People in Iqaluit say making a simple phone call has become increasingly difficult, with some residents reporting that callers on the other end can barely hear them.
Nathalie-Isabelle Richard, a Bell Mobility customer, says the problem makes it hard to communicate with friends, family, and businesses outside Nunavut. While she can hear others speaking, she says her own voice does not come through clearly.
“We can hear people talk, but people cannot hear us,” Richard said to CBC News. “They will hear like fragments of words.”
Richard says calls also drop frequently. She pays about $110 a month for her mobile service and first noticed the issue in October. She says she has contacted Bell several times to complain, but even those calls were affected by the same audio problems.
According to Richard, Bell opened a support ticket and told her a technician would follow up. She says that call also did not go smoothly, with the technician saying they could not understand her and would need to call back.
Richard says Bell later left a voicemail acknowledging the ongoing issue and suggested using Wi-Fi calling at home as a temporary workaround. Obviously Wi-Fi calling won’t work when she’s out of the home and in town.
Bell is one of the limited wireless providers serving Nunavut, along with Northwestel. In an email statement, Bell spokesperson Morgan Shipley said the company is aware of voice call quality issues affecting customers in Nunavut and that it is investigating. Bell did not confirm what is causing the problem or provide a timeline for a fix.
Richard says she believes the issue is network-related and wants Bell to send technicians to address it. She has filed a complaint with the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) and has asked Bell for a refund.
She says the problem is about more than money and wants reliable service restored. “They have an obligation to serve people. They have an obligation to repair,” Richard told CBC News. “I don’t know why they’re not giving us this service.”
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