YELLOWKNIFE - As of Friday, the best information Bell Cellular could provide on its spotty mobile phone service in Yellowknife was that they were looking into the problem.

"We're doing a root cause analysis," said Paolo Pasquini, media relations for Bell, from Toronto last week. Pasquini added he did not know whether the problem was "temporary" or something else.

This was the message many Bell Cellular customers got last week when attempting to use their phones. - Jason Unrau/NNSL photo

Meanwhile, Roy's Audiotronic, which is a dealer of phones and Bell Cellular service took the brunt of customer complaints. Problems ranged from no access to Bell's cell system to make outgoing calls to those receiving calls from Bell customers unable to hear the caller at the other end.

"Since about last Thursday we've been getting various customers in the store concerned that their phones are at fault," said Maureen Williams of Roy's Audiotronic. "Half-a-dozen people a day don't experience the same problems with their phones (and) after that you start to think the network is experiencing some difficulties."

While some speculated that one or more of Bell's three towers around town had gone down -- something Bell could neither refute or confirm -- others believed that Ice Wireless was to blame for "overloading" Bell's system.

Tom Zubko, Ice Wireless President, was quick to dispel the rumours.

"That's like having your FM radio stations overloading your AM radio stations," Zubko told Yellowknifer, adding that Ice Wireless, which has been operating in Yellowknife since early Dec. 2006, operates on a different frequency spectrum than Bell Cellular. "(Bell Cellular and Ice Wireless) are two totally different systems that have nothing in common."

So while Bell tries to determine the root of the problem, Williams urged Bell customers experiencing problems to make the telecommunications giant aware of it.

"The very best thing you can do is contact Bell," she said.