.

Our customers are back up and running and we worked around the clock to put in place back up generators to restore service for affected customers over the weekend. We have made a $25,000 donation to the Red Cross and will continue to work with them and the City of Ottawa over the coming days and weeks to see how else we can support those in need.

We encourage customers that have questions about their usage to get in touch with our customer care team and they will be happy to assist.”

Bell’s statement is below:

“Our top priority following the tornados in Ottawa and Gatineau was to keep our networks up and running to provide the best level of communications services possible for our customers during this extraordinary event.

Other telecom providers also depend on Bell networks to deliver their services as well. Bell’s wireline and wireless networks are equipped with extensive emergency back-up power supplies in the event of power outages, and our teams were on the ground around the clock to ensure our central offices and wireless sites remained with power. At the height of the power outages, our networks running on back-up power sources were providing services to approximately 900,000 Bell customers in Ontario and Québec.

Our teams are still out in full force repairing infrastructure and helping customers whose services may still be impacted by damage from the tornados. We encourage any customers impacted to contact us at 310-BELL to request service assistance or discuss their accounts.

Bell has donated $25,000 to the Ottawa Sens Foundation to support Ottawa Sens & Fans Tornado Relief.

Customers can also support the Canadian Red Cross’s Ottawa-Gatineau Tornado Appeal by texting OTTAWA or GATINEAU to 45678 to donate $10.”