Another major telephone outage in the Pontiac

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Allyson Beauregard

MUNICIPALITY OF PONTIAC – For the fourth time in six years, several
people in the Pontiac were left without telephone or internet service for about two hours during the night, February 12. Bell Alliant was doing work on their network, but did not alert emergency services that a major failure would occur. 

Allyson Beauregard

MUNICIPALITY OF PONTIAC – For the fourth time in six years, several
people in the Pontiac were left without telephone or internet service for about two hours during the night, February 12. Bell Alliant was doing work on their network, but did not alert emergency services that a major failure would occur. 
Due to the unreliability of cell phone service in the area, residents were left without access to 9-1-1 services, as well as public services such as the police, fire departments, ambulance, and more.
Another major outage that left most of the Pontiac without internet or
telephone services for an entire day occurred July 19 last year; the event prompted the MRC to file a complaint with the Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) last summer. The MRC has been working since 2012 to convince Bell to install a redundancy line in the Pontiac, but despite several meetings between the MRC and Bell, political pressure, and complaints to the CRTC, nothing has been done; the MRC is now contemplating legal action.