Bell says record precipitation in Winnipeg causing outages and delaying repairs for landlines

BCE Inc. is claiming that “ongoing record precipitation levels” is to blame for its quality of service issues, regarding landline telephones, in Winnipeg, Man. “The copper network in Winnipeg is particularly vulnerable to wet conditions as a result of network maintenance practices of MTS prior to its acquisition by Bell, which favoured very short-term solutions that left the network vulnerable to water penetration in the face of heavy rainfall,” the company wrote in a June 11 letter addressed to the CRTC. In May 2022 the commission ordered the incumbent to provide a report on all landline telephone service outages – which lasted more than four hours and affected more than five households – in Winnipeg since Jan. 1, 2021 by location, customers affected and duration; what are the known causes of the issue; and what steps the company has undertaken or plans to undertake to address the outages. The majority of that information was filed in confidence to the CRTC. The commission made the request after it became aware “through complaints, news articles and other sources of serious and persistent service quality issues” affecting Bell’s landline telephone service within the Winnipeg area. “Some residents have indicated being out of service for several weeks or even months. These issues and outages are impacting their ability to contact 911 and essential services. Moreover, residents have been complaining of poor customer service, missed appointments, and that Bell MTS has failed to respond to service outages in a timely manner. Many of the complaints refer to deteriorating telecommunications infrastructure across the city,” the commission wrote in its May 13 letter to Bell. In May, Bell responded to the commission stating that only its copper facilities were affected by the precipitation. The company said that, since acquiring MTS, it has invested more than a billion dollars in maintaining and improving its Manitoba networks by building a completely new fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) network. Bell said that is an “important step” because FTTP is not causing the vulnerabilities. Since 2017, Bell has invested $176 million in Winnipeg and 30 other communities to deploy FTTP to approximately 100,000 homes, along with $300 million to improve existing wireline networks, the company stated in its letter dated May 20. Bell said it brought in extra staff, some of which came from out-of-province, to mitigate and restore network failures. It predicts that by the end of 2022 more than 50 per cent of Manitobans will have access to its FTTP services. “Since the unprecedented weather impacts started in April of this year, we have continued to have good response times for general repairs… however, there has been a significant increase in repair service response times where outside copper plant repairs are necessary. The skill set for diagnosing and repairing outside copper plant is a specialized skillset performed by a limited number of qualified line technicians that are currently working overtime to help resolve outstanding issues,” it wrote. Bell estimates that by the end of July it will have doubled the amount of line technicians in the Winnipeg area compared to Sept. 2021. In a June 2 follow-up, the commission ordered Bell to continue providing monthly reports – to be filed by the second Monday of each month – until Oct. 2022 given the “ongoing nature of the issues.” In its latest report, covering the month of June and submitted to the commission July 11, Bell noted that Winnipeg is experiencing its wettest spring on record. It also stated that rain levels in June were only three millimeters short of beating the 1984 record for the most rain to fall in an hour at the Winnipeg airport. “Indeed, we continued to experience greater than normal voice-related truck loads in Winnipeg for the month of June 2022,” it wrote, with a data chart showing that voice-related truck roll repairs increased by 79 per cent compared to June 2021. Bell said the majority of its outages were resolved in less than 48 hours and the backlog of outages lasting more than 168 hours was reduced by almost 60 per cent even with new net-outages taken into account. Bell said since its last report it has provided Bell Mobility phone customers that are experiencing outage issues with 50 gigabytes of data – free of charge – to make use of hotspot access and to make voice calls. The company also implemented a proactive copper cable inspection and replacement program which consists of maintenance work unrelated to repair complaints. – Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca.

Bell says record precipitation in Winnipeg causing outages and delaying repairs for landlines

News | July 13, 2022

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Bell says record precipitation in Winnipeg causing outages and delaying repairs for landlines

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