topic Re: Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa. in Get Support

Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa.

yogi799 — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 08:38:24 GMT

Hi guys, this is becoming a big problem for me. I live in East Oshawa, Townline and Taunton area. It is an area with thousands of homes everywhere. I do live near a wooded ravine and tall trees but still... I get between 1 and 3 bars inside my house on main floor and people frequently get my voicemail and when i make calls it either fails or takes 10 seconds or more and i often have to go upstairs to even make a phone call.

Never had this problem with Bell and my son with Chatr gets better singnal in my basement than I get on the main floor (pathetic!). Is Telus network so bad near North Townline in Oshawa or is something else going on? Can i do anything? Is there some tech dept which can confirm strenght of the signal in my exect area if i gave them the address? This is becoming a huge problem and i might have to leave Public if this persists. Thank you!

Re: Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa.

yogi799 — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 04:18:46 GMT

I have a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

Re: Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa.

computergeek541 — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 04:27:22 GMT

If Telus signal is really that bad in your area, you may have no choice but to switch carriers.

On that note, some phones are a little to mildly better with signal than others. The old joke or even folklore was to avoid Samsung and LG devices, and to go for Nokia, Blackberrry, and Motorola for better signal. Back then, there was some truth to that, but obviously each model was different, and you could even have slight variances between different devices of the same product.

Really, you only need a device that is slightly beter and pickinp up and transmitting signal for things to get better. That still won't make the signal strong in your area, but may make it so that it's good enough on that device that you don't notice the problems any longer.

You could also get a cell signal booster. The way these devices work is by grabbing the signal from outside and then retrasmitting it to the inside of your home.

The only official method of contacting customer service is by sending a private message to the moderators. This can be done by using this address: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

You should know that, however, that sometimes, the only thing that can help would be for the carrier to install a new tower or cellular antennae. That can sometimes take years depending on the network dpeartment's findings, regulatory issues, costs, picking an appropriate location.

Re: Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa.

mimmo — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 04:36:28 GMT

Bell and telus share the same network as such there should be no difference between the two.

One thought try switching your phone to 3g, and see if there is a difference.

I know at my house sometimes I will get 1 bar but when I switch to 3g network signal improves.

Also try your sim in your sons phone, maybe there is a hardware issue.

Re: Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa.

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 04:40:54 GMT

@mimmo wrote:
Bell and telus share the same network as such there should be no difference between the two.

One thought try switching your phone to 3g, and see if there is a difference.

I know at my house sometimes I will get 1 bar but when I switch to 3g network signal improves.

Also try your sim in your sons phone, maybe there is a hardware issue.

RE: 3G: I was wondering that but then thought "yeah but when using voice it switches to 3G anyway". So I would be interested in whether this works for the OP.

Re: Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa.

Psygineer — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 04:54:07 GMT

Weak signal is pretty common for me and at my folks place. You can pick up a signal booster which does seem to help. They are not cheap, but also not terribly expensive when you factor in the savings you are getting here.

With Bell and Telus sharing the network, that means you likely would need to go on the Rogers network if you were to switch carriers. Going to Bell or a different flavour of Telus would be pretty pointless.

It's probably your phone that is the issue though. I know the iPhone 5s I had was terrible for reception at my folks place. The Lumia 650 I gave them gets wonderful service (if you base it on the bars) but they do drop quite a few calls regardless. My LG G Flex was pretty solid in terms of signal, and the S8+ I am using right now seems to be better than the iPhone anyway. As someone else mentioned try another phone if you can and see how you do with it.

It's also possible your house itself could be to blame if there is too much getting in the way of the signal. The construction materials used can have a pretty big impact on signal strength.

Re: Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa.

will13am — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 05:24:53 GMT

@yogi799, here is a cell tower map you can use to gauge coverage in your area. According to the map, there is a Bell tower right at the intersection you mention and a Rogers tower not too far away. There are no Telus towers anywhere near there. Because of tower sharing agreements, Bell = Telus as far as the entire GTA is concerned. It seems odd that Bell has a better signal than Telus.

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

Re: Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa.

yogi799 — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 07:02:14 GMT

O, wow, so if BELL = TELUS (and by that I assume PM) then there should be no reason for this as you guys are saying.

OK, first thing i'll try is to disable LTE. I have done it and it seemed to have jumped immediately from 3 to 5 bars and then back to 2-3-4 again and off and on. So I will try to make and receive some phonecalls during the day Saturday and let you guys know.

Thanks so much for the replies, stay tuned. Will report back.

Re: Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa.

mimmo — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 14:13:22 GMT

@yogi799 wrote:
O, wow, so if BELL = TELUS (and by that I assume PM) then there should be no reason for this as you guys are saying.

OK, first thing i'll try is to disable LTE. I have done it and it seemed to have jumped immediately from 3 to 5 bars and then back to 2-3-4 again and off and on. So I will try to make and receive some phonecalls during the day Saturday and let you guys know.

Thanks so much for the replies, stay tuned. Will report back.

@yogi799dont forget to also try your sim in another phone. this will also help isolate hardware issues vs something else.

Re: Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa.

Psygineer — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 17:01:31 GMT

@yogi799 wrote:
O, wow, so if BELL = TELUS (and by that I assume PM) then there should be no reason for this as you guys are saying.

Yes, PM is a Telus brand. Telus is the main, Koodo is the secondary and then PM is the budget line.

For fun, Bell is the main, followed by Virgin and then the Bell requivalent of PM is Lucky.

They all share the same towers too.

Re: Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa.

Darren4 — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 19:29:04 GMT

Best of luck with new cell provider if things don't work out. I have confidence that Public Mobile can win you back in the future.

Re: Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa.

yogi799 — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 19:33:19 GMT

So turning off lte didn't make any difference.. Still just 2 bars and incoming calls go straight to voicemail.

Haven't been able to test with another phone yet but will do it tonight.

But I think it could be my phone. It was recently given a new screen and with thst goes 50 percent of the internals. So maybe they didn't hook up the antenna right or something like that.

I'll test the sim card with another phone and report back tonight.

Re: Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa.

kav2001c — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 19:37:19 GMT

@yogi799

Telus is most likely using Bell towers around rural Ottawa region

Re: Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa.

krazykiwi — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 19:37:35 GMT

@yogi799 wrote:
So turning off lte didn't make any difference.. Still just 2 bars and incoming calls go straight to voicemail.

Haven't been able to test with another phone yet but will do it tonight.

But I think it could be my phone. It was recently given a new screen and with thst goes 50 percent of the internals. So maybe they didn't hook up the antenna right or something like that.

I'll test the sim card with another phone and report back tonight.

Your best option is to swap with your sons sim as you said he gets better reception. Also put your sim in his phone and try both phones at the same time in the different locations in your house. This will give a good indication of what is going on.

Re: Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa.

sheytoon — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 19:58:29 GMT

@yogi799,

It's most likely due to your phone. Your coverage on Bell and PM will be the same when using the same phone at the same location.

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Discussions/Network-sharing-explained/m-p/129092

Re: Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa.

sheytoon — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 19:56:52 GMT

@kav2001c, you are right, but this is Oshawa, not Ottawa 🙂

It's all Bell in the GTA.

Re: Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa.

yogi799 — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 19:58:21 GMT

My phone received a new screen only about a month before switching to pm from bell so it is possible that I had not noticed a weak signal on bell as well.

Prior to the new screen bell was giving me super strong signal. Can't wait to test and possibly return my phone for inspection.

Will report hardware tests tonight.

Re: Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa.

yogi799 — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 00:08:27 GMT

So I took the phone in and they checked the antenna connection and all...

I then put a chatr and freedom simcards in and they both produced 4-5 bars in the same place in my house where PM shows only 2.

I then put my Simcard back in and STILL just two bars but lo and behold i can receive phonecalls now.

So it is clear that PM has a weaker signal despite the fact that I have 2 towers with many carieers nearby, within less than 1km from my house.

Not sure if phone hardware check fixed anything as i still see just 2 bars but 6-10 different tests produced incoming calls (because really, why would 2 bars mean no incoming calls to begin with, right??)

So, i think PM is weaker here (and no basement reception compared to chatr) but as long as i get calls i am good. Will continue testing but maybe all is good now...

Thanks to everyone for their input, really truly appreciated guys (and gals).

Re: Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa.

mimmo — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 00:15:59 GMT

what happens when you put you sim in a different phone. also I would be also curious to see what happens when yo have a bell/ virgin /telus/koodo sim in your phone.

Re: Very weak signal inside my house in a large town. Oshawa.

yogi799 — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 00:19:36 GMT

Yes, it would be an interesting test, but my priority was ruling out my hardware failure (or near failure), so i focused on using other simcards in my phone, not the other way around.

I have been with Bell and earlier with rogers for years and there has never been a problem in my house. My son is receiving calls in the basement on chatr. I did not receive a call on my phone on PM in the same basement spot.... we tried twice.