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No signal in a place where Koodo (also Telus) works

mwandel
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

My parent's camp is a place with marginal cell coverage.  Bell works barely at the lakeshore, Rogers doesn't work at all unless you go to a hilltop with south view.  Koodo works best of all.  Phones get signal over most of the camp and solid coverage near the lake.  This is the location:

 

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Amogla+Camp/@46.4094755,-83.769398,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x4...

 

I've in the past played with cell tower web sites and guessed that the Telus signal is coming in from a tower to the northeast, through a gap in the terrain.

 

Anyway now I've switched from Koodo to Public.  And get no coverage at all anywhere at the camp. How can this be?  I also changed phones.  The new (to me) one is a Nexus 5, which as far as I can tell has a superset of radio capabilities compared to my old (Lumia 520).  It can make a 3G connection for sure; I've seen "H+" on the display as well as "LTE".  I think but I'm not sure, that I tried the Lumia 520 with the Public SIM card as well, and it didn't get coverage at the camp either.  It works elsewhere.

 

Any ideas?

12 REPLIES 12

And of course the frequencies available on different phones will vary. Some frequencies travel a lot further, others not much but lower frequencies go through metal and concrete better. But, trying to interpret the initial post I was of the impression that service/sim was swapped in the same phone and then a phone swap made afterwards.  

smp99
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

yes - I would try another phone. Try one that is currently working with Koodo/Telus. We need to determine if it is the signal or the phone causing the issue

So there's lots of bands available on those nearby sites. I see B2, B4, B5, B12/17, B13, B29 for LTE. I also see B2 and B5 for 3G.

 

Try your PM SIM in your old Lumia and you should see the same 3G signal as before.

sheytoon
Mayor / Maire

@mwandel there's no difference in coverage between Bell, Koodo, or PM.

 

Use the same phone on all the providers and you will see.

 

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Discussions/Network-sharing-explained/m-p/129092

 

I'll check the nearby sites for you when I get home later tonight.

bridonca
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@mwandel wrote:

My Koodo SIM got cancelled when the phone number got switched to Public.  However, my mom has a Koodo landline replacement gadget, and it works exactly as well at the camp as it did in the past so it is unlikely the network configuration has changed.


Those Koodo Home phone boxes have much better antennas than most phones. 

mwandel
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

I did try that (force 3G, or rather set it as the preferred connection type), seeing as that's all my old phone could do.  Made no difference.  No trace of signal anywhere at the camp.

mwandel
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

My Koodo SIM got cancelled when the phone number got switched to Public.  However, my mom has a Koodo landline replacement gadget, and it works exactly as well at the camp as it did in the past so it is unlikely the network configuration has changed.

TheOldVR
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

 

Interesting scenario.... there have been debates in the past regarding PM's coverage vs. Telus or Koodo. I thought the final outcomes were always that the network coverage is the same.

 

With that said... it's probably worth contacting a MOD with your issue to ensure that there is nothing funky with the Network going on?

 


@mwandel wrote:

Here is the likely cell tower.  I have to assume it's a Bell/Telus shared one, since only Bell and Rogers towers show in the area, and view to the south is blocked (no coverage at all on Rogers, so I assume none from the colocated Bell site either).

 

https://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html?lat=46.472596&lng=-83.887460&zoom=15&type=Road...

 

LTE / voLTE can't be it because Koodo works fine with a Lumia 520, which doesn't have LTE at all.


@mwandelGood point. When you say Koodo works fine is your Koodo sim still active? If not, how long ago was that? Both your phones are fairly old models is it possible the battery on those phones could be the problem? Do you have another phone available to test with.

Tony8
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

Hi , Did you try forcing the "Network Mode" setting to "3G"(WCDMA) only mode ?

I notice that Telus 3G signal  is stronger than LTE in my area.

mwandel
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Here is the likely cell tower.  I have to assume it's a Bell/Telus shared one, since only Bell and Rogers towers show in the area, and view to the south is blocked (no coverage at all on Rogers, so I assume none from the colocated Bell site either).

 

https://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html?lat=46.472596&lng=-83.887460&zoom=15&type=Road...

 

LTE / voLTE can't be it because Koodo works fine with a Lumia 520, which doesn't have LTE at all.

geopublic
Mayor / Maire

@mwandel wrote:

My parent's camp is a place with marginal cell coverage.  Bell works barely at the lakeshore, Rogers doesn't work at all unless you go to a hilltop with south view.  Koodo works best of all.  Phones get signal over most of the camp and solid coverage near the lake.  This is the location:

 

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Amogla+Camp/@46.4094755,-83.769398,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x4...

 

I've in the past played with cell tower web sites and guessed that the Telus signal is coming in from a tower to the northeast, through a gap in the terrain.

 

Anyway now I've switched from Koodo to Public.  And get no coverage at all anywhere at the camp. How can this be?  I also changed phones.  The new (to me) one is a Nexus 5, which as far as I can tell has a superset of radio capabilities compared to my old (Lumia 520).  It can make a 3G connection for sure; I've seen "H+" on the display as well as "LTE".  I think but I'm not sure, that I tried the Lumia 520 with the Public SIM card as well, and it didn't get coverage at the camp either.  It works elsewhere.

 

Any ideas?


@mwandel  Koodo and Public Mobile are part of Telus and share the same network. Telus and Bell also have a sharing agreement between them so you would think if your phone worked with Koodo then it should work with Public Mobile. The only thing I can think of is that maybe Koodo is using an additional band that Public Mobile doesn't currently support/use. There are members in the forum that have a very good knowledge on the Telus network maybe they can chime in and share their thoughts.

 

Edit: @mwandel  Could be related to the fact that Koodo uses VoLTE and Public Mobile doesn't currenty support it.

 

Also you might want to notify Public Mobile directly and see waht they have to say regarding this issue. To contact Public Mobile click here. The link sends you to the private message function and adds the moderator team as recipient for a private message. You just have to enter a title and text in the body of the message describing the problem and post. The message will be received by the moderator team and they will respond to it. You will receive the response in your private message inbox.

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