Cell phone service

[cSpooge]

Im looking to get a new phone... I'm currently on rogers and im wondering if any has any suggestions if I should stay with them or if i can get better service with Telus/Bell etc. Right now I get crap all for service if im in my basement or out at some of my friends houses (Panaramo/Coventry Hills Areas).


Any thoughts would be appriciated guys.

[REDVAN]

I went from fido to telus to rogers in the last 2 years. Rogers has the best phones and that was what I was looking for.

I heard horror stories about Rogers coverage but so far I have not missed a single call! Maybe it's your handset, if it is older.

[Vulcan]

Some phone models have better range then others. I've heard Telus has the best coverage in Calgary but I've never tried another service, so I could be wrong.

[Superfraggle]

Sundre is the only place I've had trouble with Rogers coverage-wise. That said, I got screwed around for four months when my phone was broken, paying bills and not getting the replacement they promised me. I wouldn't recommend Rogers to anyone

[Daradon]

A lot depends on the type of phone too. My current phone, does not get as good reception as other phones I have had on varying systems. Definitely need that external antenna (or at least a well built phone, mines got a lot of bells and whistles, but seems to suck for reception).

I have had company phones provided by Telus and by Rogers, have found Telus reception to be the best generally. Also sometimes (at least once a week) when calling Rogers customers I get the 'we are sorry, but all switches are currently busy' message. Never got that with Telus.

Not to say Rogers is terrible, but I do prefer Telus.

[FireFly]

With Telus phones, if you do decide to switch, the word on the street is that Samsung has the best reception. Also, if you travel outside the city, be careful and make sure you buy a tri-mode phone with analog (if needed) instead of a purely digital phone. You'll get a wider reception area that way.

[teamchachi]

I'm a happy Rogers customer. I really like the fact they you can just pull your GPRS chip out and put it into virtually any unlocked GPRS phone. Drop your phone in a puddle? Buy an unlocked one on ebay for $30, pop in the GPRS chip... Nice.

[REDVAN]

I had the busy circuit problem with telus but not from rogers.... yet!

And cell phone companies are loyal to higher paying customers and could care less about the small guy who uses it for 2 calls a day. That's why you get bad service sometimes.

[FireFly]

Busy circuits happen with every company. Try using your cell at half time during a football game. Likely won't work cause everyone else is trying the same thing. No coverage at the Stampede? Might be the other 30,000 people also on their cell phones. And RedVan you're right. If you pay us $30/month and drop your phone in a puddle 1.5 years into a three year contract, that's too bad. If you pay us $300/month and do the same thing, we'll get you a new phone. Doesn't take rocket science to figure out why. Has to do with profit margins.

[Red Mile Style]

This is my second contract with Rogers, after I vowed I would never use them again after my first contract - but at the time they were the only company that had the Razr... so regretably, I signed with them.

One of the biggest beefs I have with Rogers is while I'm roaming. Montreal is the worst, I even went to a Rogers dealer when I was there and asked if there was something wrong with my phone and they said it was their towers there. When I was in New York for one month my cell bill was $240! It was actually cut off for a few days because that pushed me over my limit and I was unable to reach Rogers from the calling area... I had to get someone in Canada to pay it for me. Plus, I find that if you stray from the beaten path in any way, you're not going to get coverage. If you look on their coverage map, it's basically major highways and cities. I've heard that nationwide, Bell has the best coverage.

[Mccree]

Originally Posted by teamchachi

I'm a happy Rogers customer. I really like the fact they you can just pull your GPRS chip out and put it into virtually any unlocked GPRS phone. Drop your phone in a puddle? Buy an unlocked one on ebay for $30, pop in the GPRS chip... Nice.

Yup me too. I have been with Rogers since the Cantel days and there is nothing wrong with it. Coverage is great except Sundre but for me and my limited travel it works great. (Even worked in Maui).

The new SE 810i I have is great..prefect reception cool features..I do recommend it.

[kdogg]

I was with Rogers....hated it. My phone always cut out. Moved to Bell, never had a problem.
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[OILFAN #81]

I've always been with Bell since i've had a cell phone. Bell is amazing! Never have problems with it.

[Kaon]

I'm currently on Telus, and while I'm not sure if I'm going to switch or not yet, I am definately not impressed with Telus. Currently I cannot talk in many places across even Calgary, reception outside of the city is no better. Here's a list of the places I've noticed I can't get reception, where my family members on Rogers do:

1) Parkades of any kind
2) Elevators, same as parkades
3) There are a few whole blocks downtown where I just can't talk (specifically behind the BP building and the International hotel I get zero reception)
4) My girlfriend's house, and backyard.

I average about 15 lost calls a week, some weeks are better then others. It is my only phone so I use it quite a bit. I drop parts of conversations what seems like every second block while driving, although that depends on what area I'm in. Talking on it in Copperfield (deep south east) is hopeless most nights.

With that said, I'm not sure that it is entirely Telus' fault as maybe my phone just sucks ass, but that combined with their horrible customer services has left me wanting. I have an LG, not sure of the model number, which I was assured was a pretty good phone with the only reported problems being battery related in some cases. I did end up having battery problems, but they were fixed relatively easy, the ****ty reception/network is the part I can't do anything about.

[Shazam]

Weird. I thought all the major cell phone providers augmented the downtown area. I remember many years ago walking around TD Square with absolutely no service.

[FireFly]

Originally Posted by Kaon

I'm currently on Telus, and while I'm not sure if I'm going to switch or not yet, I am definately not impressed with Telus. Currently I cannot talk in many places across even Calgary, reception outside of the city is no better. Here's a list of the places I've noticed I can't get reception, where my family members on Rogers do:

1) Parkades of any kind
2) Elevators, same as parkades
3) There are a few whole blocks downtown where I just can't talk (specifically behind the BP building and the International hotel I get zero reception)
4) My girlfriend's house, and backyard.

I average about 15 lost calls a week, some weeks are better then others. It is my only phone so I use it quite a bit. I drop parts of conversations what seems like every second block while driving, although that depends on what area I'm in. Talking on it in Copperfield (deep south east) is hopeless most nights.

With that said, I'm not sure that it is entirely Telus' fault as maybe my phone just sucks ass, but that combined with their horrible customer services has left me wanting. I have an LG, not sure of the model number, which I was assured was a pretty good phone with the only reported problems being battery related in some cases. I did end up having battery problems, but they were fixed relatively easy, the ****ty reception/network is the part I can't do anything about.

I have a few questions for you as we get this all the time...

First, how often do you turn your phone off and back on again? You should do it at least once a day in order to reconnect to the network. Sometimes you end up 'stuck' on a tower and when you go to make a call, you're too far away from that tower for it to go through.

Second, I'm going to suggest you dial from the cell phone, *22803 and then send. It'll put you into an automated system that will ask you to press 1 for english or 2 for french, and then 1 to program or 2 for a roaming list upgrade. You need to press 2. Wait until the lady tells you whether or not it was successful and then hang up. Either the system will turn your phone off, or you should do it yourself. See if that helps at all. You may not have the most recent tower info in your phone, and that's all it needs.

If that doesn't help, there may be an upgrade that needs to be done at a dealer, or your phone may just suck. However, if you've dropped more than 1% of your phonecalls over the course of a year, we'll credit you back for those yearly.

Any other questions, feel free to ask and I hope that helps!

[brownie]

Support the Blue Jays,stick with Rogers

[FireFly]

Originally Posted by brownie

Support the Blue Jays,stick with Rogers

Or since this is a Flames forum, support the Flames and go with Telus....

[Tower]

I don't work for them (Rogers) anymore (YAY) but I know a lot about GSM, and what to do with them. If you're interested pm me. There are bottom lines with cell phones - like usage or where you use it and how you use your phone. GSM IS the best technology worldwide currently. However if all countries resort to Japan's model it will resort back to CDMA tech making every cell phone provider in the world buy new towers again so it is all on the same freq. If you are a rig pig and don't care about overseas usage or contacting overseas through SMS or VIA yahoo/msn then CDMA in Canada can be a choice... Sim cards in GSM phones do make life easier with your phone info.

As firefly said samsaung is the best. They are the least returned for warrenty work manufacturer in the biz.

[ken0042]

Holy crap! The roam list finally was able to update today. Yay!

Now if only I could have gotten it to work last week before my trip to Winnipeg. Thanks Firefly!