Holman (Nov 20/06) - It's a familiar sound to people in Holman: A crackling of static or a jumble of voices, followed by a dial tone.

The message: You've been cut off.

Mayor Peter Malgokak said the community's been having problems with telephones lately.

"Sometimes, it's like an echo," he said. "It's kind of weird."

Another resident, Shannon Kanayok, said she sometimes hears bursts of static followed by gaps of silence.

She yelled through her phone on Nov. 14, "What? I can't hear what you're saying!!" (A surprisingly useful quote, given the nature of the interview.)

One person from the town, who declined to be named, said cordless phone signals sometime intercept each other, which means she can hear bits of neighbours' conversations.

It doesn't happen often, she said, but when it does it's very strange.

To find out what's happening, we gave NorthwesTel a ring.

Anne Kennedy, the director of corporate communication for the company, said many of the problems are due to satellites.

"When you talk, your voice is sent to a satellite and bounced back to Holman," she explained.

"Back at the station, there is a component called an echo canceller, which should cut that out."

But lately, Kennedy said, it seems some echo cancellers haven't been working.

She said the phone company will be looking into this problem, and also other ways of improving service.

In the meanwhile, Mayor Malgokak said he'll ask people to call back if conversations get too jumbled.

"There have been complaints for months," he said.

"Sometimes you have to ask people to call back, sometimes you get cut off."