Rural Carleton County residents start second week without phone service

By Jim Dumville, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, River Valley Sun

January 1, 2023

Frustration is mounting for residents of rural Carleton County as they begin their second week without Bell Aliant home phone service. 

Residents in Bannon and Mount Pleasant, rural hamlets north of Hartland, lost landline service during the windstorm which passed through eastern Canada on Dec. 23. 

Eight days later, residents remain without service and express frustration with the mixed messages from Bell Aliant’s service desk. 

Amanda McElhinney said she is getting the “runaround” from the service desk, noting they told her yesterday to expect phone-service restoration by 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 30. It didn’t happen. 

When she called Saturday morning, Dec. 31, they told her, “they are working on the problem, with no ETR (estimated time of repair), unfortunately.” 

“A lot of people rely on this service in these areas. Cell service is spotty at best,” said McElhinney. “I have senior parents living there as well as an aunt who lives not far from them, and she has a lifeline, so without home phone service, she has nothing in the event of an emergency.”

The River Valley Sun reached out to Bell Aliant communications but has yet to receive a response. 

Although residents in these communities spent eight days and counting without phone service, McElhinney noted the failure went unnoticed in the media. She said the loss of phone service to rural communities is a serious issue, especially for those with health issues. 

“This is unacceptable as they have no way to call if they have an emergency,” she said. 

McElhinney said communities surrounding Bannon and Mount Pleasant have phone service, so she would like answers as to why it is taking more than a week to restore their service. 

Some Richmond Corner and Watson Settlement residents west of Woodstock also report no landline service since the Dec. 23 storm. 

McElhinney said she didn’t blame the technicians for the slow response, but she does question whether Bell Aliant is adequately staffed to deal with emergency outages. 

She would also like clarification. 

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“Many of us have spoken to someone at Bell. We get different stories and different times of restoration,” she said. “This morning, I was told they are working on fixing the issue.”