topic New customer, no service or one bar service...Gabriola Island, BC in Get Support

New customer, no service or one bar service...Gabriola Island, BC

lunacat — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 23:31:03 GMT

Hi,

Any hints to get service? Or do I need to get a refund?

sorry...I really wanted this to work.

Re: New customer, no service or one bar service...Gabriola Island, BC

NDesai — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 03:38:07 GMT

What phone do you have? If it's fully compatible phone, you should have fairly decent service there.

Re: New customer, no service or one bar service...Gabriola Island, BC

will13am — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 03:47:46 GMT

@lunacat, I visited that island last summer. I recall cell coverage was not so good with both major providers. Things were fine if you are on the western side of the island presumably from signal coming over from the big island. If you look at this cell tower map, Telus is the only provider with towers on the Gabriola Island. Good luck trying to do better on a different service.

https://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html

Re: New customer, no service or one bar service...Gabriola Island, BC

horemansus — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 03:53:47 GMT

Your Public Mobile service works on the Telus system. As another member here let you know, Telus is the only provider with towers near you. This service is as good as it gets in your location. Canada is a big country eh?

Re: New customer, no service or one bar service...Gabriola Island, BC

lunacat — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 04:06:43 GMT

That’s kinda why I chose Freedom Mobile, as it uses the Telus network. Back to the drawing board.

Re: New customer, no service or one bar service...Gabriola Island, BC

lunacat — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 04:08:15 GMT

Hi,

thanks for responding. Have an iphone 6.

Tam

Re: New customer, no service or one bar service...Gabriola Island, BC

lunacat — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 04:10:11 GMT

That was my thought process when I chose this service. I guess I will start asking people who use cell phones in my store what service they are using.

thanks for responding.

Re: New customer, no service or one bar service...Gabriola Island, BC

srlawren — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 05:52:52 GMT

@lunacat wrote:
That’s kinda why I chose Freedom Mobile, as it uses the Telus network. Back to the drawing board.

@lunacat okay I'm almost certain you meant to say that's why you "chose Public Mobile", rather than "chose Freedom Mobile", but I wanted to be sure. If you chose Freedom Mobile expecting it to operate on Telus towers, you would be quite disappointed, since it most assurredly does not.

Re: New customer, no service or one bar service...Gabriola Island, BC

JL9 — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 05:59:32 GMT

Lol I saw that too....they will monumentally disappointed

Re: New customer, no service or one bar service...Gabriola Island, BC

Derekmcl — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 06:31:52 GMT

I’m not sure whether wifi calling has come to Public Mobile yet. Koodo offers it. Wifi calling will let your cell phone use any available wifi connection to carry the phone call. Could help with call quality at least if you have good internet at home or work.

Re: New customer, no service or one bar service...Gabriola Island, BC

austinhuang — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 14:40:34 GMT

If you look at the actual Coverage Map there is indeed a big signal void on the central of the island.

I assume you're using 4G LTE. Rogers claims to have a greater coverage on your island (But still not covering the entire island). Bell roams on Telus, so same coverage.

Not sure why your coverage is smaller when there are 2 towers...Maybe these towers are 3G HSPA+ only.

Re: New customer, no service or one bar service...Gabriola Island, BC

srlawren — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 15:43:13 GMT

@Derekmcl wrote:
I’m not sure whether wifi calling has come to Public Mobile yet. Koodo offers it. Wifi calling will let your cell phone use any available wifi connection to carry the phone call. Could help with call quality at least if you have good internet at home or work.

@Derekmcl no, there is no Wi-fi calling at Public Mobile. And at Koodo it's limited to a few specific phone models.

Re: New customer, no service or one bar service...Gabriola Island, BC

lunacat — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 18:37:17 GMT

Yes, my mistake, I meant to say Public Mobile. Stressful day.

Re: New customer, no service or one bar service...Gabriola Island, BC

lunacat — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 18:39:01 GMT

Yes, it was a mistake, I was searching for other providers and got names confused. Can could expand a little on why the Freedom Mobile is so badly thought of?

Re: New customer, no service or one bar service...Gabriola Island, BC

srlawren — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 19:04:51 GMT

@lunacat wrote:
Yes, it was a mistake, I was searching for other providers and got names confused. Can could expand a little on why the Freedom Mobile is so badly thought of?

@lunacat The main problem with Freedom Mobile is that they are still building and expanding their network, and they have very little coverage.

Have a look here: https://www.freedommobile.ca/network-and-coverage/coverage. Use the zooming and panning to look around the country. If you're in downtown Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, or Ottawa, you'll likely get a decent Freedom Mobile signal. Outside of there, well, not so much. And even some areas within the cities that are covered will be more problematic than Telus or Rogers or Bell since Freedom hasn't had as much time to work out issues with in-building penetration and so forth.

Compare that coverage map to Telus' map (https://www.telus.com/en/bc/mobility/network/coverage-map) and Rogers' map (https://www.rogers.com/consumer/wireless/network-coverage), and you can pretty quickly see why people think Freedom Mobile is in many ways not as good.

Re: New customer, no service or one bar service...Gabriola Island, BC

lunacat — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 19:32:26 GMT

Thank-You very much for your thoughtful and informed answer. I am glad to that information, it will assist in making a more educated decision.

Thanks.