Telus: Changes to their supported 4G Frequencies

[Cosmos411]

Hey everyone.  Back in May I got a new Blackview A80 Plus and for a while everything was amazing.  Then one day call quality went to garbage.  Where I used to be able to make calls from anywhere in the house, I was now only able to use one tiny area and even then the calls would drop more often than not.  I contacted Blackview and they looked into it and confirmed that Telus had recently limited 4G bands they used.  I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this problem.  I put the SIM card back in my trusty old Umidigi phone, but have noticed a distinct drop in call quality with that phone as well.

TLDR:  Has anyone else noticed a recent change in Telus coverage that has made their call quality terrible?

Thanks in advance.

edited by computergeek541:  miscategorized/not Community website related

[computergeek541]

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@Cosmos411 wrote:

True, the Blackview phone wasn't defective.  It was an amazing phone, clear calls and very responsive.  That was until something changed with the 3G Telus network.  I was lucky Blackview accepted a return based on warranty even though nothing was wrong with the phone.  I've temporarily switched back to my old Umidigi and the phone quality is much better as it supports more frequencies (still not as good as it once was).  The one good thing with the Moto G pure is that is supports more frequencies than Blackview. Hopefully that will keep it alive long enough for PM to implement VoLTE.

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The Umidigi working better for phone calls is unlikely to be because of it supporting more frequencies.  As from the title of your thread, you were asking about "4g".  "4g"/LTE is unrelated to phone call service as it isn't used for that.  Phone calls only use the "3g"/HSPA" network on bands 2 and 5.  All other bands on either 3g or 4g or irrelleveant for phone call services. Both your Blackview and Umidigi devices likely both support both band 2 and band 5 on 3g.  It's likely that your Umidigi only has a marginally better antenna for reception. 

[Cosmos411]

True, the Blackview phone wasn't defective.  It was an amazing phone, clear calls and very responsive.  That was until something changed with the 3G Telus network.  I was lucky Blackview accepted a return based on warranty even though nothing was wrong with the phone.  I've temporarily switched back to my old Umidigi and the phone quality is much better as it supports more frequencies (still not as good as it once was).  The one good thing with the Moto G pure is that is supports more frequencies than Blackview. Hopefully that will keep it alive long enough for PM to implement VoLTE.

[computergeek541]

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@Cosmos411 wrote:

Thanks again Softech.  I'm looking at the moto g pure which is listed in the PM store as a phone that will work properly.

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I suspect that getting a new phone isn't going to solve this issue.  While each device and phone model will have slightly different antenna/reception properties, that doesn't change the fact thta something changed on the network.  Your Blackview device may not have been defective. I've discussed this with Public Mobile before, and have actually informed that of my thoughts that the 3g/HSPA netowrk is falling apart and that espcially for data, has become unreliable/unusable. I've even use the word "urgeent" to describe the current "need" for VoLTE.  I can assure everyone that Public Mobile is well aware of these opinions and concerns of customers.

[Cosmos411]

Thanks again Softech.  I'm looking at the moto g pure which is listed in the PM store as a phone that will work properly.

[softech]

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@Cosmos411 wrote:

  Blackview is being cool with the problem and is letting me return the phone based on warranty.  I'm looking at phones on PM's store.  I don't want to mess around with this problem again.

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@Cosmos411   Generally speaking, most Canadian phone will work well on Telus/PM network.  It's the phones that targeted for other regional markets might have issue.    Many of those would still connect , just with unstable data or voice issues

But as @computergeek541 explained, the 3G voice might get worst until VoLTE comes (hopefully soon)

If you have any phone model in mind, post here and we can try to lookup the info and advise.  It's always fun to shop for a new phone  🙂

[computergeek541]

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@Cosmos411 wrote:

Thanks softech.  What you say makes a lot of sense.  I suspect Telus may have changed something on their 3G network as my voice calls aren't anywhere near as clear as they were just a couple of months ago.

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Changes to the "4g"/LTE network itself wont' affect the quality of phone calls as Public Mobile doesn't use LTE for voice services. However, the trend has been to reduce the capacity of the "3g"/HSPA+ network, and I would say that customers can expect to see less an less of 1900MHz/Band 2 HSPA available.   I too have notice a serious decline in the quality of the HSPA+ network in both data speeds and vocie service quality.  I suspect that these are network capacity issues.  Until Public Mobile enables VoLTE, this is only going to get worse, at least for phone call service.

[Cosmos411]

I'm in SW Ontario and the Telus coverage map shows excellent coverage for my area.  I've tried using the phone in several places and the quality has really diminished over the past month or so.  Definitely something has changed over here.  Blackview is being cool with the problem and is letting me return the phone based on warranty.  I'm looking at phones on PM's store.  I don't want to mess around with this problem again.

[softech]

@Cosmos411   which city and province you are at?

Try your phone in a different area from where you are now.  If it is just local network issue, you should get better voice experience in a different area

[Cosmos411]

Thanks softech.  What you say makes a lot of sense.  I suspect Telus may have changed something on their 3G network as my voice calls aren't anywhere near as clear as they were just a couple of months ago.

[softech · Accepted solution]

@Cosmos411 

Telus didn't make any changes to the bands, it's your phone that does not have all the requires bands

These are the bands on your phone  BOLD are the compatible bands

3G bands HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
4G bands 1, 3, 7, 8, 20, 40

thess are what you need for PM:

Your phone only have the Band 7 on Telus's LTE.  , this is not enough for a stable data connection

But for voice, PM uses only 3G and you have enough compatible 3G bands

What it might be, you have been using 3G network and was working fine.  But there could be a change on the 3G network (or some problem with the 3G network in that area) and you now needs the LTE network for data and it is not working well.  And for voice, it will be affected too if it was indeed 3G issue there. I assume you will get the same voice trouble if you put your PM sim into another phone.  But data could work better if you try on another phone

Overall, your phone should work well on for voice but won't have a  stable LTE connection.