Around 175 Toronto houses have been without phone service for nearly 2 weeks

About 175 Toronto households have been without conventional phone service for almost two weeks, but some saw their lines restored just hours after Global News contacted Bell Canada to report on their stories.

“Thank you so much, this wouldn’t have happened without your help,” said Joan Lovell, one of the homeowners whose frustration with Bell has been rising since early June.

On June 8, Lovell’s landline stopped working. She called Bell and was informed through an automated voice message,that there was a significant outage in the neighbourhood. The phone message promised service would be restored in a few days. But on three occasions, she says the dates were pushed back without explanation.

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“It’s unacceptable,” she says, adding Bell did not contact her or other Bell customers by mail, or at the door, or via email, to provide reasons for the delays or to offer any temporary solutions.

One reason for the concern, aside from inconvenience, is that customers without a mobile phone would have no 911 emergency service.

Among those in that situation is Lovell’s 92-year-old father-in-law, George Orr, who lives next door to her.

“Just tell the truth, Bell should tell the truth,” Orr told Global News when asked what he’d like Bell to do.

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When contacted by Global News on Tuesday, Bell explained its situation.

“The voice service outage … was caused by corroded cables in a manhole. Bell Internet and other services are not impacted,” said Bell spokesperson Nathan Gibson.

“Air testing has shown some underground portions of the site to be a potential safety hazard to our workers. We expect further tests to be completed this week,” Gibson said.

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“In the meantime, our crews have been performing workarounds with over 400 metres of new cable and we expect to have all voice services back up by (Wednesday).”

By mid-Tuesday, Lovell had her phone service restored by Bell. She was breathing easier, even joking she missed the occasional call from telemarketers.

“It’s been two weeks and (Global News) has done this in two hours! Thank you.”