Anyone else's reception getting *even worse*?

[Pawprints1986]

I'm dropping calls now. It's a clear day and my residence has not moved

It's one thing to have semi usable data (as infuriating as it can be compared to even a year ago when it actually worked) but now calls are becoming unreliable too

Is anyone else experiencing this?

As much as I like the legacy perks here, I may need to try Rogers networks out of necessity now. Which I really don't want to as they're the ones who've dropped service entirely for the day and multiple times province wide if not country wide

I'm unaware of any boosters that are indoor only, I've looked. You can only find the indoor portion of an antenna booster, which I cannot mount outside on the ground floor of a building (especially on the ground without someone walking away with it)

But yeah, tldr is it getting worse for anyone else? My device isn't capable of 5g and we don't have volte so it's not that either

[Pawprints1986]

There is, but to combine both costs, it's more than losing out of the $5 loyalty and autopay discounts

I've been dropping calls on public too, not just data

[Chalupa_Batman]

So why don't you just drop down to the lowest plan $15 just to keep your loyalty and friends benefits? And if you have a phone that does eSIM, can't you do eSIM for PM and the SIM card from Chatr? Use the phone number on each any time and use data from Chatr? I'm sure there's a way to set that up. 

[Pawprints1986]

Your data sounds like mine lol. Very reminiscent of dialup days. To go out it's slow-er, but very usable. And I'd always figured why pay more for data at a "faster" speed when the reception is so crap it probably won't even be faster or better. And sure, there's WiFi most of the time but that's not the point, if I'm paying for something I expect being able to use it whenever I feel like. Dropping calls is the most critical reason though, I've imagined dropping a call after waiting on hold for an hour, thankfully hasn't happened, but I also haven't had to call anywhere like that in a good while

In all honesty, I think I am switching to chatr. They had a thing in my area for first month free, so I signed up just with a throwaway number for now to test it out. I'm pulling in a consistent 4 bars (4g LTE) in the same surrounded by concrete living space vs 1 here on public. 3g for phone calls still for now there, but even that only shifts between 3 and 4 bars. I can also get 8 and 9 Mbps on a speed test on both download and upload. On also a 3g plan. Public throttles hard it turns out. 😕

And it's not the device, I've used both sim cards in both devices at this point several times. These results are the same with both. A galaxy s7 and a galaxy s20 pull the same now crap reception values with public, and the same better ones on chatr. I've even brought them both out to compare while out, PM gets better then, but chatr just stays good

I've loved public as a company, no issues apart from reception, and yeah I'll miss the loyalty discount, but it's just silly to keep a half usable service, in my living space which is the vast majority of the time. I hated the idea of going to the Rogers family, due to them being the victims of the nationwide outages we've had a couple times over the years but... Day to day it just makes sense

(Still haven't figured out the whole 5g pruning thing on s20 though, but that's a whole other topic)

[stally891]

Interestingly after voLTE went live, I am now having issues placing/receiving calls at home.

Sometimes I can't hear the other party, but more often they can't hear me while I can hear them fine.

When it comes to data, it's essentially useless. I can't even get google.ca to load half the time.

I've got a 5G device and am on a 4G plan, but I have tried to connect to both 5G and LTE networks and the same problem presents.

I can manually set to 3G to improve the call reliability, but I then lose voLTE.

We are experiencing the same issues on two PM devices and one Telus device at home, so the issues are not unique to PM, but rather the Telus network in general.

Of course on the Telus device I can at least manage with WiFi calling enabled.

I hope PM offers WiFi calling at the very least to overcome the network shortcomings, or else I may need to also move to Rogers.

[Pawprints1986]

"if you have volte you will notice a big difference."

even if, for whatever reason, reception/data remain bad due to physical barriers (buildings in close proximity etc)

I can text over lte and that's always near instant, but add a picture and it takes a bit, maybe an actual 20 seconds sometimes? and that's just a picture... 

I'll have to check out phone box though, never heard of it 🤔

I remain skeptical only because when I'm not in my home, it's much better. If I lived in a house I'd have the standard, supposed to be there data throttle, but other than that no issues at all times

[gpixel]

if you have volte you will notice a big difference.

you can always do a test and try out phonebox, they have 7 day plans. I would still look to be upgrading my device if reception was my main issue. an old battery can be one of the contributors... with a new device you'll have access to the 5g network and volte. i would only look to purchase Canadian version devices to avoid potential compatibility issues with the volte feature at pm

[Pawprints1986]

Isn't volte only a good idea if lte itself is strong/fast? 

My reception is still fine anywhere else, 4 and even 5 bars. It's only gotten worse at home... Which is what had me wonder if there's a way to tell of telus/bell is working on things in the area, or if Rogers has become the better of the 2 for the area (especially given US border closeness)

🤷

[gpixel]

@Pawprints1986 

ebay s21  $279 with 1 year warranty cad version. it's upto you, however upgrading from an s7 you should notice a difference especially with the s21 having access to volte and 5g. newer devices have better radios thus better signal quality

[Pawprints1986]

How would that improve my reception though? The buildings and such will still exist... 

Especially skeptical when my bros iPhone 12 or 13 had the same issue not long ago as far as lte data being unreliable. That's why I wondered maybe Rogers has more of a US border area coverage than telus does

I don't want to switch but I also have my doubts as far as new device for that reason 🤷

[gpixel]

@Pawprints1986 

it's time for an upgrade bud. switching providers is the wrong choice... you can find good deals on used s20 and s21

[Pawprints1986]

How many bars do you get for lte though? I'm lucky to get 4 when my phone is on the table idle, but to even just pick it up and move it 3 feet to use it it's more like 2 or even 1. I have a feeling that call quality would be horrific too at that reception. I often get no upload speed at all while holding my device, as in speed test errors out. So if my voice needs "uploaded" in the same way on volte I'd be even more screwed

I think I'd even be doing better if I could put something on that spot of the table to act as a repeater, rather than a full on outdoor antenna at least for LTE, but I don't think that exists

The weird part is when wcdma first started getting worse (I had been keeping by device on wcdma only), I tried lte and reception was actually significantly better at that point. I could hold it in the same spot as now and see 3 or even 4 bars, data worked, it was... Very Usable. Same device, same living space

xxxxxxxxxxxx  slowly over the last 6 months or so, maybe 8 at most. But wouldn't they be *improving* LTE?

It just makes no sense. I refuse to try a 4g plan unless they have a sale for the same price I pay now, since it probably won't improve things 😕

[DennyCrane]

No issues on my 4G plan in BC with VoLTE.

I did notice before switching to a 4G plan last year that my 3G data service was degrading over time. No issues with phone calls, though that could be a VoLTE issue if you don't have it. 

[Pawprints1986]

I have no plans on paying for a 5g plan though, I'm not even paying for 4g lol still on 3g for $30. They don't have small cheaper data buckets anymore

Last my family was here doing some work, they had issues too, a podcast wouldn't play and they had to hook onto WiFi. They have koodo with LTE/5g capability but same towers/building at the time... 

Last I sent a picture had decent delay too, probably actually 30 seconds?

II'd imagine if it were an issue of priority, my family would've gotten better/faster service due to being higher tier

[Chalupa_Batman]

It's a long shot but you can ask your landlord if you could run a RG60 cord to the roof if it's a few story building. Don't ask the manager, ask the head office. Tell them if you're unable to do it, it looks like you may have to move. OR you can ask to be moved up to a higher suite like the top floor. And if you're a good tenant or a long term tenant they may help matters. But most landlords are scum. LOL

[softech]

@Pawprints1986 time for an upgrade  🙂

S7 has no 5G, but I wonder if your area will have better 5G signals than 4G or 3G  🙂

[Pawprints1986]

@softech I have a Samsung Galaxy s7 - not volte capable, but also lte is bad too at least as far as data. I'd imagine voice would be equally bad. But no, if I go out the problem as far as calls doesn't exist anymore. Data still slower but usable too. 4 or 5 bars while out

@Chalupa_Batman you have to mount it on the roof though, that's the issue. I'm in a ground floor apartment I can't do that. I tried one a year or so ago maybe 2, mounting in the window, but it wasn't far away enough from the indoor part, didn't work properly

I've already tried airplane mode, removing my sim while powered off, etc

Is there a way for us to tell if telus/bell plans on installing more towers, or improving existing towers? I imagine the part of 3g they've already shut off was better at penetrating buildings. I used to be able to switch to 3g only and get a steady 4 bars, and data was more than usable. That's not true anymore. Hasn't been for a while. But I don't know why they'd disable that part without making an equivalently strong 4glte signal? I doubt it's an issue of more people using the signal since most are onto 5g by now

[Chalupa_Batman]

So a couple of things. If you do require a booster my friend just got this and says it improved her signal.

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B077N6822R/?coliid=IYL0NA3OO88W9&colid=13DA7Z9QINSYX&psc=1&ref_=list_c_wl_l...

Also, you could try a few things. Try reconnecting to the network by going to settings in your phone, find network settings and try turning it off,  turn back on and reboot the phone. Another is go into Airplane mode. Wait 10 seconds and turn it off. 

[Yummy]

Sorry, no issues in York region.

[softech]

@Pawprints1986 

I guess you tried 3G network already?

but another question is what phone do you have?. is it VoLTE compatible? if so, do you know if you are using it or maybe you want to test VoLTE if possible?

and your voice issue is  location specific? any better when you are away in another area?