Was NOT able to call 911

[jonnyh]

Reception in the part of town that I live in London, Ontario is quite poor. It's annoying - I usually have to walk around my house to find just the right spot. Not a huge issue, until today.

I was out with my wife having dinner and as we were pulling out of the restaurant parking lot, we noticed 2 small kids, running with no shoes on. A lady was trying to talk to them to try and get them onto the sidewalk. Anyway - in a panic, we just needed to call 911 to get the Police there so they could figure out where the parents were & why they're running around a VERY busy intersection holding hands as they crossed a 4 lane street...with no shoes on.

I called 911 - call failed

I tried again - call failed

My wife (also on PM) called and failed

Then my wife finally got through, but the operator could barely hear her. 

Thankfully she could hear enough, police where closeby - a siren came on and he was there in about 1 minute. 

I'm now a bit worried and contemplating leaving PM if we can't make a simple emergency call, in a major city....

Can anyone do anything about the reception in this area?

[sheytoon]

Good question, I'm not 100% sure.... I updated my post above to add more info.

I think a phone with no SIM would either pick a provider randomly, or pick the first frequency it finds. It's very rare for someone to have a phone with no SIM and actually make an emergency call.

Here's the cell selection flow from the standards:

For phones that have a valid PM SIM, it's better to be in a complete Bell/Telus dead spot (like the TTC subway tunnel) than to be in a weak coverage spot. At least in a subway tunnel, the phone will emergency attach to Freedom's network and can place 911 calls successfully.

[will13am]

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@sheytoon wrote:

@jonnyh, I hope the kids are ok

There's only 3 radio access networks in London: Bell, Rogers, Freedom.

With a PM SIM card, you're using Bell's RAN. Your only other option is to try Rogers or Freedom.

@computergeek541 and @will13am:

The phone WILL NOT automatically choose the strongest signal if you have a SIM. It will register to the home network if available, and always use that for all calls (emergency or otherwise).

Unfortunately Telus cannot help you here. Coverage improvements are in Bell's hands in London.

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Nice to know this fact.  If I were to use a phone without a SIM card and make a 911 call, how is the carrier chosen?  Is it purely random?

Looking at the Bell towers in London, they seem poorly situated.  There are many parts of the city that are not well served.  A lot of the towers clumped in a small area.  Rogers seems to have a better dispersion. 

[sheytoon]

@jonnyh, I hope the kids are ok.

There's only 3 radio access networks in London: Bell, Rogers, Freedom.

With a PM SIM card, you're using Bell's RAN. Your only other option is to try Rogers or Freedom.

Unfortunately Telus cannot help you here. Coverage improvements are in Bell's hands in London.

@computergeek541 and @will13am:

The phone WILL NOT automatically choose the strongest signal if you have a SIM. It will register to the home network if available, and always use that for all calls (emergency or otherwise).

If the phone has no SIM, it will perform an emergency attach to a provider (possibly random), but it will be only allowed to make emergency calls. The phone will display no bars, but in the background, it will be communicating with the network at all times.

[austinhuang]

Please contact Telus support at http://telus.com/chat. Provide your location and describe your situation. Don't forget to say you're using PM not Telus itself. You might also be required to message a PM moderator (If Telus support says so).

On a side note, I get perfect signal in Stratford, ON (Between London and Kitchener).

[hairbag1]

duely noted...thanks

[stonechucker]

@hairbag1, if there are no Telus towers in London, I’m sure there are a ton of Bell towers. Bell and Telus share the network across the country.  

I live in Southern Ontario, and the coverage is spectacular.

[jonnyh]

Thanks for the info. 🙂

As for the kids - the police were looking for them when we called, so it helped to track down their whereabouts. They were only 3 and 4 years old, and this was not a residential area - but a major commercial intersection. High volume of traffic, and the kids were just running around the parking lot holding hands, dodging cars - having just crossed a 4 lane, high volume street alone, not following the traffic signals. Definitely an emergency situation. We can tell the difference between a couple of kids going to a pool. 🙂

[computergeek541 · Accepted solution]

911 service would not be dependent on the Public Mobile/Telus network.  Dialing this emergency number should result in the phone using the best network possible.  In fact, when dialing 911, your phone switches into a special emergency calls mode, and I believe that your call is given a higher network priority.  Unforutnately, cell phone network technology isn't perfect.  As @will13am said, an active sim card isn't necessary to make a 911 call. So, if for whatever reason, you need to dial 911 in the future, you could remove your sim card and then make the call. This could help if for whatever reason, your phone won't let go of a weak Telus signal.

As for kids running around in bare feet, sometimes there is a perfectly innocent explanation. If the local city run swimming pools were still open and there was one nearby, I wouldn't even have thought anything of it.  In my area, kids go around all the time on the way to the swimming pool bare foot even crossing major streets (the pools are sometimes in the park next to a major street) .  I personaly wouldn't recommend that, but people do it.  

I know that it's possible that it looked like the kids were trying to get away from the person or someone took the kids in a hurry without persmission, etc.

[will13am]

This is a bit of a guess on my part.  Phones can make 911 calls even without an active service.  I would think that if there was connectivity issues with one carrier, the call would go through on any carrier if needed.  

[hairbag1]

It doesn't sounds like Telus has the best cell service in southern Ont compared to other providers. Not sure if there are plans to upgrade their stuff. You'll have to research to confirm if PM is the right provider for you. Good luck.