topic Re: Tofino coverage question in Get Support

Tofino coverage question

EG6 — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 06:32:34 GMT

Hello there,

I am heading to Tofino in a few weeks and the coverage map (https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on/coverage) shows that my location at Long Beach Lodge Resort (

https://goo.gl/maps/M36t5z7zAtD2) is just slightly outside of the coverage area (right by Tourism Tofino).

Has anyone stayed in the area where Cox Bay Beach Resort, Long Beach Lodge Resort, and Pacific Sands Beach Resort?

What are my options if reception isn't covered at our lodge? Our parents will be watching our kid over the weekend, so being completely off the grid with no reception isn't the ideal situation.

Thanks

Re: Tofino coverage question

swz5005 — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 14:14:20 GMT

The only thing I can think of if you have no coverage would be wifi.

Genereally speaking you should have a bit of coverage in that area as PM does use the Telus network.

Re: Tofino coverage question

sheytoon — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 19:21:19 GMT

That's a bad area for coverage for all operators. There is only one Telus tower in the town, north of your lodge between 4 Street and Lone Cone Road.

You may receive spotty coverage with Public Mobile (since they use Telus towers) on Band 5, which is 850 MHz.

Rogers and Wind have absolutely no service there.

Edit: Rogers has spotty 2G (GSM/Edge) coverage only.

Re: Tofino coverage question

aip0401 — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 15:29:23 GMT

Hi @EG6,

@sheytoon is right. I stayed at the Wickannish back in mid-November and, depending on where I was in my room, I could just get 1 bar of signal. Back when I was with Fido, I did stay at Long Beach Lodge and I had pretty much no service (although it did roam onto the Telus network as FIDO-EXT and even then, it wasn't that reliable). Coverage drastically improves the closer you are to Tofino proper.

There will be some Wi-Fi coverage, but in general, it will be slow at best given that there aren't too many broadband options out there. I remember the Wickannish restricting Internet access to only general Internet access and email (i.e. no YouTube or Netflix) due to the limited amount of bandwidth they had.

Re: Tofino coverage question

WearySky — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 18:53:28 GMT

For future reference, you can see all cell towers in the area on the cell tower map. Putting in the address of the Long Beach Lodge Resort (1441 Pacific Rim Hwy, Tofino, BC V0R 2Z0), you can see that the closest towers are some Telus towers (so yay, at least it's the network that PM is on) about 2km away (up by Chesterman Beach Rd, boo).

Re: Tofino coverage question

sheytoon — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 19:11:30 GMT

@WearySky

Those 5 sites are all indoor microcells. They won't help him with coverage. Only the site I mentioned is outdoor.

Re: Tofino coverage question

WearySky — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 19:16:17 GMT

@sheytoon ahh yes, I didn't click on the towers to look at them more closely. Not too many transceivers there 🙂

Re: Tofino coverage question

EG6 — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 22:41:56 GMT

I guess I'll just have to chance it and hope that I get some sort of signal.

Thanks everyone for all your help!

Re: Tofino coverage question

Cyber — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 00:08:00 GMT

@EG6,

I wish you a wonderful holiday.

Keep your phone in your luggage. Relax, drink good wines, eat good foods and have fun 🙂