Network issue: no signal during power outage

[JamonRodriguez]

hey everyone,

I have a network issue.

Basically whenever there's a power outage, I lose cellular signal. This has been going on for a long time, and affects 3 other Public Mobile clients, and 1 Virgin client.

My husband on Rogers though, is not affected, he has signal.

I've interacted with CS_Agent over the last month, via private message.

The answer I got is:

"It's normal to lose cell signal during power outage. Everyone is affected, as the tower doesn't have a generator, and only has a battery. When there's an outage, the system will prioritize emergency calls (911 or 411 ect...) There is not much we can do to improve it."

Really, is this normal service?

This is not my expectation. The service should be available, especially in an outage.

What can I do for Telus to install a generator at the tower power supply? lol

Please advise. Thanks

Original thread: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Get-Support/Network-issue-no-signal-during-power-outa...

[devisha2801]

I got the same shocker today. There was a planned outage in my area, and I had done trial runs with UPS and other battery backups for my wfh setup - router, laptop, monitor etc, so I was at peace of mind on the power front. I knew that home internet will loose upstream signal at some point and I was banking on my swanky new public mobile 5G subscription to get me through the rest of the day.

What really happened is, as soon as the power went off, right away it took with itself the 5G signal, and even LTE was gone. All that was left was 4G HSPA+ with 1 bar worth of signal - which barely managed to show up in a whole number mbps. Luckily the fiber internet went on for some 90 minutes before it lost signal.

I tried public again - moved around my place for some patchy LTE, and managed to get some 5mbps which was useless after I latched onto the corporate VPN. 

Luckily we had Rogers (fido) in the house which had not degraded even a tiny bit during the outage. If not for fido I would have lost a half workday due to this stone-age unreliable Telus network.

Its almost  2024 Telus, you shouldn't be proud of not having backups for mobile networks and/or residential wired networks, that too in metropolitan cores. 

[JamonRodriguez]

yep that's exactly what we'll do, go on Fido. Honestly, just because of this. Too bad.

[jor123]

I thought a lot of Bell and Telus' cell sites had backup power, other than the small cells you see everywhere now. I would say if Rogers does in your area, it might be a better choice. 

[Phil_Adelphus]

We had this problem with Rogers, when there is a power outage we lose cell service, or at least mobile data.  Last time it happened I was testing PM on a $15 plan on an older phone so that we would have an alternative since power outages seem to be getting more frequent and of longer duration, and that still worked during the outage.  After that I ported my main phone number to PM so that hopefully with different carriers we are less likely to both lose service at the same time.   Since your experience with the carriers was the opposite it must depend on the tower locations as abtest suggested. 

[JamonRodriguez]

resolved, I understand Public Mobile does not provide service during a power outage.

thanks

[abtest · Accepted solution]

@JamonRodriguez- If the problem is truly at the tower (no generator), then there is nothing you can do.  In most areas, if the nearest tower looses power, you can probably be served by another nearby tower.  If all towers loose power, then there is nothing that can be done (other than lobby the cell companies to put generators at every tower - which will never happen).

If you are in a remote area, and there is only one tower nearby, then again, you are sort of 'out of luck'.

[Handy1]

@JamonRodriguez  It is normal for no services if there’s a outage 

check 

Outage map in your area:

https://istheservicedowncanada.com/