High winds and ice toppled this communication tower in Labrador. (Courtesy Bell Aliant)

People in northern Labrador are still without internet and long-distance phone service after a key communications tower that links the north coast with the outside world collapsed last week.

Bell Aliant spokeswoman Isabelle Robinson said a repair crew managed to get to the mountaintop site over the weekend, to bring in equipment.

Robinson said it looks as if the tower at Double Mer, north of Rigolet, was coated with about 30 tonnes of ice when it collapsed.

She said the tower will have to be replaced later in the year, but the crew is working on a short-term solution.

"Some temporary structures will be put up," Robinson told CBC News. "And that will allow us to reconnect our signals to those other sites and get the long-distance service back in those communities where up until now, they've only had local service maintained."

Robinson said the company still doesn't know when it will be able to restore service to the communities of Nain, Hopedale, Makkovik, Natuashish and Postville.

The communities have been cut off since Jan. 6.

Old-fashioned communication

Keith Decker, the head of the Inuit community government in Postville, said people are coping despite the lack of communications.

Decker used his satellite phone to contact CBC News on Monday morning. He said the lack of internet services would normally make it tough for people who don't carry a lot of cash, but businesses have been accommodating them with credit the old-fashioned way.

"The local businesses here, including the stores and the gas station, have let people mark things down," he said. "Only for that, you know, we would have been in for a rough time because you can't use the internet. Most people these days have debit cards and very little cash floating around."

Decker said he would like to see Bell Aliant set up a better backup system so that communities aren't cut off for so long when there are problems.