SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - In 2009 when it was announced that Yellowknife would receive the 3G network support necessary for using iPhones, Bell Canada may have underestimated the popularity of the smart phones among Yellowknifers.

Paige Saunders, owner of Sailing on Sound, a Yellowknife based media company, is tired of the dropped calls and slow browser service he is noticing on his iPhone. - Kevin Allerston/NNSL photo

For months there have been complaints among iPhone users, citing dropped calls and slow browser service during peak business hours.

For Paige Saunders, who manages the Yellowknife-based media company Sailing on Sound, the dropped calls are more than just an inconvenience.

"It is really frustrating to be in the middle of a call and 'oh' it's gone, but as a business it's really bad because it looks unprofessional," said Saunders.

"I'm not really one to gripe and complain, but I lost a call the other day and that was the last straw," said Saunders. "And it seems to happen at the worst time, during peak business hours from about noon to 4, so for the business community, that is really bad timing."

Robin Williams, who manages Roy's Audiotronic in the YK Centre, said he has been hearing about the problem for a couple of months both from customers and casual conversations.

"What I think is happening is that when they launched the 3G network there weren't many people on it, so because of increased traffic the towers are now being overloaded."

He said that even with the issues, it hasn't affected his business much.

"We like to sell and steer our customers toward the best products, and these are some of the best on the market. The way we look at it is customers buying these are getting a three-year contract with a great product while the network issue is a temporary situation," said Williams.

"We find Yellowknifers are quite savvy with technology, and while the odd customer does sometimes choose a different device (because of the network issues), most know it is just a temporary thing."

Albert Lee, a media relations representative with Bell Canada, stated via e-mail the company is aware there is a problem.

"We have been experiencing high traffic growth on the network that has resulted in some congestion issues on a site in Yellowknife," he stated. "Our team implemented several changes last week that improved performance, along with and an added node which will give additional capacity to the network. We will continue to monitor the situation and determine if other plans are necessary."

He couldn't confirm when the work was done on the system, or which tower was modified to increase capacity.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.