Cell coverage

[Mark59]

We have very poor cell coverage at our summer home at S.V. of Island Lake, Alberta. You have to walk out onto the road to get a connection. Seems to be an issue with many of the residents there. Can something be done?

[ottawa]

I agree, though it seems inevitable that you'll have to put money into it one way or another. 😞

Let's look at it from a different POV. Up by the road, you have a signal of some kind. How close to that point are you allowed to put up a tower? Wondering it a 10' or 20' tower near there might (or might not) get you a signal. Of course best thing is for council to netgotiate some group deal with MCSnet (doubt they'd allow Telus to use their tower). I guess it depends how many people there are willing to pay the individuals' price of $45/mo to MCSnet. If many do, they'll have no great incentive to negotiate. 😞

[Mark59]

Yes, I guess I just hate the thought of having to get a plan with a carrier out there when I have a cell plan that is supposed to cover that area. Sigh...

Meanwhile I've message tech support here and they haven't replied with a solution but have messaged inquiring if I am satisfied with their solution? Working that one out. Thank you for all your help!

[ottawa]

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@Mark59 wrote:

I don't imagine it would be easy to get them to mount a new tower. I wonder if they could put their equipment on the MCS tower that I can literally see from my lot?

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Nice thought but unlikely. I was thinking _your_ tower with the directional antenna should be as close to the road as possible. 🙂

I wonder if MCSnet would extend some sort of suspension period (like 8mo/yr) if you signed up for a 2yr contract (no activation fee). Doubt it. Does anyone live there year-round? There must be a market for MCSnet to have put up a tower.

[Mark59]

My booster is directional. You have to set up the antenna fa ing the nearest tower. Only the transmitter is supposed to be indoors but I mounted it outdoors under cover in the hopes it would provide outdoor coverage but you can stand beside it and seemingly no improvement.

[Mark59]

I don't imagine it would be easy to get them to mount a new tower. I wonder if they could put their equipment on the MCS tower that I can literally see from my lot?

[Mark59]

Right? We get a good signal on the road. Our property is maybe a meter lower, no signal. The lake is 3m lower but once we're out in the bay we get a good signal. I'm sure that a combination of topography and weak signal are the main issue. It's rollinv forested country, no big highs/lows other than the lake itself.  You know, I guess what frustrates me is the map shows full coverage and we're not really in any topographical anomaly yet it seem to be a dead spot. The phone companies are trying to improve my phone's capability but I think they would have to boost their signal. I guess that might be unreasonably expensive, but then they show the dead spot on the coverage map? I think maybe that would be asking too much, there's probably dead spots all over.

[ottawa]

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@Mark59 wrote:

Here'a fun one. We get a good signal ONLY on the road or in the boat!

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It could be the topography is such that the signal is blocked, e.g. there's a hill between your house and the tower. Do you know if your neighbours (or others in the village) get a better signal? That would be the place to mount a tower. 🙂

[Mark59]

Ah! 

[slusagm]

the choice is there., LTE is 4G, same

[Mark59]

Here'a fun one. We get a good signal ONLY on the road or in the boat!

[ottawa]

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@Mark59 wrote:

Oh, another thing. Earlier I had said that my phone is set to LTE, 4g and 3g. Actually that's not a choice. It's set to LTE, 3G AND 2G. My samsung is only 1 1/2 yrs old and supports 4G and PM state they provide 4G yet it doesn't come up as a choice.

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I'm going to guess (educated guess for once) that LTE=4G for this purpose (technically there's some difference, but perhaps not significant). I also understand that with PM, everyone gets the same signal just throttled to 5G, 4G, or 3G (older plans) speeds. Certainly in the old days, our "3G" plans were just 4G throttled to a slower speed, as there are no 3G towers any more.

[ottawa]

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@Mark59 wrote:

Well, what I didn't understand when I ordered it is that each booster may support certain "bands", which I didn't know about, and it doesn't support mine, but having said that we've had as many as 5-6 cell phones out there and it doesn't seem to help anyone much so .... This one supports bands 4 and 5 I believe. I would have returned it but had already mounted the antenna on a mast, hung the wire and installed the other 2 pcs and don't want to make the effort to dismantle the whole thing. I think it is the previous version of this one. 

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Band 4 is 1700MHz, Band 5 is 850MHz (at least according to google 🙂 ). The Telus and Rogers towers do include 850MHz according to the mapper, but not 1700MHz (it is/was the Wind/Mobilicity/Videotron/T-Mobile(US) frequency, though I think the Big3 do use it some places).

I'm not sure whether this is a directional device, or if it's intended to boost the signal inside your house/basement/etc. (truly not sure). You need something that picks up and amplifies a far-off signal from the cell tower. This device could help extend a signal (presumably WiFi) so it works further from the router in your home.

[Mark59]

Oh, another thing. Earlier I had said that my phone is set to LTE, 4g and 3g. Actually that's not a choice. It's set to LTE, 3G AND 2G. My samsung is only 1 1/2 yrs old and supports 4G and PM state they provide 4G yet it doesn't come up as a choice.

[ottawa]

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@Mark59 wrote:

Sounds like you would still need a solid signal to use data for a "soft" phone then?

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Yes, or WiFi. Which is where you'd use MCSnet, they surely provide (or you get) a router that provides WiFi, the same as any home internet. So you would connect phone to that WiFi then use a softphone (or watch Netflix, etc.). The good thing is you can test the softphone idea in the city, using your home WiFi, PM data, Rogers data (your wife's phone), etc.

Obviously that won't work when you're out of WiFi range (on the boat, down the road, etc.) but at least you'd have phone service in the house.

[Mark59]

No. My PM phone work a little better than hers out there, and she has a newer phone and a high end package. Not that either works well but I sure can't complain about PM being worse!

[ottawa]

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@slusagm wrote:

does the booster help your wife's Rogers phone?

the band thing is related with the carrier.  So, if you got one that supports Telus' bands, it should help your couple phones using PM

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But don't Rogers and Telus use the same Bands (frequencies)? The 2 towers down by Whispering Hills AB seem the same, except Rogers adds 600MHz (Band 71).

[slusagm]

does the booster help your wife's Rogers phone?

the band thing is related with the carrier.  So, if you got one that supports Telus' bands, it should help your couple phones using PM

the booster is not cheap, worth the effor to take it down and refund or re-sell

[Mark59]

Sounds like you would still need a solid signal to use data for a "soft" phone then?

[Mark59]

I am talking to the village and mcs in the hope something can be done, currently waiting on a response. Also trying telus and rogers(wifes phone is rogers) but can't imagine they'll put up a closer tower for our village, and they're not responding so far anyway. Sigh...

[Mark59]

Well, what I didn't understand when I ordered it is that each booster may support certain "bands", which I didn't know about, and it doesn't support mine, but having said that we've had as many as 5-6 cell phones out there and it doesn't seem to help anyone much so .... This one supports bands 4 and 5 I believe. I would have returned it but had already mounted the antenna on a mast, hung the wire and installed the other 2 pcs and don't want to make the effort to dismantle the whole thing. I think it is the previous version of this one.

 

[ottawa]

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@Mark59 wrote:

I did purchase a booster for  $100 from Amazon, put the antenna on a pole by the road and the booster by our travel trailer and it made zero difference. I thought maybe certain boosters only work for certain phones but anyone that comes out fares no better.

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I'm interested in this too. Do you have info on it?

I was thinking specifically of a directional antenna (where you have to point it at the tower) which can sometimes pick up a weak signal better than an antenna that's working in all directions. Whether it would help in your situation I don't know, others here probably know much more about this than I do. An example which I just found by searching (so don't buy it) is Amazon ASIN # B089VXJV14 you would still need a mast, router, wiring, etc.

Curious if anyone else has an opinion on this thing.

Thanks.

[ottawa]

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@Mark59 wrote:

Ah. Another poster thought it would connect to other providers towers. Alas...

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I hope that wasn't me. 😞 If it was, sorry for the confusion. What I was referring to, was if Fido or ChatR customers could connect, maybe you'd have to consider switching away from PM. 😞 If an expensive postpaid Rogers or Telus user could connect (roaming on other networks is one of the benefits of the expensive full-service accounts), maybe that would be an option. But it sounds like NO ONE can connect there.

I see that Island Lake AB has a municipal council. Is it possible Island Lake could work with MCSnet for either a better deal for residents, or a shared connection that would at least allow phone calls (using data with a softphone*)? The cheapest plan is $50/mo of typically 60DL/15UL speeds and 125GB/mo. If 5 neighbours shared, it's 25GB/mo which isn't enough to watch a lot of streaming videos but should (?) support most phone calling. Maybe that would appeal to MCSnet, if seasonal residents just aren't signing up otherwise.

[* "softphone" is now a dated term, but it means a dialler app that makes and receives phone calls without using the phone's minutes and texts, but using data (mobile or WiFi) instead. You either get one from a provider such as Fongo mentioned upthread, or you get one like Zoiper and then sign up with someone who offers VoIP service.]

[hTideGnow]

hi @Mark59 if in Canada , you really don't need roaming on.  In fact yuu have. keep trouble if you are really close to the broader 

[Mark59]

Thanks! I'll look into that.

[Mark59]

Ah. Another poster thought it would connect to other providers towers. Alas...

[computergeek541]

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@BKNS27 wrote:

@Mark59 

If coverage shows that it is OK then make sure the Roaming setting is enabled.

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Most phones do not have a a setting to enable roaming, but rather just to enable raoming data.  Either way, enabling raoming will not improve the coverage that Public Mobile provides in Canada. Roaming is not used in any way while connecting the Public Mobile network anywhere.

[slusagm]

soft phone is VoIP phone 

you can see if you can download Fongo and use that to call 

[Mark59]

I don't know what a soft phone is...

[Mark59]

Right, and we're only out there in the summer and don't use it a ton as we're mostly outside so I don't want to pay for another service as well. I did purchase a booster for  $100 from Amazon, put the antenna on a pole by the road and the booster by our travel trailer and it made zero difference. I thought maybe certain boosters only work for certain phones but anyone that comes out fares no better. I'm not too technologically bright and can't think of another solution. Maybe I should lobby Telus for a closer tower for our village?

[ottawa]

The 2 nearest towers (per the ertyu.org map posted upthread) are Telus and Rogers. If users on Rogers/Fido/ChatR and other Rogers-based carriers are having the same problem, there's probably no easy fix (if it were only a Rogers tower, you could try a Rogers carrier, or full Telus with roaming on Rogers).

But a question for the crowd: is there any chance 600MHz would carry further? The one difference I see between the Rogers and Telus towers is the additional frequency on Rogers.

I helped a friend with an analogous situation at his chalet in QC, he tried multiple prepaid phones but they all lost coverage at the large E-W highway to the south; turned out that's where the nearest Rogers and Videotron towers were, and all the prepaid phones he tried were on Rogers. He's now happily a PM customer since we worked out only Bell serviced their N-S highway. I suspect full postpaid Rogers would have worked for him because they probably roam on Bell/Telus, and v/v. But he didn't want expensive postpaid anyone. Don't blame him. 🙂

The only other other solution I can think of, would be a mobile-capable router and directional antenna. Then use a softphone to make calls on WiFi. Or if you have MCSnet service, again use a softphone to call on the WiFi. But MCSnet (like most rural services) looks really expensive.