Phone outages frustrating enough, but lack of timely information makes people furious

Phone and internet service disruptions on Saturdayrenderedphones useless,left security systems offline and people frustrated and unable to pay for parking or take customer calls.

The outages continue to affect phone users asfar away as Calgary.

Record-breaking January rainfall in parts of southern B.C.caused landslides which damaged fibre optic cables, according to the telecommunications providers.

But Bell, Rogers and Virgin mobility have not providedmuch more of an explanation about how and why it affected their various services.

Most of the service was restored by 10 p.m. PTSunday, according to Bell and Rogers, butsome people say they are still experiencing problems, raising concerns about internetor phone service during a larger disaster.

According to Rogers,their data wireless service was quickly restored Saturday, shortly after the landslides affected fibre lines, but they say some customers experienced problems from other providers making or receiving calls.

Bell Mobility and Virgin Mobile services were back to normal by Sunday night. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the regulator for telecommunication service providers,says it's reached out to both companiesfor details about how the outages occurred and what was done to fix them.

'It shows the weaknesses in the system'

While Bell and Rogers communications staff say their services are almost 100 per cent restored, some people continue to report problems.

Calgarian Bob Baird says he was awakened at 3 a.m. Mondaymorning when his alarm system started beeping, saying there was a communications error. When he finally got through to the Saskatchewan-basedsecurity company, Securtek, he said he was toldthe communications failure had something todo with a landslide that damaged the system in B.C.

Baird is concerned about how many homes security systems are offline because of this and how many other people have been affected.

"It shows the weaknesses in the system if one fibre optic cable gets knocked out," said Baird.

"It's not just in B.C. We are having troubles here in Calgary. I just wonder if they are aware of the impact," he said.

Emergency Management BC, the province's lead co-ordinating agency for all emergencies, said, in an email to CBC News, it was concerned about the outage's impact on people across the province.

"Once EMBC learned of the outage, a critical infrastructure co-ordination call was held with telecom and railway service providers and Industry Canada," read the email. "Industry Canada has been following up directly with telecom providers to make sure affected local governments and First Nations are aware of the situation."

The provincial agency noted the mudslide is a reminder of the importance of having an emergency kit with provisions for 72 hours to one week.

In Vancouver, people trying to park downtown could not pay.

Murial Richards was visiting friends when she parked on Cambie Street andwalked away from a paid up meter. When she tried to use a parking app to top it up, she discovered it didn't work and raced back to the car, three minutes after a ticket was issued.

Richards thoughther phone was the problem.But later she realized there were system-wide issues.

"I'm just wondering how many people got caught in that mess?If there's parking enforcement people out there everywhere, it could be hundreds or thousands. Quite often they'll say you just have to pay cash," she said.

Richards plans to dispute the $46 ticketand suspects she will not be alone.

Nor was she the only person in Vancouver affected by the phone outages.

Vancouver midwife Jesse Brown relies on her phone.

When Brown's clients call, they often really need to reach her, sometimesfor an imminent birth.Brownwas working with a patient in labour all day on Saturday. When she finally hada second to check her phone, she realized she wasn't receiving texts or service.

Bell offered no estimate as to how long service might be downor why. So, she used her husband's phone, because his service provider was Rogers.

Then Sunday, she discovered Rogers was also having trouble

"We couldn't reach patients. Patients couldn't reach us," she said.

"I think the most frustrating part was the lack of information. This is a company that is advertising that they providethe best network coverage. They have the best connections and don't have outages.

"All these things felt a little bit ironic, especially through the Super Bowl, as they had commercials literally saying they had the best Canadian network. They've just done a 'Let's Talk' campaign and we can't even talk to anyone," she said.

Customers who lost service can request a credit directly from Bell or Rogers for the time period that they were without service. If they are refused, they can file a complaint withthe Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS).

CBC has messaged the City of Vancouver for information about how parking fines will be handled. We also requested interviews with Rogers and Bell.