cross border tower selection

[klinkenb]

I have just moved to Prescott Ontario and live on the river and just across from Ogdensberg NY. When I try to use my phone the network says I do not have long distance in my plan. I signed up for the $40/month unlimited long distance, text messaging and 4.5 gb of data. could my problem be that my phone is picking up a U.S. tower and I do not have U.S. coverage. How do we fix this problem or do I have to switch carriers.

Regards Peter Klinkenberg

[srlawren]

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@slash407 wrote:

u can download apps to that u can use to switch cell towers, jsuk

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@slash407 sure, but why bother?  For people living (or frequently visiting) locations near the US border, it's much simpler to just manually select PM as your network and forget about it.  

[klinkenb]

This appears to have worked, 24 hours after I switched to PM manually I got long distance back.

[ShawnC13]

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@klinkenb wrote:

yes, when I went manual I selected public mobile. and now my wifes phone is doing the same thing. We just moved from BC is this part of the problem, but up until today we have not had a problem.

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Where are you trying to call?  Would it be a long distance call from a landline and if so put a 1 in front of the number.  You can't be charged any additional as this is a prepaid service.

[klinkenb]

yes, when I went manual I selected public mobile. and now my wifes phone is doing the same thing. We just moved from BC is this part of the problem, but up until today we have not had a problem.

[mcs11]

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@klinkenb wrote:

reset the selection to manual. Turned off my phone completely and then turned it back on. It is still telling me I do not have long distance.

Regards Peter Klinkenberg

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When you switched to manual, did you get a list of the carriers that your phone is picking up? You should see Public Mobile in the list and then select is as your carrier.

[klinkenb]

reset the selection to manual. Turned off my phone completely and then turned it back on. It is still telling me I do not have long distance.

Regards Peter Klinkenberg

[Anonymous]

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@klinkenb wrote:

I have just moved to Prescott Ontario and live on the river and just across from Ogdensberg NY. When I try to use my phone the network says I do not have long distance in my plan. I signed up for the $40/month unlimited long distance, text messaging and 4.5 gb of data. could my problem be that my phone is picking up a U.S. tower and I do not have U.S. coverage. How do we fix this problem or do I have to switch carriers.

Regards Peter Klinkenberg

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I seem to think that's a problem in all border towns.

I'm not sure but is there a way to set the provider manually rather than automatic? Maybe it's on auto and it's saying "sure yeah I can see this tower over here oh but wait you're not subscribed to the services on that tower". Kinda thing. I don't know.

[ShawnC13]

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@klinkenb wrote:

I have just moved to Prescott Ontario and live on the river and just across from Ogdensberg NY. When I try to use my phone the network says I do not have long distance in my plan. I signed up for the $40/month unlimited long distance, text messaging and 4.5 gb of data. could my problem be that my phone is picking up a U.S. tower and I do not have U.S. coverage. How do we fix this problem or do I have to switch carriers.

Regards Peter Klinkenberg

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That could possibly be it that you are picking up a US tower and the only way to have PM work on a US tower is to have the US Roaming addon.  What happens if you turn roaming off in your settings will it find the PM network that way.  I live in Victoria BC and have an issue where areas in the City want to pick up a tower out of Port Angeles

[mimmo · Accepted solution]

try selecting public mobile via a manual network search.