Telecom - Commission Letter addressed to Philippe Gauvin (Bell MTS Inc.)
Ottawa, 13 May 2022
Our reference: 8660-C12-201000116
BY EMAIL
Philippe Gauvin
Assistant General Counsel
Bell MTS Inc.
19th Floor – 160 Elgin street
Ottawa, ON K2P 2C4
bell.regulatory@bell.ca
RE: Quality of service issues impacting Bell MTS’s landline telephone service in the Winnipeg area
Dear Mr. Gauvin:
The Commission has been made aware through complaints, news articles and other sources of serious and persistent service quality issues affecting landline telephone service provided by Bell MTS 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 9-1-1 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.
In exercising its powers and performing its duties under the Telecommunications Act, the Commission must implement the Canadian telecommunications policy objectives set out in section 7 of that Act, including to render reliable and affordable telecommunications services of high quality accessible to Canadians in both urban and rural areas in all regions of Canada.
Given the seriousness of the issues raised, Bell MTS is required by Commission staff to provide, by 20 May 2022, comprehensive answers, including rationale and any supporting information, to the following:
Provide a list of all outages that affected Bell MTS’s landline telephone service within the Winnipeg area, since 1 January 2021, which lasted four or more hours and affected five or more households. For each, specify the location, number of customers affected, duration, cause of the outage, and relevant dates.
Provide the total number of Bell MTS residential customers within the Winnipeg area, since 1 January 2021, who experienced landline telephone service interruptions of a) 24 hours or more, b) 48 hours or more, c) 72 hours or more, d) 168 hours or more, e) 720 hours or more, and f) 1440 hours or more.
Identify and comment on known service quality issues affecting Bell MTS’ landline telephone service within the Winnipeg area, including all steps recently undertaken or planned by Bell MTS to resolve these issues along with associated timelines.
Provide the number of complaints received by Bell MTS from its customers within the Winnipeg area since 1 January 2021, and indicate what has been communicated to clients experiencing serious and persistent quality of service issues, including any commitments made, and including the number of service technician appointments dispatched, in order to resolve the identified service issues.
Sincerely,
Original signed by
Fiona Gilfillan
Executive Director
Telecommunications sector
cc.: Mirko Bibic, President and CEO, BCE Inc., mirko.bibic@bell.ca
Michel Murray, CRTC, michel.murray@crtc.gc.ca
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