Canada’s independent body for resolving telecommunications-related customer service complaints is keeping watch on the recent Bell Canada service saga in the Yukon despite the telecommunications giant’s claims that wireless service woes are now “fully resolved.”
Data provided to the News by the national Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) indicates Bell made up nearly one-third of reported issues — more than any other service provider — in the Yukon in 2022-2023.
“We are aware of the recent Bell service issues in the Yukon, and we are monitoring,” reads an email to the News from Emma Bédard, the CCTS communications coordinator.
The telecom mediator noted its level of involvement in response to the News’ inquiry, which was prompted by recent letters between the Yukon’s premier and Bell’s top executive.
Premier Ranj Pillai initiated the exchange in a July 25 letter on behalf of Yukoners to Bell CEO Mirko Bibic.
READ MORE: ‘Yukoners are pissed’: Premier blasts Bell over ‘embarrassing’ telecom service
Pillai expressed his concern with frequent dropped calls and poor coverage that has been reported by Yukon residents, First Nations and businesses.
“In 2024, it should be embarrassing to telecommunications providers that Yukoners cannot have uninterrupted cell phone calls in the downtown of their capital city,” Pillai wrote.
Bell operates all cell towers in the territory according to the premier's office.
In an email, the premier’s officer estimated “as many as everyone with a cell phone” may have been impacted by the issues. Yukon government cabinet communications cited a post in the Yukon Helpers Network on Facebook from last week with dozens of comments regarding bad signal, interrupted calls, dead air and choppy data.
In his written response, dated July 26, Bibic reassured the premier that he takes the frustrations expressed by Pillai and his constituents seriously.
Bibic said the root cause of the problem was determined to be increased usage in addition to “intermittent disruptions” because of “local upgrades."
“Moving forward, we will monitor the situation to ensure that the issues do not re-emerge,” he said.
Bibic noted Bell is spending more than $22 million on the wireless network in the Yukon over the next three years for faster and more reliable service.
“These investments will expand 4G and 5G service to dozens of cell sites across the region and improve capacity. This work is already underway and, once completed, will provide even more Yukoners with access to Canada’s fastest network,” Bibic said.
In a July 30 email response to follow-up questions, Morgan Shipley, senior manager of Bell communications, said network congestion issues were identified in the Yukon last week and the company worked to fix them “as quickly as possible.”
“Throughout July, there have been a few isolated service issues along with increased customer demand for service,” Shipley wrote.
“Our ongoing upgrade work to improve the speed, capacity, and reliability of our network in the Yukon will help prevent and mitigate situations like this in the future.”
While CCTS didn’t have the latest data available, the telecom mediator provided all complaints it received from the Yukon between Aug. 1, 2022, and July 31, 2023.
Out of the 25 issues stemming from the Yukon-based complaints (a single complaint can entail more than one issue), just under one-third related to Bell Canada, including intermittent service and complete loss of service issues.
Koodo and Virgin Plus each had five issues raised in complaints lodged against them, TELUS Communications Inc. had three, Rogers Communications had two, and Northwestel, Ice Wireless and Public Mobile each had one.
A July 30 statement from Mirabella Salem in media relations for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) notes the CRTC is an “independent quasi-judicial tribunal” that regulates the communications sector.
CRTC is expected to issue its decision soon on requirements for service providers to report major service outages, although it indicated that wasn’t the case here.
“We also intend to launch additional consultations to explore measures to improve network reliability and to address consumer protections during and after an outage,” Salem said.
Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com