The coverage map is inaccurate?

[dtrmcc]

Before I went into the wild I have checked the wireless coverage map on public mobile website. 

I went to Buntzen Lake in BC, which should be well within the coverage of PM wireless service, according to the coverage map. 

However, there is completely no service at all.

Anyone has similar experience with the coverage map? or is it possible that my phone is not picking up the coverage?

[Korth]

You can click individual towers on the coverage map to see which radio frequencies/bands they're licensed to operate.

But it's not as easy as drawing a coverage radius around each cell site. Most towers are not omnidirectional, especially in dense (urban) areas, especially when they're clustered near competing networks or power transmission equipment, especially when terrain (buildings, mountains, magnetic anomalies) block some of the signal.

The huge elevated towers on mountaintops and skyrise rooftops will tend to have the most area coverage. The tall towers near highway intersections will tend to have good area coverage. The smaller antenna masts will tend to have directional arrays aimed at high demand areas (or away from forbidden areas). The little radio cells mounted on streetlights/etc will tend to have a short range (and are usually intended to increase data density more than area coverage).

If it really matters then just try using talk, text, and data to see if it works. You could always drive around from site to site to examine what sort of radio power they have - parabolic dishes and microwave drums are directionally aimed, vertical antennae are omnidirectional, "panels" or "rakes" of vertical antenna are semi-directional - a quick visual inspection of the antenna geometry will tell you how much radio is being aimed where - and even tell you which general frequencies it's optimized for, if you know what to look for - and if you can't see the antenna elements at all then chances are good that they're not very big or powerful.

The coverage map isn't inaccurate. It's just incomplete. Do not assume all cell sites are equal.

Big towerBig towerPuny "tower"

[Anonymous]

And this one, while not perfect, gives some ideas of the beam shape. You can see that it's just the southernmost part that might have some reception.

[dtrmcc]

thank you so much, this tool is very useful. 

[dtrmcc]

it seems that the map is not accurate about coverage there.

[dtrmcc]

I have another rogers sim card, no service neither...

[dtrmcc]

Thank you for the explanation. 

[Anonymous]

Buntzen Lake is in a narrow valley. No doubt there might not be service everywhere there. But to the coverage map: sure, one could say that. Coverage maps are just broad general rough blocks of suggested coverage.

[softech]

Look to me the actual area around the Lake is not covered.. you have to be on the south side of the lake - AV Park area to get the coverage...

Any chance you have a Telus SIM to see if any difference -- although it should be same for PM SIM.. 

[computergeek541]

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@dtrmcc wrote:

Before I went into the wild I have checked the wireless coverage map on public mobile website. 

I went to Buntzen Lake in BC, which should be well within the coverage of PM wireless service, according to the coverage map. 

However, there is completely no service at all.

Anyone has similar experience with the coverage map? or is it possible that my phone is not picking up the coverage?

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Yes, you're right that Buntzen Lake is advertised as covered. The maps show both HSPA and LTE network. Is it everywhere in that area that you have no service?  It's possible that there's a local and temporary network outage.

[JK8 · Accepted solution]

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@dtrmcc wrote:

Before I went into the wild I have checked the wireless coverage map on public mobile website. 

I went to Buntzen Lake in BC, which should be well within the coverage of PM wireless service, according to the coverage map. 

However, there is completely no service at all.

Anyone has similar experience with the coverage map? or is it possible that my phone is not picking up the coverage?

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Have a look at this site for coverage. No towers close by.

Canadian Cell Towers Map

https://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html