Out of service — and nervous: Poor phone coverage has Northern Pen residents worried

Power outages are leaving the residents of communities along the eastern shore of Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula in the dark — literally and figuratively.

In recent months, when a power outage affects the region for more than a couple hours, it takes landline and cellphone service down with it.

Last week, a fibre-optic cable in St. Paul's was damaged, affecting landline, internet and cellular service for customers from the northern tip of Gros Morne National Park up to St. Anthony. Meanwhile, cellular service in Roddickton was affected by to a power outage.

"Everybody's worried about it, of course," said Della DeMoss, a longtime Roddickton-Bide Arm town councillor. "If there's a fire, if there's an accident, if somebody needs medical help, you cannot call for help and it always goes down at the worst times. If we're having bad weather, and the crews cannot get out to the lines, how do they expect somebody to go out into their own vehicles?"

DeMoss says the same thing has happened at least three times since November. It's affecting the lives of everyone in the area, she said — none more than seniors — and needs to be permanently fixed.

"We have had landlines for generations and the landline was always your heart line. It connected you to the rest of the world and when we lose our landlines we have lost a vital heartbeat to the rest of Canada and to the rest of the world. And we need that heartbeat to be beating every single moment of every single day."

In a statement to CBC, Bell, the service provider in the area, says last week's outages were separate instances, complicated by extreme winds on April 20 that prevented crews from immediately repairing the cable. "But they were able to restore service  later that afternoon when it was safe to resume work," reads the statement.

In nearby Englee, the outage lasted more than a few hours, said Mayor Stephanie Fillier — from Friday afternoon until about 9:30 p.m. on Sunday. Like Roddickton-Bide Arm, Englee has a large population of seniors, and Fillier is worried about their safety.

"A lot of them don't have cellphones," she said. "So when our home phones go down, that's their line to everybody.… If they're shut in and the only contact that have with their families who may live on the mainland or up the coast somewhere, they want to be able to reach them."

Bell Aliant said earlier this week its cellular sites are equipped with battery backup power systems, and generators are on standby in the event of a power outage affects service. 

But given the frequency of the outages, DeMoss says it's time for Bell Aliant to upgrade its infrastructure.

"Why not replace those batteries? Why not install a generator to kick in after the power goes? Because for a community to be completely cut off from all communication is extremely dire circumstances. It puts the hospital, it puts our elderly, it puts every individual who lives in our community at risk," she said.

"We can't seem to get the point across that it's not just a one-off and it's not just localized to my own home phone. It's localized to everyone. And to send a technician out to my home when my phone is working, that is not solving the problem."

Following CBC's reporting of the issue Tuesday morning, Bell said the company is now upgrading its network in the area with newer technology and additional battery capacity.