cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Is lack of 2G network a problem?

erotavlas
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

I'm thinking to port my number from Rogers, and they seem to be the only carrier with 2G network.  I find myself sometimes fall onto the 2G (or E) on my phone in certain areas of poor signal, like if I'm underground, or away from the city.

 

What would happen in this situation if on Public Mobile, since there is no 2G network to fall back on, do you just get no signal?  What happens if you hapen to travel into an area covered mostly by 2G network and your phone supports it.  Would you still be able to make calls?  

17 REPLIES 17


@Ruslan1394 wrote:

Technology wise, 2G network not particularly inferior to 3G or LTe. Various frequencies have its own pros and cons. Its sad that main providers cannot pick up their **bleep** and be consistent with frequencies. Consistecy would have saved money to many Canadians. So whats a pro of 2G. Its a long wave. It can travel and bounce less often hence if its a GPS tracker of a boat or some remote device it will likely to have service in middle of lake or deep woods.

I don't agree with that. In Canada, 2g is is on band 2 and 5 (1900 and 850MHz), and only at Rogers.  There are LTE signals in the neighborhood of 700 and 850MHz. There is also coverage on Band 5 (850MHz) for the 3g networks. Either can travel much farther at those lower frequencies than a 2g network can on Band 2. Further, while I have not looked up if any band 5 frequencies that Rogers uses for 2g are any lower than the band 2 frequencies used by them or other carriers for either 3g or LTE, the coverage difference isn't going to be of any signficance. Technologically speaking, a 2g network is inferior in every way that I can think of.  It's currently only there because it's already built and for compatibility reasons, and it won't be there for much longer.

 

 

Ruslan1394
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

Technology wise, 2G network not particularly inferior to 3G or LTe. Various frequencies have its own pros and cons. Its sad that main providers cannot pick up their **bleep** and be consistent with frequencies. Consistecy would have saved money to many Canadians. So whats a pro of 2G. Its a long wave. It can travel and bounce less often hence if its a GPS tracker of a boat or some remote device it will likely to have service in middle of lake or deep woods. Downside internet is painfully slow. You can still check Email and browse internet but no streaming video. 5G is like wifi. it is super fast but 5 meters away and no service or poor to no connection in tunnels and thick buildings. In-between frequencies is a jack of all trades. I work in hospital and 3G suck big time. 4G forget about service. 3g your battery will deplete faster with less service bars (since its searching it over and over).

 

Also 2G network maintenance is virtually free. This is why it's offered in 3rd world countries at a cost of 1c a minute or unlimited $10 a month.

 

With LTE and Canadian providers clocking down unlimited internet at 50kb/s we dont need even 3G. Those that burn through 15GB in short time will not even be happy with 5G but 5G will cost all Canadians a leg. I mean main providers charge $80 for basically 10GB and unlimited call/text. Real price should be $30 but then providers will not be able to upgrade to 5G. I dont know how PM does low prices but next time Canadians pay Rogers, Bell, etc question what their real use and why bill is so high. 5G people should pay for them using 5G. 3G users should pay their maintennance fees of 3g. So 2G users should be only paying 2G rates. Ala $10, not a $40 for call and text and 300mb internet(that include hidden network upgrades). I rather have 2G in deep woods than 5G. If I am camping I dont need to watch videos. But I might need service in case I brake a leg. Putting 5G into deep woods is the same as making every Canadian to pay for corporate stupidity and mindless greed.

jor123
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

All the more reason for voice over lte to be rolled out to all phones. It sucks that areas where coverage improvements were made with small cells, etc. don't see any voice calling benefits. There wouldn't be much point in having a PM phone in a place like Hearts Content where you could text and use data but not make phone calls until within range of a traditional tower, when you could sign up with Koodo, Telus, Virgin or Bell and enjoy that coverage on every iPhone and many android phones... 


@will13am wrote:

@cellphoneuser1 wrote:

@jor123 wrote:

 

Even most Rogers sites built in the last few years don't have gsm on them at all.


Trend is also to skip 3g by some carriers in some locations. There are some locations on coverage maps that only have LTE.


@cellphoneuser1 , really?  You do realize that Public Mobile doesn't offer VoLTE?  


I realize and that means no voice in these places.  See the messages by others about it.

@cellphoneuser1 and @jor123 are correct. Not just small cells, there are macro new sites with LTE only.

 

PM users can have full bars and no voice calling capability.

 

Here's an example: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Phones-Hardware/White-River-Ontario-No-voice-service/...

jor123
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

@will13am wrote:

@cellphoneuser1 wrote:

@jor123 wrote:

 

Even most Rogers sites built in the last few years don't have gsm on them at all.


Trend is also to skip 3g by some carriers in some locations. There are some locations on coverage maps that only have LTE.


@cellphoneuser1 , really?  You do realize that Public Mobile doesn't offer VoLTE?  


Plenty of Bell/Telus small cells now are LTE only with no UMTS. The phone will just fallback to a tower with umts when on a voice call. There are areas like Point Leamington, NL and Hearts Content, NL with only LTE so trying to make a phone call will make the phone go to no service... 


@cellphoneuser1 wrote:

@jor123 wrote:

 

Even most Rogers sites built in the last few years don't have gsm on them at all.


Trend is also to skip 3g by some carriers in some locations. There are some locations on coverage maps that only have LTE.


@cellphoneuser1 , really?  You do realize that Public Mobile doesn't offer VoLTE?  


@jor123 wrote:

 

Even most Rogers sites built in the last few years don't have gsm on them at all.


Trend is also to skip 3g by some carriers in some locations. There are some locations on coverage maps that only have LTE.

jor123
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

@GinYVR wrote:

@Ruslan1394The easiest get a new tracker? Even you get Rogers 2G the network will be turned off at the end of next year, so it is a stop gap at best.

 

https://www.rogers.com/customer/support/article/2G


Even most Rogers sites built in the last few years don't have gsm on them at all.

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@Ruslan1394 wrote:

GPS manual says supports 850/900 1800/1900 Mhz. It works just fine with Rogers SIM card. I am so angry and upset because I already bought PM SIM for it. Now I read this thread and assume this is all because incompatibility. What should I do?


@Ruslan1394 does it say if those are GSM frequencies or any one of "UMTS", "W-CDMA", "HSPA", "HSDPA"?  If those are GSM frequencies, then yes your only option would be Rogers (or Fido or Chatr which Rogers owns and operates on its network--though I'm not 100% sure that Chatr customers have access to the GSM network).  As @GinYVR pointed out, that network will no longer be available in about 13.5 months, but you could use it in the meantime.  

 

As for the "what should I do" question, I would unfortunately say chalk it up to a learning experience to verify compatibility before activating a new service with a bring-your-own-device device.  [Doubly so for something that isn't a conventional mobile phone/smart phone.]

 

EDIT: looks like @cellphoneuser1 types faster than I do!  


>>> ALERT: I am not a moderator. For account or activation assistance, please click here.


@Ruslan1394 wrote:

This is all dandy but I have a boat with a GPS tracker on it (its like brains for it and a safety feature). Well, 2 days ago I went to Walmart and bought PM SIM card. Activated it on cellphone but it would not badge on my boat. I tried to call GPS, textmessage, set APN for PM network, reset all passwords, change master number. Anyways you got it. I tried. GPS manual says supports 850/900 1800/1900 Mhz. It works just fine with Rogers SIM card. I am so angry and upset because I already bought PM SIM for it. Now I read this thread and assume this is all because incompatibility. What should I do?


You can't do anything except get a compatible GPS.  There are no refunds, especially for this kind of thing that Public Mobile has no control over.

 

In case it could be Public Mobile account issue, check again if the GPS supports 3g 850 and 1900MHz.

@Ruslan1394The easiest get a new tracker? Even you get Rogers 2G the network will be turned off at the end of next year, so it is a stop gap at best.

 

https://www.rogers.com/customer/support/article/2G

Ruslan1394
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

This is all dandy but I have a boat with a GPS tracker on it (its like brains for it and a safety feature). Well, 2 days ago I went to Walmart and bought PM SIM card. Activated it on cellphone but it would not badge on my boat. I tried to call GPS, textmessage, set APN for PM network, reset all passwords, change master number. Anyways you got it. I tried. GPS manual says supports 850/900 1800/1900 Mhz. It works just fine with Rogers SIM card. I am so angry and upset because I already bought PM SIM for it. Now I read this thread and assume this is all because incompatibility. What should I do?

Rogers falls back to 2g because in many places, the 2g signal is stronger than the 3g signal.  Eventually, that will change if Rogers stops investing in 2g equipment and towers. 

 

 

xxJDxx
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

AFAIK Telus' 3G coverage matches their old CDMA coverage. 

 

Telus actually plans to shut down their old CDMA network on Jan 31st. So Telus users wont' be able to access it anymore either. 

 

http://www.telus.com/en/bc/support/article/mobility-service-updates

nishufan
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

Hi @erotavlas

 

  You don't need to worry about this. Every carrier will make sure the coverage of 2G also got covered by 3G/4G,then they will shut down the 2G network. And the frequencies which 2G used will recycle and will use in 3G/4G in order to improve the coverage and services provided by 3G/4G. The reasons why Rogers still keep the 2G network. In my opinion, the GSM still used around the world, and Rogers need to consider the roaming agreement with other carriers outside the country. The another reason is considering the customers which still using only 2G devices.  Sooner or later, Rogers will shut down the 2G network, it is a market trend. Thanks

ASharpTM
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

I don't think it's really a problem. Public Mobile has a full 3G as well as 4G LTE network. If you can't get LTE for some reason then it should fall back to 3G no problem. If there's no 3G signal available then you won't be able to do anything.

 

If you do run into an area that has no 3G or LTE coverage then you're SOL and won't be able to make phone calls, text, or data. Generally speaking I doubt this will really be a problem though as long as you're within the areas indicated on the coverage map here: https://publicmobile.ca/en/on/coverage

Need Help? Let's chat.