Cell service disruptions reported in parts of Nova Scotia

On Friday, representatives for Bell and Eastlink said they both had strengthened their cellular infrastructure since the widespread Fiona outages in 2022. (CBC - image credit)
On Friday, representatives for Bell and Eastlink said they both had strengthened their cellular infrastructure since the widespread Fiona outages in 2022. (CBC - image credit)

Parts of Nova Scotia are dealing with deteriorating cell service as post-tropical storm Lee blows through the region.

Bell, a major cellular service provider, confirmed in an email it is seeing some "wireless congestion" in areas where there are widespread power outages.

"Our crews are deploying generators where required and safe to do so," a spokesperson for the company said. "When the storm passes we will have a better sense of impacts and will keep our customers updated via social media."

Eastlink acknowledged some of its mobile customers were experiencing outages as well.

"As conditions improve, our crews can begin assessing impacts to get affected customers back up and running wherever it is safe to do so as quickly as we possibly can," Eastlink said in a social media post on Saturday.

Telus said in an email its customers may experience "limited network congestion in some areas as a result of the power outage and severe weather conditions."

The company said it is "supporting our network partner that owns the wireless field infrastructure and we remain ready to deploy critical equipment, including generators and batteries."

Because of power outages, there have been reports of cell service interruptions for some of its customers in parts of southern Nova Scotia, including East Port Medway, Wellington, Vaughan, Fletchers Lake, Lower Sackville and Beaverdam Lake, according to Rogers. It says additional technicians from Quebec have been brought in to help local teams.

In an update with reporters on Saturday, Erica Fleck, director of emergency management for Halifax, said the municipality is aware of an outage in the Dartmouth area.

"The service providers are working with the province and feeding us information and we don't have any updates on the restoration time as of yet," Fleck said.

Cell service outages were a widespread problem during post-tropical storm Fiona last year.

Ahead of Lee's arrival, representatives for Bell and Eastlink, said they had both strengthened their systems since Fiona.

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