Bell Mobility’s crappy cell signal plagues Iqaluit’s Road to Nowhere residents

Iqaluit’s Road to Nowhere subdivision may be a nice place to live, but the quality of Bell Mobility’s cell phone service in the area is terrible, an Iqaluit woman says. (FILE PHOTO)

Talking with family who live outside of Nunavut is important to Iqaluit resident Siobhan Arnatsiaq-Murphy.

But the poor reception her Bell Mobility cell phone gets while she’s at home makes talking to family on her cell almost impossible.

“I have to go to my second or third-storey window and stand at the window to talk, and even then calls are dropped. And you can’t have long conversations that way. You shouldn’t have to be tied to a window to make a long distance call,” Arnatsiaq-Murphy told Nunatsiaq News Nov. 3.

Arnatsiaq-Murphy moved to the Road to Nowhere neighbourhood 10 years ago.

She said she has had problems with her Bell Mobility cell service for nearly that long too.

“Not having adequate phone service, because I live in the North, makes me feel like a second-class citizen. And dealing with companies who couldn’t care less about your situation—that’s stressful.”

Arnatsiaq-Murphy said she pays $65 a month for her Bell Mobility cell service, which includes unlimited Canada-wide calling.

But because she can’t use that service at home, she has to have a landline with Northwestel.

With Northwestel, Arnatsiaq-Murphy pays for the package with the most long distance minutes offered by the company.

But every month, she exceeds that limit staying in touch with family outside Nunavut, racking her landline bill up to $150.

And Arnatsiaq-Murphy is a single mother with two daughters living at home, carrying a mortgage on a fixed disability income.

“Sometimes people ask me why I don’t just get a signal booster, it’s only a couple hundred bucks. But I’m stuck in this cycle, where I have to pay $150 plus $65 every month for my phones, so I can’t afford the signal booster. And why should everyone in my neighbourhood have to buy a signal booster when we’re paying for service already?”

Arnatsiaq-Murphy said she’s been calling Bell Mobility for years about this problem.

Recently, they offered her a one-time $50 discount, because they said they had no record of this problem.

“They’re being weasels. It’s been a problem for 10 years, ever since cell service started in Iqaluit. If there was a fire in the house, the landline is the first thing to go, and I wouldn’t be able to use my cell phone,” she said.

Arnatsiaq-Murphy said Bell Mobility told her a new cell tower would go up in the Plateau area within a year.

But Arnatsiaq-Murphy pointed out that’s on the other side of town.

“When I called the other day, the woman kept telling me I live in Alberta, and I said no, over and over again. Nunavut isn’t even in their purview.”

Arnatsiaq-Murphy said she encourages others to phone and complain to Bell Mobility to advocate for better treatment and customer service, at 1-800-667-0123.