@Michael77 the problem is that this particular track was built in the early 80's, to be ready for launch before Expo 86 that happened in Vancouver. (I wasn't here for that; moved with my family from Toronot in '89.) Most of the line is above ground (hence the "sky" in the "Skytrain" name) and signal is fine. But once you get to the downtown core, it goes underground for the last 3 stops of the line, and down there signal from the above-ground towers does not reach. And of course, in the early 80's, either they never thought of wiring everything up for signal while they were building it, or there were technical issues--I'm really sure why to be honest. But I guess someone had to foot the bill (or help do so) to retrofit the tunnel for coverage, and it was Rogers that secured that agreement. That is the big stretch. There are two very short tunnels earlier in the track where the train briefly had to go underground, one near the Columbia station in New Westminster BC and the other near the Edmunds station in Burnaby. I believe that more recently, Rogers also obtained exclusive access to those tunnels, as an extension (probably for more money lol) to their existing agreement for the long downtown tunnel. However, as I say, these are very short tunnels, and not nearly as deep underground, so sometimes you get enough signal to continue doing whatever you're doing. But it's hit and miss for me, probably varying based on network load, the weather, how many other phones are using it on the train and producing background signal noise, etc.
There is a newer line that run through a different part of the city (but ends up in the same destination "Waterfront", at the water's edge in downtown Vancovuer), that was built in I think the early-to-mid 2000's and opened in 2008 or 2009, and most of that track is completely underground; however, they must have designed it with cell coverage in mind and wired it all up during construction, because it seems all the providers (to the best of my knowledge) have seemless coverage that whole stretch of track. I've never had an issue on that line, though I spend a lot more time on the original "Expo" line that has the tunnel coverage issues.
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