topic Carrier service area in Get Support

Carrier service area

SKnight — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 22:18:51 GMT

I have no service where I live, it bounces off the water onto US signal and says I need an add on for Roaming to the US. Why does it work all the way across the ocean but not locally. Is there a way to get an upgrade to connect with USA and not pay some ridiculous amount?

Re: Carrier service area

hTideGnow — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 17:29:47 GMT

Hi @SKnight make sure you manually pick Public Mobile from the network selection, do not use automatic

Re: Carrier service area

dust2dust — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 17:30:54 GMT

Yes your phone is picking up a US tower better than a Telus/Bell tower.

Re: Carrier service area

LeePublic — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 17:35:18 GMT

Make sure you turn off roaming in your phone settings..... that will force it to connect to the Canadian towers.

Re: Carrier service area

SKnight — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 17:37:24 GMT

Yes, it’s Public mobile

Re: Carrier service area

SKnight — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 17:38:25 GMT

There’s actually no legit connection locally. No towers. Why am I paying for service when I don’t get actual service?

Re: Carrier service area

Timer — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 17:42:23 GMT

@SKnight

check out your area coverage which is have and public mobile network use telus and bell.

Canadian Cellular Towers Map (ertyu.org)

Coverage (publicmobile.ca)

Check the status of service outages

Re: Carrier service area

hairbag1 — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 18:05:05 GMT

Good question.

How long have you been a paying PM customer ?

Have you ever had PM service in the location you're in now ?

Where, in Canada, are you experiencing this issue ?

Re: Carrier service area

Korth — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 23:16:02 GMT

@SKnight wrote:
There’s actually no legit connection locally. No towers. Why am I paying for service when I don’t get actual service?

Subscribing to a service won't accomplish much when service is unavailable.

You should check the coverage maps linked in @Timer 's post.

Rogers has the largest single nation-wide network in Canada, Bell+Telus+SaskTel have the largest shared nation-wide network in Canada - both of these options offer some coverage or better coverage in certain areas the other(s) lack.

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

You can subscribe to the USA-based service, perhaps? Though you will then have a USA-based number which requires "roaming" in Canada and "long distance" from Canada. Some Canadian providers offer Canada & USA calling plans - Public Mobile has offered some before. Some American operators might do the same.

You might want to ask your neighbours and other folks with working phone service in your area which provider they use.

I think you should try the other suggestions above (selecting "Public Mobile" vs "Automatic", turning roaming permissions off, restarting to apply these changes) before changing providers. If they work then there's no need to change anything else.

Re: Carrier service area

esjliv — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 20:28:05 GMT

@SKnight wrote:
I have no service where I live, it bounces off the water onto US signal and says I need an add on for Roaming to the US. Why does it work all the way across the ocean but not locally. Is there a way to get an upgrade to connect with USA and not pay some ridiculous amount?

So, are you looking to call the USA whilst you are in Canada @SKnight ? Re: what you wrote in red above.

Unless, you have one of those plans that include Canada-wide and USA calling whilst in Canada, OR you purchase an addon for USA calling (again, while in Canada), then you will not be able to call USA numbers.

Otherwise, see other suggestions.