Atlantic telecommunications reliability under question after service failures during Fiona
Global News
Nova Scotia Power is required to provide information on power outages with estimated restoration times, but telecommunication companies are not required to do anything similar.
As post-tropical storm Fiona battered Atlantic Canada, it wasn’t long before many in the region lost power, and with it, the ability to communicate.
Carl Funk lives on the Eastern Shore, which was hit hard by the storm, and says communication was nearly impossible.
“We had no phone service, there was a little pocket in the community where you could maybe get a couple of bars.”
In Dartmouth, Sandra Bonn says the only way she was able to check how her family members were doing was by driving over to their place.
“It’s horrible, the communication is very important,” said Bonn.
And that’s a main concern for Nova Scotia NDP leader Claudia Chender.
“I was really nervous. We have a lot of vulnerable seniors. For a lot of people living alone, communication is their lifeline.”
On Sunday during a media briefing, Geoff Moore, director of network operations for Bell, said they did what they could to prepare for the storm.