Roaming

[theEdge]

Because I live near American cell towers in Victoria BC, my phone will go to roaming in some locations because Canadian Cell Tower signals are weaker. Can I turn off roaming to force my phone to pick up the Canadian signal instead?

[GinYVR · Accepted solution]

@computergeek541Using certain distance as a measure in the Salish Sea can be a problem.. as part of the US (the San Juan Islands/ Oprah Island) jutt between Vancouver Island and Lower Mainland.. not to mention Point Bob. I don't think there is any silver bullet solution.

It is up to the phone to pick the tower with the best snr, the only thing the OP can do realistically is just to set the phone not to roam and to the Telus network.

[computergeek541]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@computergeek541 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@theEdge wrote:

Because I live near American cell towers in Victoria BC, my phone will go to roaming in some locations because Canadian Cell Tower signals are weaker. Can I turn off roaming to force my phone to pick up the Canadian signal instead?

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But does everything still work normally? Another user here says there's something about border exceptions.

Some phones let you manually set the only network to connect to.

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There are postpaid Canadian carriers who do allow free roaming within a certain distance from the border.  The conditions of that being applicable would depend on the carrier, but usually it has to do with the customer having a phone number from a specific city that is close to the border.  This is likely a goodwill gesture to avoid billing disputes.  I do not expect that Public Mobile would have any of these types of roaming buffer zones.

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 @AE_Collector would beg to differ. He claims everything works perfectly fine just over the border let alone reaching US towers better than Telus towers.

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When I say a certain distance from the border, I do mean from either side of the border. I have not tried so I can't speak of this, but I can't see why Public Mobile would offer it.

[Anonymous]

 @AE_Collector 

Thanks for the update and self-correction 🙂

I'll stand down.

[AE_Collector]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 @AE_Collector would beg to differ. He claims everything works perfectly fine just over the border let alone reaching US towers better than Telus towers.

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I am more confused now than before we started this discussion! I headed a little further south west in Point  Roberts WA and found a place where my phone would change to displaying AT&T. So I attempted both a text and a phone call. Both resulted in messages that this was not available with my current plan (as was suggested would happen in our previous discussion about Roaming).

But I regularly go a little further south still and my phone usually continues to show Public Mobile. I have an iPhone 6S Plus and have Data Roaming turned off but no other carriers selected or blocked. 

So, it appears that my phone is attempting to stay on Telus even though the AT&T signal certainly has to be better. At the one point presumably the Telus signal is too weak so the phone switches to AT&T and blocks my ability to do anything.

But the fact remains that there was a noticible service improvement here when the AT&T tower went into service. And I know two people in the network part of Telus mobility who told me about the sharing arrangement called "the Border Zone". It remains a possibility that this isn't available to Public Mobile or maybe not to any Prepaid Services. Or maybe the hand off to AT&T can only happen on calls that are already in progress? I don't know.

Terry

[will13am]

@theEdge , to prevent roaming, simply search mobile networks, when the phone finds all available networks, select Public Mobile.  This manual selection will mean the phone will only connect to the selected network.  Use the search feature in settings to locate the function.  

[Anonymous]

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@computergeek541 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@theEdge wrote:

Because I live near American cell towers in Victoria BC, my phone will go to roaming in some locations because Canadian Cell Tower signals are weaker. Can I turn off roaming to force my phone to pick up the Canadian signal instead?

---

But does everything still work normally? Another user here says there's something about border exceptions.

Some phones let you manually set the only network to connect to.

---

There are postpaid Canadian carriers who do allow free roaming within a certain distance from the border.  The conditions of that being applicable would depend on the carrier, but usually it has to do with the customer having a phone number from a specific city that is close to the border.  This is likely a goodwill gesture to avoid billing disputes.  I do not expect that Public Mobile would have any of these types of roaming buffer zones.

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 @AE_Collector would beg to differ. He claims everything works perfectly fine just over the border let alone reaching US towers better than Telus towers.

[computergeek541]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@theEdge wrote:

Because I live near American cell towers in Victoria BC, my phone will go to roaming in some locations because Canadian Cell Tower signals are weaker. Can I turn off roaming to force my phone to pick up the Canadian signal instead?

---

But does everything still work normally? Another user here says there's something about border exceptions.

Some phones let you manually set the only network to connect to.

---

There are postpaid Canadian carriers who do allow free roaming within a certain distance from the border.  The conditions of that being applicable would depend on the carrier, but usually it has to do with the customer having a phone number from a specific city that is close to the border.  This is likely a goodwill gesture to avoid billing disputes.  I do not expect that Public Mobile would have any of these types of roaming buffer zones.

[GinYVR]

@theEdgeIt depends on what phone you have.. it is usually under Settings.

[theEdge]

How do I do that?

[theEdge]

Yes, everything else works normally. 

[Anonymous]

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@theEdge wrote:

Because I live near American cell towers in Victoria BC, my phone will go to roaming in some locations because Canadian Cell Tower signals are weaker. Can I turn off roaming to force my phone to pick up the Canadian signal instead?

---

But does everything still work normally? Another user here says there's something about border exceptions.

Some phones let you manually set the only network to connect to.

[GinYVR]

@theEdgeYes you can do that.. just remember to switch it back on if you ever need to go roaming.