Bad service at my Cottage

[BradMac]

Was previously with Telus and switched over to Public Mobile.  We have always had somewhat "not so great" cell service while at our cottage in Coles Island, New Brunswick, but it seems to have drastically worsened since switching to Public Mobile.  I am sure there is some sort of explanation as to why, and likely has nothing to do with being on PM now, but the coincidence is all too real!  LOL

My GPS coordinates for Cottage are 45.89104°N and 65.82533°W in Coles Island, New Brunswick.  We can hardly make phone calls now, and have to sit at certain areas of our property to get 1-2 bars of service, when we used to have 3-4 and could be anywhere on property and have good service.

I read on the forums here that maybe we should be changing our phones to 3G in these instances but I am not sure of that will help.  We can try that this the next time we are there for sure, but wanted to let PM know that service has diminished at this location.  Maybe there is an explanation??

Thanks in advance for any insight or help you can offer.

Brad MacPhee

[Luddite]

@BradMac   FYI: iPhones do not have an auto setting but when 4/5g are selected are supposed to switch to 3G automatically for phone calls unless volte is enabled. In fringe areas the 3G network is often best even for data.

[softech]

@BradMac 

happy that it helps. 

VoLTE would improve, so try to switch back to LTE and test the calls every once in awhile

[BradMac]

we switched our cellular to 3G while at the cottage and there was s significant improvement from that of LTE.  Thanks for your help on this!

[BradMac]

I will test this out this coming weekend and see.  It was on LTE, and there is no "AUTO" setting that I can select.  Will try 3G and see if it improves.  Thanks for your prompt replies!  Very much appreciated!

[softech]

@BradMac 

go to Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Options 

or Settings > Mobile Data 

[BradMac]

I don't see AUTO either

[BradMac]

I haven't yet, just started researching the issue today and seeing if I can get help through here on a possible solution.  So on my iphone under settings/Cellular Data Options/voice&data....  I see LTE and 3G at this time.   Is this the right location to find those different network modes?  Also, I am currently in Saint John with the phone during this chat

[softech · Accepted solution]

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@BradMac wrote:

Voice service has really been affected (this year as compare to last year when with Telus).  Data is very slow, hard to get connection, unless I am sitting in a specific seat in our screen room!  Lol.

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@BradMac 

you tested all the different network mode? 3G, 4G, 5G Auto ?

test each one and see if you get better with one or the other

[BradMac]

3 of us use Iphone XR's and one of us has Iphone 12 Pro

[BradMac]

Voice service has really been affected (this year as compare to last year when with Telus).  Data is very slow, hard to get connection, unless I am sitting in a specific seat in our screen room!  Lol.

[softech]

@BradMac 

is data ok ?

PM uses the same Telus and Bell Towers as Telus is using, so the reception should be identical

If it is a voice issue, it could be a problem with VoLTE.  Telus has pretty much full VoLTE support while PM has some level of VoLTE support based on compatible phones.  The list of phones compatible here is less than those on Telus.   If it is only a voice issue, a workaround is to download VoIP app TextNow and use it to make calls using Wifi or Mobile Data

According to the location given, these are the Bell/Telus towers around (Green)

https://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html?lat=45.891285&lng=-65.829065&zoom=12&type=Road...