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Lights on, nobody home

will13am
Oracle
Oracle

This past week, I noticed that data doesn't seem to work on the SkyTrain around Edmonds/Royal Oak.  Signal strength is fine, mobile network state is connected, but data doesn't work at all.  It feels like a reconnection with the past on the Wind Mobile network.  Perhaps a local resident can weigh in and provide some feedback.  

14 REPLIES 14

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

No worries, @will13am, and thanks for the solution!  🙂


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@srlawren wrote:

@will13am sorry I think you're back home now and no longer in the GVA.  But I used the train this morning, and twice this past Monday, and didn't experience the issue you were having.  I do expeirence a very short drop of signal in or around the brief underground section (the Edumnds tunnel), but it resumes almost immediatley after clearing the tunnel and does not persist through to Royal Oak.  I'm not sure what caused your issue.  What kind of phone are you using again?  I'm pretty sure you're in the Android camp, but I forget which specific Android phone you're using.


@srlawren, I have an Oppo Find 7a.  It is the cousin to the One Plus One.  I am running omni custom rom on it.  It might be the phone taking a bit of time to negotiate the disconnect and reconnect.  Funny thing is that the phone never reports a disconnect in the tunnel.  But then again, that might be some sort of lag on the phone.

 

At work, I have a few dead spots where signal goes to zero, but the phone picks up almost instantaneously once I move out of the dead zone.  I have never known the phone to be a laggard on connectivity. 

 

Thank you for the perseverance on sharing your cellular experiences in the area.

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@will13am sorry I think you're back home now and no longer in the GVA.  But I used the train this morning, and twice this past Monday, and didn't experience the issue you were having.  I do expeirence a very short drop of signal in or around the brief underground section (the Edumnds tunnel), but it resumes almost immediatley after clearing the tunnel and does not persist through to Royal Oak.  I'm not sure what caused your issue.  What kind of phone are you using again?  I'm pretty sure you're in the Android camp, but I forget which specific Android phone you're using.


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srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@Mr-Bump I can't speak to that, as I'm never really out that way on transit.  Hopefully someone else can weigh in.


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@Michael77 wrote:

Wouldn't it make sense for all carriers to share their towers? Then all carriers would have great coverage and there would be no waste. There are too many towers all over the place. 

 

It sure does, but no company wants to help the competition.


Mr-Bump
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

 There is also a new tunnel in Port Moody, on the Evergreen extention. While on Bell I struggled to get a connection; anyone know if PM works in there?

will13am
Oracle
Oracle

I spent some quality time in the west coast, exploring the island and lower mainland.  During the transit rides, the down time was spent on Google maps exploring POIs.  As such, I was very aware of loss of data situations.  It was rather strange to see good signal but no data and always around the Edmunds and Royal Oak stations coming from New Westminster into Vancouver.  This behavior was all too familiar with Wind, but never with Public Mobile.  So I thought I would ask the locals who have much more familiarity with coverage on the skytrains.  Anyway, I am back to the familiarity of the bitter way where we'd be lucky to see proper cellular coverage in the tunnels before the next century.

 

BTW, Google maps is really data intensive if used extensively.  I averaged about 100 megs of data per day on the app.  This included providing some much needed pictures and feedback to help other travelers.

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@Michael77 the problem is that this particular track was built in the early 80's, to be ready for launch before Expo 86 that happened in Vancouver.  (I wasn't here for that; moved with my family from Toronot in '89.)  Most of the line is above ground (hence the "sky" in the "Skytrain" name) and signal is fine.  But once you get to the downtown core, it goes underground for the last 3 stops of the line, and down there signal from the above-ground towers does not reach.  And of course, in the early 80's, either they never thought of wiring everything up for signal while they were building it, or there were technical issues--I'm really sure why to be honest.  But I guess someone had to foot the bill (or help do so) to retrofit the tunnel for coverage, and it was Rogers that secured that agreement.  That is the big stretch.  There are two very short tunnels earlier in the track where the train briefly had to go underground, one near the Columbia station in New Westminster BC and the other near the Edmunds station in Burnaby.  I believe that more recently, Rogers also obtained exclusive access to those tunnels, as an extension (probably for more money lol) to their existing agreement for the long downtown tunnel.  However, as I say, these are very short tunnels, and not nearly as deep underground, so sometimes you get enough signal to continue doing whatever you're doing.  But it's hit and miss for me, probably varying based on network load, the weather, how many other phones are using it on the train and producing background signal noise, etc.  

 

There is a newer line that run through a different part of the city (but ends up in the same destination "Waterfront", at the water's edge in downtown Vancovuer), that was built in I think the early-to-mid 2000's and opened in 2008 or 2009, and most of that track is completely underground; however, they must have designed it with cell coverage in mind and wired it all up during construction, because it seems all the providers (to the best of my knowledge) have seemless coverage that whole stretch of track.  I've never had an issue on that line, though I spend a lot more time on the original "Expo" line that has the tunnel coverage issues.


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Michael77
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

Wouldn't it make sense for all carriers to share their towers? Then all carriers would have great coverage and there would be no waste. There are too many towers all over the place. 

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@will13am didn't know you were in this neck of the woods.  🙂  When did this start?  I mostly worked in different locations this past week but most weeks I work 2-4 days in Yaletown or the downtown core, and take the train form Surrey to do so.  I notice that the Edmunds tunnel area is definitely hit or miss for signal.  Sometimes I can be on a call or using mobile data and roll thorugh there with no issue, while others the signal will drop for a short while.  The same is true of the Columbia tunnel in New West. These areas sometimes give be grief, but not always.

 

I believe that Rogers has an exclusive coverage in both of those tunnels, added a few months ago, on top of their exclusive coverage in the underground downtown stretch from just west of Stadium to Waterfront.  However, I usually don't have much trouble around Edmunds, and even when I do, it never seems to extend as far as Royal Oak.  Very odd.  I might be popping downtown tomorrow for the afternoon and will likely work in Yaletown on Monday, so I'll try to pay more attention in that area.


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I'm guessing you meant calls and text work ok and it's just the data?

The service works right after leaving Royal Oak station heading into the city.  I don't need to do anything to have the data flowing.  

Mana
Mayor / Maire

That is strange. Does it start working after you pass that area?

 

Have you tried enabling and disabling airplane mode while you are in that region?

 

Have you tried another phone?

imm1304
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

Hey @will13am

While you wait for a local resident to chime in, I want to share my experience. I had similar experience at home in Toronto.  I noticed couple of days after signal issues started that a Bell Canada truck was parked around the corner and couple of guys were working on the cell tower.  The issues resolved itself in couple of weeks and sure enough, the Bell truck was gone too.  

 

So, if you previously had good connection in this location, there is probably some upgrade/maintenance/repair work going on at the local tower(s).  

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