Continuing Issues with Cellular Reception
Bell’s new cellular pole has been operational for a couple of months. It appears that many areas of the lake have improved signal strength but we are getting continuing reports of problems particularly with voice calls. We have raised this issue with Bell and they have set up a trouble call file. The contact person has asked that we document problems so that they can track down the source.
If you are experiencing problems please send the following information by email to:
riad.hammoud@bell.ca
re: TAC ticket 07628946
Date and timestamp
GPS Lat/ Long (preferred) or address
Phone number of the user experiencing the issue
Model of the phone or modem
Are the users using boosters in their cottages?F
We have received the following information from Bell in response to concerns about service levels from the new Bell cell pole.
Customers using Rogers phones describe the following problem:
Before voice call. – full service
As soon as call initiated Service level drops, sometimes to “no service” It takes several minutes to return to the higher service level and in some situations a ‘reboot’ or cell data on/off is required
Bell’s response is as follows:
The roaming agreement between Rogers and Bell is the following:
On Bell built sites Rogers users have this access:Voice : 3G only.
Data : 3G and LTE.
While Bell users have this access:
Voice: 3G and LTE
Data: 3G and LTE
We installed LTE only equipment at Kennesis Lake’s new site, which is a more robust and future proof technology.
Rogers devices that want to perform a voice call do not have access to the new site that we build. This explains why they have “ no service” on 3G (They are being served by a site that is much further away).
For data calls (web navigation, streaming, emails, etc) they should be able to use the new site.
Finally, if there is an active data session in background, the Rogers users will remain on 3G after a voice call.
In order to trigger the reselection to LTE, they would have to activate and then deactivate airplane mode. They could also wait a few seconds to one minute until no more data is being transmitted in background.
Bell, Virgin, Telus and Koodo users will have access to VOLTE on Kennisis Lake new tower. For VOLTE to work, the operator needs to provision VOLTE in the account and on the SIM.
The device also needs to be supported for VOLTE by the operator (The list varies between Bell and Telus) .
You will find more information about VOLTE and supported devices for Bell at this address:
https://www.bell.ca/Mobility/VoLTE
List of supported devices for Virgin:
https://www.virginmobile.ca/en/support/voice-and-video-over-LTE.html?province=ON&geoResult=failed
Telus and Koodo users will need to contact their operator to verify if their device is VOLTE capable on Telus/Bell network.