Connors encouraged by Bell’s callback

By Craig Westcott/November 9, 2022

Like Holyrood, the Town of Conception Bay South has also received a response from Bell Aliant regarding complaints about the quality of its cellular signal in the region.

Councillor-at-large Paul Connors told his colleagues last week the company is conducting an analysis and performance tests in CBS as well as at other sites in the region.

“They’ve made some adjustments on repairs and have discovered some major problems in some areas,” Connors added. “This is all very positive news that they realize there is a problem and that they are working on it, and that we are doing everything that we can to work with them to try to get them the information to get the service up to par here in CBS.”

Connors said he can’t stress enough that the company needs to hear from its customers about the specific problems they are having. 

“It’s very important that people contact them directly, be it Bell or Rogers or Telus, or whatever service provider you’re with, to provide details of the complaints, issues, concerns that you have,” Connors said. “They need the details of where there is poor service or where calls are dropped so they can try to figure out what the problem is. We need to be more specific than just saying the service is poor all over Conception Bay South. They need the details. I’ll go so far as to say that it’s nice to tell your facebook friends or (online) community group that yes, service is poor in Conception Bay South. But the service providers don’t read fakebook, they don’t read the (online) community groups. We need to get that information to the service providers. If you want it fixed, the service providers are the people that you need to contact. So, I’m encouraging and hoping that people will provide that information to the service providers so we can get this, hopefully, corrected in the next little while.”

Mayor Darrin Bent thanked Connors for the update and for taking the lead on the issue.

“The way to get this solved is to work with the providers because they’re the ones that need to know where the concerns are,” Bent agreed. “Like you said, be specific. Just saying it’s all over CBS doesn’t do it. They want to know exactly where the issue is and what exactly the issue is so they can get their equipment out and get it tested and see how they can improve upon it. And I look forward to them improving upon it. So hopefully we’ll see improvements in the next while. But keep up that contact and keep us up to date on it, councillor Connors.”

Councillor Rex Hillier suggested the Town compile a list of problem areas and supply it to the telecommunications companies. “My submission would be half a kilometer up Minerals Road as far as the overpass,” Hillier said. “You’ll drop your signal there every time.”