“Absolutely terrible” is how to give jurckowski describes the cell service in its community of Chelton, just west of Borden-Carleton on the southern coast of Prince Eduardo Island.
“You can’t call a person without being cut, you sound like a robot half of the time, you can’t understand what they say,” Jurkowski said to CBC News.
Like many PEI residents and tourists, she lives with calls, not completed text messages or simply without service.
Jurkowski helps manage a family construction and excavation, so it needs a reliable way of making commercial calls.
“We are paying high prices for cell phone services that we cannot use,” he said, estimating that his bell contract costs him about $ 400 per month.
Gary Smith has a nearby cabin and has an oxide -proof store. He was hoping to spend time in his cabin while still reserving appointments and dealing with customers, but the service of poor cells is getting along the way.
“It’s simply impossible here,” he said. “I can listen to them, they can’t listen to me, or vice versa.”
‘If there is ever an emergency …’
People in the community also say it is a security problem. They care that elderly relatives cannot reach them, and wonder what will happen if they ever need to call 911 to get help.
“We have children. We have older people who live near us. Are we going to be able to make that call?” said Chelton resident Sam McKendrick.
McKendrick has young children and also works from home for a few days. He worries about not being able to do his job correctly and not being able to receive calls from his nursery.
“If there is ever an emergency, can they understand me while I am here?” She said.
Just west of Charlottetown, the city of Cornwall also has problematic spots.
“We need to be able to communicate in times of emergency,” said Coun. Cory Stevenson, who said that the bad service of cell phones has been a dominant issue among constituents.
The city is working to change its statutes to facilitate companies to build cell phone towers, but do not yet have a new one.
Stevenson said the approval process is under federal jurisdiction, but the city wants to reduce “bureaucracy” on the municipal side.
The minister says that “it can relate”
The Belfast-Murray River Darlene Compton is the Provincial Minister of Economic Development, Innovation and Commerce, the department that deals with the PEI cell phone service problems.
Compton lives in one of East Pei’s areas that also has a bad service.
“I understand and I can relate to the frustration of all the islanders,” he said. “We are very aware and worried.”
We need to have the acceptance of companies. I understand that there really is no business model there to improve the service …– Darlene Compton
Compton said the province booked $ 2.5 million at the end of last year to help build more towers, and officials are talking to service providers. Initially there was not much interest from them, he said, but he hopes he changes.
“We need to have the acceptance of companies. I understand that there really is no business model there to improve the service, so we, as a province, and through the federal government, we will have to find a path to follow,” said Compton.
A study has been conducted to identify the worst areas for reception, and the provincial government plans to meet with cell phone service providers again in autumn.
Compton said that the details of who would use exactly any new infrastructure and how it would be paid to still have to resolve.
Meanwhile, it encourages people with a bad service to complain with their cell phone companies and the CRTC, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission. In the end, he said that the federal government could have to intervene because the lack of cell service is a security problem.
Cellular companies respond
CBC News contacted several cell phone companies about the problems that people report.
In a statement, Eastlink wrote: “We have no reports of broad mobile service problems throughout the island and continue committed to continuous improvements.”
Rogers said he was committed to a “reliable wireless experience while continuously invested in our national network.”
