Iqaluit cell ‘disruptions’ fixed but some still seek refunds on their phone bills
City experiences week of intermittent service due to ‘equipment issue’
Sandi Chan is encouraging others who, like her, were impacted by cell and internet disruptions in Iqaluit, to ask for phone bill refunds. (Photo courtesy of Sandi Chan)
After a week of spotty internet and cell service in Iqaluit, some people are asking for refunds on their phone bills — and they’re getting them.
The disruptions started on the evening of May 27, with service occasionally shutting down for up to five hours, and resolved Monday evening. Cellphones, internet, ATMs and debit machines were affected by the outages.
In many ways, the disruptions put the life in the city on pause, said Sandi Chan, who has been encouraging other people on Facebook to request refunds.
“It’s never really been this bad for this many days,” she said.
“You can’t call a cab, you can’t get a ride anywhere. You’re just stuck.”
Chan said she couldn’t withdraw cash and saw others who were experiencing similar struggles over the past week.
“I went to a food truck that just started on Sunday and saw people trying to pay by Visa and they had to tap two, three or four times and then wait for 10 minutes,” she said.
However, the process of getting a refund on her phone bill was easy and straight-forward, she said.
Northwestel is one of the main telecommunications companies operating in Nunavut. It offers telephone, internet and cable services and is owned by Bell Canada.
Iqaluit residents have had a week of internet and cellphone service disruption. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Chan, a Bell customer, said she would simply take screenshots each time she saw the “SOS only” or “No connection” messages on her phone to track when the service was down. Then she sent the information to a Bell Canada representative through the company’s app.
“I was chatting with them and I actually was in the middle of baking something,” she said, adding that after just a couple of messages the chat was concluded and she was given a total refund on her next month’s bill.
Along with a request for a refund, Chan is urging residents to file a complaint with Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
“Not a lot of people complain to CRTC, so then the CRTC can’t talk to Bell and be like, ‘Hey, your network has to be better. You need to invest in its infrastructure,'” Chan said.
The outages were caused by an “equipment issue,” Matthew Bossons, manager of internal communications with Northwestel, said in an email to Nunatsiaq News.
“Services should now be operating normally in the community.”
slower then upnorth
The ups and downs of living in a remote community. But by far does the pros outweigh the cons if you ask me.
Northwestel is still trying to sucker the Federal Government into giving Bell $1.3 Billion for their outdated and redundant equipment and infrastructure and call it an indigenous telecom company.
The rip-offs never stop. Just let Northwestel die.
if you dont file a complaint , nothing will come of it! file complaint with CRTC, literally what your tax dollar funds it for.