cell reception

[BrentCassie]

My wife uses Telus.  I am Public.  They both use the Telus network.  She receives better reception in rural areas then me.  Why?  Shouldn't they be the same?

[BKNS27]

@BrentCassie 

As @Korth has noted the there are no prioritized for different cell tiers. It has more to do with the cell phone and it components.

[Korth]

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@og2 wrote:

@BrentCassie  Also keep in mind that you are on a third tier provider and Telus/bell/Koodo/virgin will have cell tower preference over public. If the tower is over saturated you will be removed from that tower...

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@sheytoon has explained - often - that this is not how it works. The network hardware does not (can not) deprioritize calls at this layer. All users on the network will receive the same share of available resources regardless of which operator (or operator tier) they subscribe to. Calls are not dropped because privileged calls are being made - you get to stay on the line until the call is over (or gets handover to another cell site, or hits a time limit, or whatever) - the caller on a higher-cost tier just has to wait until until you're done.

(Emergency calls can claim priority which dumps users offline. But, again, in a way which doesn't discriminate between carriers or carrier tiers.)

[og2]

@BrentCassie  Also keep in mind that you are on a third tier provider and Telus/bell/Koodo/virgin will have cell tower preference over public. If the tower is over saturated you will be removed from that tower...

[Korth]

Try swapping the SIM cards (basically trade phones while keeping your own numbers) for a while, compare results. You'll be able to determine whether the differences in reception are being caused by the network or by the handset.

[ShawnC13]

Do you have the same phones?  Different phones, different antennas, and all sorts of other things could be the reason for the difference if they are not the exact same phone.

[computergeek541]

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@BrentCassie wrote:

My wife uses Telus.  I am Public.  They both use the Telus network.  She receives better reception in rural areas then me.  Why?  Shouldn't they be the same?

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For data and text messaging, coverage/reception will be identical.  However, for voice calls, there can be a minor difference as phone calls can only travel on the HSPA network for Public Mobile customers due to the lack of the VoLTE feature.   In addition to there being some cell sites that are LTE-only, LTE signals in the 700MHz ranges will travel a little farther than the 850MHz band 5 HSPA signals.  This could lead to better voice service at Telus Mobility.

There can also be times that one person is connected to a different tower than the other person, even when they're both at the same location or connected to a different frequeny. Some phones are also better than others for signal properties. Keep in mind that a phone displaying a lower signal reading does not mean that person is receiving worse signal. That could actually mean that device is better at holding on to a signal that doesn't travel as far, and possibly that the other device isn't able to connect to it all but instead, connects to the network at a different frequency.