All TTC Stations Now Equipped With Cell Service

[Michael77]

At this point Freedom Mobile is the only carrier to make use of the cell phone network. I hope Telus signs up. 🙂

https://www-thestar-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.thestar.com/amp/news/gta/transportation/2017/12/1...

[kav2001c]

@sirvar your comparison to T-Mobile is moot, not sure why you parrot it

In the USA T-Mobile is not the best carrier, but

1- AWS works (something Wind and now Freedom have never gotten right)

2- LTE is fast (obviously Freedom is crippled here due to bands)

3- T-Mobile made enough waves to change the industry (in Canada the big3 were seriously frightened back in 2008, since then they have become the laughingstock of the industry losing billions and offering a horrible end user experiance).

If Freedom (Wind) had at least respected their fan base they might have been something

But an install base just over 1 million in nearly 10 years in business?

Koodo / Fido / Virgin get more net postpaid activations than Freedom does, and Freedom ALWAYS needs to heavily discount price points (eg 35% f&f codes, iPhone subsidies) to even get that

The big3 basically ignore Freedom since they are irrelevant

The BAI / Wind deal was a poor one, and TTC should have taken Bell's money. The big3 are content to sit back and wait; why bother spending a penny to invest in a subway network that barely works? (No tunnel coverage until summer 2018 at best, station coverage is useless since most stations have WiFi anyways)

[computergeek541]

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@KMG wrote:

Not a useful service unless you can use it between stations.  What good is it to have only intermittent signal every few minutes every time you enter a new station?

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I thnk the real question is:  What good is having service at subway stations from Freedom when Freedom Mobile customers often can't be reached?

For more than a month now, a firend of mine has been complaining that when people call her, they get straight to voicemail.  Today, I tried calling her and the same thing happened again.  This has been happening every other day, and you have to call multiple times for it to work.  Sometimes, you just can't get through even trying 4 or 5 times and you just have to try a few hours later.  I know this is a Freedom network problem because it happens to anyone who calls her, no matter which network they are calling from. 

I believe that many of these problems are being caused by multiple network adjustments being made at this time and because of capacity issues in some places.  While there may be signal in more places than  a few years ago, Freedom Mobile's reliability has tanked, at least in my opinion (and that's not saying much because the network has never been very good).

[sirvar]

Sorry if I wasn't clear. As a small company compared to the big 3, they are still spending a lot of money and putting it into TTC stations, new LTE band, grandfathering old plans to LTE for free. They do not have to do this especially since they are so small yet they are to try and make their customers happy, draw in more customers, and take some market share from the big 3.

My point is, T-Mobile is trying really hard to take market share from the big players in the state such as unlimited data, north american roam like home, free data in Europe and other places around the globe, free Spotify, free in-flight data, etc. All these things make their customers happy and they seem to truly care about their customers unlike the big players who are just in it for the money.

[kav2001c]

@sirvar lol what?

Bell / Telus way outspends Freedom every day (even Rogers just made the news because they need to spend more to keep up with Bell / Telus)

Freedom / Shaw are not even a fraction of what big3 spend 

Serious question; if Freedom did spend any serious money, why do you think their network is over congested with swiss cheese dead spots all across the country?

There actually is a Reddit post showing dead zones & 3G only (or no) coverage

I tested their service enough times to know I would never go back regardless of savings (and new plans rot also)

PS as a frequent US traveller I will also chip in that AT&T and Verizon massacre Sprint and TMobile stateside as well

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@sirvar wrote:

Freedom is the T-Mobile of Canada. They are spending a lot of money to stay relevant and on-top. They seem to be the only one that puts their customers first. 

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[stonechucker]

Sounds like Freedom's service in general to me, at least what I had prior to joining Public Mobile.

[KMG]

Not a useful service unless you can use it between stations.  What good is it to have only intermittent signal every few minutes every time you enter a new station?

[sirvar]

Freedom is the T-Mobile of Canada. They are spending a lot of money to stay relevant and on-top. They seem to be the only one that puts their customers first. 

[will13am]

I heard about that.  TBH, we get wifi at the platforms at most stations.  The real value is to have seemless signal from station to station.  Apparently that will be later in the year.  Perhaps the big boys will sign a roaming agreement with Freedom then.

[kav2001c]

There is another thread on this topic but Freedom paid an insane amount (far more than Bell offered) to get this

I think big3 are just waiting at this point