Cogeco is sharing this image on social media of a broken cable that has caused outage.<\/p>\n
A major Cogeco outage is affecting customers across Niagara after fibre optic cables were damaged, leaving some residents without internet, television and home phone service.<\/p>\n
Cogeco first acknowledged the outage Thursday morning (Oct. 8), saying it was investigating a disruption affecting \u201call services\u201d in the Niagara Region.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur technicians have been dispatched and are working diligently to resolve as soon as possible,\u201d Cogeco said in a social media post.<\/p>\n
The company later provided more information, saying the disruption was caused by vandalism to its fibre optic cables.<\/p>\n
Cogeco said the damage can result in either a complete loss of services or the loss of some television channels, depending on the customer.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur local team is working to restore services as quickly as possible,\u201d the company said. \u201cServices will begin to restore progressively and are expected to be up and running later tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cogeco has not released a figure for how many customers are affected, nor has it provided a detailed list of affected neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n
However, reports from customers indicate the outage is being felt in communities across the Niagara Peninsula, including Queenston, St. Catharines, Virgil, Niagara Falls, St. David\u2019s, Niagara-on-the-Lake.<\/p>\n
Downdetector, which tracks user reports of service problems, was also showing a significant number of complaints Thursday, including reports from Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake.<\/p>\n
Cogeco provides internet, television and home phone services throughout its Ontario footprint. The company reported 938,166 internet subscribers across its Canadian telecommunications operations as of Aug. 31, 2025, although it does not publicly break out the number of customers it has specifically in Niagara.<\/p>\n
Cogeco expanded its presence in Niagara in 2024 when it acquired the Niagara Regional Broadband Network, which had been operated by the City of Niagara Falls and the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. At the time of the acquisition, NRBN brought 2,691 Internet, 223 video and 1,892 wireline phone service units to Cogeco. Those figures were part of the acquisition and do not represent Cogeco\u2019s total Niagara customer base.<\/p>\n
The outage is particularly significant because a fibre optic connection can carry multiple services to a household. Cogeco says its residential offerings include Internet, TV and home phone, meaning damage to network infrastructure can affect more than one service at the same address.<\/p>\n
The company has not provided a specific restoration time beyond saying services are expected to be back up later Thursday evening.<\/p>\n
Cogeco customers can check the company\u2019s outage information by entering their postal code on its outage page or through My Account. Cogeco says outage information can include the services affected and an estimated resolution time when that information is available.<\/p>\n
The company has not said exactly where the fibre cables were damaged or provided details about the circumstances surrounding the vandalism.<\/p>\n
As of Thursday afternoon, customers across Niagara were continuing to report disruptions while crews worked to restore the network.<\/p>\n