YELLOWKNIFE - Yellowknife businesses are banding together in their quest for better cell phone service in the city.

"Everybody's been comparing notes, almost ready to drive over their phones," said real estate agent Rod Stirling.

Rod Stirling said he uses his phone about 200 times a day. Frustration over spotty cellular service has led business people in the community to complain to the service provider. - Erika Sherk/NNSL photo

A petition has been circling the community, he said, to be presented to Bell Mobility and its subsidiary NMI Mobility - the only major cell phone service providers in town.

The business community is getting frustrated by the cell service, said Stirling.

"Dropped calls, missed calls, dead spots for coverage, snowy lines, inability to connect..." Stirling said, reeling off the list of concerns.

He knows other realtors who have purchased new phones, thinking that it was their cell phone causing them grief, only to face the same problems.

It's bad for business said Stirling, because if people can't reach him they'll call someone else.

"Being a commissioned business that is hurtful to the pocketbook."

Once, he said, a client even wrote "call me" on the side of his SUV as a desperate last resort.

However, cell phone worries may soon come to an end.

Robin Williams, a Bell phone dealer at Roy's Audiotronics, said Bell is planning to put up a third tower in the early fall.

"There are only so many phone calls that can happen on a tower at a certain time," said Williams.

He said the system is similar to an old-fashioned switchboard.

A mystery frequency is also interfering with service, said Williams.

"They don't know what it is," said Williams, but said that work is underway to figure out what it is.

The average cell phone user probably won't notice a change with the new tower, said Williams.

"Those on the phone all day long every day, they'll notice the difference," he said.

Stirling said his cell phone is in use more often than not, averaging about 200 calls a day.

Another business owner, who declined to be named, said he had no issue with the cell phone service in Yellowknife.

"I've lost the odd call but I think everybody has," he said.

Williams himself said that he is a casual user of his cell phone and has rarely had problems.

"I have no problem with the service now as it stands," he said.