Very bad signal in Montreal

[tanyaden]

Hi, I'm in Montreal's suburb, and for almost a year now we have a terrible signal at home (main and upper floor, not basement only). It's between -115 dBm and -100 (at best!). We have 3 different phones (all with PM), and all 3 show pretty much the same signal. As a result we often cannot make or receive phone calls, and if we can the other party cannot hear me well - the words are chopped.

Friends with different service providers (Videotron for sure, don't remember others) also see the bad signal.

Signal is a bit better outside of the house, and much better 100m away.

The problem started about a year ago, before that everything worked fine. That's why I blame the network as nothing changed in the phone.

All phones are set to "Prefer 3G" but it doesn't help much.

Any idea what to do other than leaving PM?

[computergeek541]

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@DennyCrane wrote:

Any device issued locally withing the last few years should have VoLTE, no? If you bought a foreign device YMMV.

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For anyone wondering, Public Mobile isn't specificially blocking devices purchased from different regions or from different carriers from using VoLTE. I have spoken to some customers who have purchased phones from various sources and the VoLTE works.  On my Pixel 7, VoLTE has started working, but until I applied the March software udpate (I just installed it), there was a device software issue that caused loss of VoLTE functionality after the use of HSPA data until the device was restarted.

[DennyCrane]

Any device issued locally withing the last few years should have VoLTE, no? If you bought a foreign device YMMV.

[softech]

@tanyaden I know some modesl not all the list but  already have VOLTE option there and can use that as well.  But it looks like to road to enable all accounts would be long.  So, keep checking

[tanyaden]

No VoLTE. Looks like my phone is not compatible. I have Xiaomi Redmi 8.

Upd: Actually I was wrong, sorry. Just enabled VoLTE. Doesn't affect signal strength, will see if it helps with the calls.

[softech]

@tanyaden do you have VoLTE option there on yiur phone's connection page?

[tanyaden]

At -120 dBm I have no bars at all, and no calls can be made or received 😞 

[softech]

 @tanyaden 

as said this morning VoLTE is now another step closer 

https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on/get-help/articles/volte

[will13am]

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@tanyaden wrote:

"Worse" as the signal strength drops to -120 dBm and I'm not able to make/receive calls at all

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What model of phone do you have?  The -123 dBM on LTE equates to 2 bars out of 4 on my phone.  I am able to sustain a connection at this signal strength.  If there is a call, the phone switches to the 3G network and the LTE connection becomes a moot discussion.  

[tanyaden]

"Worse" as the signal strength drops to -120 dBm and I'm not able to make/receive calls at all

[DennyCrane]

Gets much worse for what specifically? Calls it should make no difference because it will fallback to 3G until VoLTE rolls out anyway. Are you talking about data connection?

[Dunkman]

On a side note, your phone will need to be LTE enabled for VoLTE to work in the near future.  Most new phones will have this feature.  

Here is some more information to see whether your phones will be compatible:

https://www.telus.com/en/support/article/how-to-use-volte

[tanyaden]

I tried switching to LTE - it gets much worse, I have no connection at all. 

[will13am · Accepted solution]

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@tanyaden wrote:

Hi, I'm in Montreal's suburb, and for almost a year now we have a terrible signal at home (main and upper floor, not basement only). It's between -115 dBm and -100 (at best!). We have 3 different phones (all with PM), and all 3 show pretty much the same signal. As a result we often cannot make or receive phone calls, and if we can the other party cannot hear me well - the words are chopped.

Friends with different service providers (Videotron for sure, don't remember others) also see the bad signal.

Signal is a bit better outside of the house, and much better 100m away.

The problem started about a year ago, before that everything worked fine. That's why I blame the network as nothing changed in the phone.

All phones are set to "Prefer 3G" but it doesn't help much.

Any idea what to do other than leaving PM?

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My suggestion is to take the phones off of 3G and select LTE preferred.  The 3G network is shrinking in favor of improvements in 5G and 4G/LTE.  The phone will auto navigate to 3G when there is a phone call.  In general, LTE is a much better network than 3G.  I live in a highly residential area that is one big Faraday cage where signal is pretty weak.  However on LTE I have no issues with mobile data and expect similar performance when my account gets VoLTE.  At the moment, I am connected to band 17 at 123 dBm.  The connection is solid in spite of what appears to be a relatively low signal strength.

[tanyaden]

We've been with terrible signal for so long, can wait another couple of months 🙂 

I hope it will fix the problem.  But would it improve the signal strength?

[softech]

@tanyaden did you take the signal reading based on LTE?

PM uses ONLY 3G for voice calls at the moment, whether you are on 3G speed plan or 4G speed plan.  It is the poor 3G signal affecting the voice calls.  Your friends with better voice reception could because their provider has VoLTE, which uses LTE/4G for voices

But we are expecting VoLTE for voice as well very soon.  In fact, it looks like PM is already in the process to enable that, but it could take couple months to  complete:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Get-Support/VoLTE-is-now-working/m-p/956848

So, hang on to it and the voice should improve once your accounts are  VoLTE enabled