vB Easy Archive - Telus coverage in Quebec

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Telus coverage in Quebec
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Posted by: skullmurdoc

I bought my first cell phone 1 week ago and boy do I hate it. The phone itself is fine (LG 8600) it's just the coverage that is really poor. At first I though maybe all cell phone are like that. But no! People with Fido and Rogers always have all there bars while I have none or one. I'm fed up and want to go with Fido.

My question is what fee am I to expect to pay to break my contract with Telus if I’m still in the first 14 days? I hope none but I won’t hold my breath.

Posted by: Old Faithful

Don't wait and get back to them ASAP, the grace period is very, very short. Also read your contract VERY carefully. Cell phone companies have a habit of screwing the customer royally here in Canada.

But don't discount the network right away. Your phone may just be bad. Happens A LOT, and is most evident when you are on the fringe of the coverage like I am: reception is IMO and by far, the most important feature of any phone. Who cares about colour screen tunes and what not if your call can't come in or is dropped!

I am in Québec also and live in the boonies so I don't really have a choice but to go with Bell. You OTOH seem to have a choice, look at the alternatives very carefully.

Oh, and breaking your contract should you have passed the 'grace period' ranges from $200 to about $400.

I know, it's insane, but that's the way it is in our glorious country.

As for Fido and Rogers, the technology is a bit different, it's GSM. More freedom (you can get phones and hack the chip yourself) but they screw you just like Bell/Telus does. Also it's better to get a phone that is tri-mode (analog and digital 850 and digital 1900), as 850 has better signal penetration than 'pure PCS' phones that are often pushed by Fido for city users (they are usually limited to 1900 MHz).

Hope it helps a bit and good luck...

Posted by: vegemate

Hi,

This an exotic post from Perth Australia but my parents still live in Montreal, my hometown.

I just heard from them that cell phone coverage ( of their phone anyway ) is non-existant near Morin Heights in the Laurentians where they have a cottage.

What providor should they be with for the best Laurentian coverage? I see that you have CDMA there ( as we do in Oz ). Here it gives the best rural coverage - is it the same there?

Thanks for any information - as they are getting older they need cellphone contact for peace of mind but aren't very technical.

Posted by: Old Faithful

Quote:

Originally Posted by vegemate

Hi,

This an exotic post from Perth Australia but my parents still live in Montreal, my hometown.

I just heard from them that cell phone coverage ( of their phone anyway ) is non-existant near Morin Heights in the Laurentians where they have a cottage.

What providor should they be with for the best Laurentian coverage? I see that you have CDMA there ( as we do in Oz ). Here it gives the best rural coverage - is it the same there?

UNBELIEVABLE! First post and your parents are practically neighbours to me... I lived in Morin Heights for about 15 years before moving nearby to Wentworth-North...

In Morin Heights most providers work at this time and the signal is very good in the village itself. Where exactly are they situated? The signal drops significantly as you move on the 364 towards Sixteen Island Lake, and on the 329 towards Lachute... Where I am (Montfort, have you ever heard of it?), neither provider gets much signal at all. We are truly on the fringes of the cell system, have no high speed internet access, and basically no business to speak of here, except for those like myself who are self-employed. I use a Yagi antenna and an amplifier to stay connected with my cell phone, as the signal basically fades away just a few hundred feet away from my house. And I have an older phone that I chose specially for its robustness and excellent reception, many newer fancy phones have a hard time here.

As for providers I have had both, and I must admit that Rogers is gaining at the expense of Bell. However, Bell offers a larger local zone coverage for me and at the fringes, they have traditionally tended to be better than Rogers (GSM technology).

Quote:

Originally Posted by vegemate

Thanks for any information - as they are getting older they need cellphone contact for peace of mind but aren't very technical.

It will be a pleasure to help them out if I can, simply PM me.

Posted by: vegemate

Hi Old Faithful,

Yeah , of course I know where Montfort is as I spent all my summers as a kid up in that beautiful area.

My folks are on a lake called Lake Anne which is back down 329 towards Lachute and then about 5 kms west of that off Kirkpatrick Rd - maybe 10 kms from Morin all up. It's a good sized lake so it shows on the Quebec map maybe a mile across by the old measure.

They told me that they get 911 service so I guess they're getting somebody's signal there and that they get good coverage at Tremblant with the phone they've got now.

Thanks again for your comments. From the sounds of it, we have better providers here in Oz but of course not the natural barriers of topography. BC must be a real problem and best covered by a sat phone!

I'm new to this forum and can't see the easy link to "PM" so am posting this the obvious way.

Posted by: Old Faithful

Quote:

Originally Posted by vegemate

Hi Old Faithful,

Yeah , of course I know where Montfort is as I spent all my summers as a kid up in that beautiful area.

WOW! I did too, have been around since the late 60s... We've probably even met at some point

Quote:

Originally Posted by vegemate

My folks are on a lake called Lake Anne which is back down 329 towards Lachute and then about 5 kms west of that off Kirkpatrick Rd - maybe 10 kms from Morin all up. It's a good sized lake so it shows on the Quebec map maybe a mile across by the old measure.

Yes, I know the place... Unfortunately as far as cell phone reception goes you are pretty much in the NO SERVICE area... But with a Yagi antenna and an amplifier (on most systems it means you have to connect the phone to that large stationary antenna on the roof of the house, so it limits your mobility) you may be able to get a decent signal. You just need to have at least some signal, though!

When I go to Lachute, I inevitably loose signal around Barron lake, and it's on the highway. As soon as one gets inland to the west like around Lake Hughes or Grace Lake, the signal is completely lost. It is one of the worst lareas locally to have a cell phone. They just don't work there, unless you are located on the top of a hill, for example.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vegemate

They told me that they get 911 service so I guess they're getting somebody's signal there and that they get good coverage at Tremblant with the phone they've got now.

The fact they are able to get 911 service could mean they have 'some' reception but that the phone (probably GSM technology) can't access their network. But the best way to test is to call a test number that allows you to test the phone for free to see whether reception is good enough, on Bell Mobility it's *2355.

The best way to check for signal strength is to get into 'debug' mode. It depends on the phone and the provider, many providers in Canada BLOCK access to the signal strength meter but if you look around you can eventually access that code. Not sure your parents would want to spend the effort to do that, though!

Tremblant has probably the BEST phone service in the province. The power of money... They also have incredibly good roads, and of course, high speed internet. But you pay a very high price for properties there. Nothing much for less than 1/2 million, and for that you probably get a converted shack.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vegemate

Thanks again for your comments. From the sounds of it, we have better providers here in Oz but of course not the natural barriers of topography. BC must be a real problem and best covered by a sat phone!

I'm new to this forum and can't see the easy link to "PM" so am posting this the obvious way.

It's in "Quick Links"....

Posted by: vegemate

Hi Old Faithful,

OK, thanks for the help.

Not exactly what I wanted to hear about the coverage but now I know.

Don't mean to be too hard on the old home country but cheesh - sleepy old Australia has it all over you guys when it comes to mobile phone coverage. The countryside is completely covered by CDMA which I know as I work often in " the bush".

Also, in the cities, there is enough competition for customers that you get great deals on both pre and post paid phones and plans. We're with Virgin and you get a SIM card for $5 - gets you $10 credit to start and you're away.

I wasn't very happy when on a visit to BC several years ago Rogers slugged me $80 for the SIM itself before I even had to pay more to put credit on it.

Anyway, enough ranting about the big bad telcos. We have one here too - called Telstra which used to have a Bell like monopoly.

Thanks again

Brian
Perth

Posted by: Old Faithful

Quote:

Originally Posted by vegemate

Hi Old Faithful,

OK, thanks for the help.

Not exactly what I wanted to hear about the coverage but now I know.

Don't mean to be too hard on the old home country but cheesh - sleepy old Australia has it all over you guys when it comes to mobile phone coverage. The countryside is completely covered by CDMA which I know as I work often in " the bush".

Also, in the cities, there is enough competition for customers that you get great deals on both pre and post paid phones and plans. We're with Virgin and you get a SIM card for $5 - gets you $10 credit to start and you're away.

I wasn't very happy when on a visit to BC several years ago Rogers slugged me $80 for the SIM itself before I even had to pay more to put credit on it.

Anyway, enough ranting about the big bad telcos. We have one here too - called Telstra which used to have a Bell like monopoly.

Thanks again

Brian
Perth

I fully understand you disappointment with our stubborn, backwards-thinking and bullish cell phone industry. What a shame in the country where the telephone was invented!!!

If you follow my posts in the last few months, I have been extremely unhappy with Bell Mobility policies.

Simply look at some of the posts in the Bell Mobility section and read on, these guys quite simply couldn't care less that their clients are unhappy with their policies, because there is a culture of collusion and backdoor agreement that clients are sheep to be used and led to the slaughterhouse.

Like I said on many occasions, the problem is not with the customer representatives, it's the policies established by the thieves in three piece suits at the top that is the problem, and we will only get better service when american companies will be allowed in to kick these guy's a$$es real hard.

Everyone who comes to this country is astonished of how much abuse we have to deal with with our telcos. I have FOUR telephones IDENTICAL to the one I am using now with Bell, but Bell REFUSES to activate any of them because they were not bought through them. And I know for a fact that there is no technical reason whatsoever for this policiy which is designed solely to force people into getting high priced phones through the telco itself, effectively locking the client on long term contracts with them.

As you experienced, Roger is just as bad as Bell. There was Fido once, but since it was bought out by Rogers every user friendly contract and feature was lost.

Posted by: Old Faithful

Getting back to your folks, they should ask their neighbours who gets the best cell phone service where they are located and start from there. With an external antenna and an amplifier, a marginal signal can become a usable one

Posted by: Maximum Signal

It will surprise you how much a good amplifier and antenna setup can do .It should more than solve your problems.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old Faithful

Getting back to your folks, they should ask their neighbours who gets the best cell phone service where they are located and start from there. With an external antenna and an amplifier, a marginal signal can become a usable one

Posted by: vegemate

Thanks folks,

Next time people ***** to me about Australian telcos, I'll point them at this forum so they can be happy with what we've got.

Seems an international problem ranging from bad to horrible!!!!

We're at the bad spectrum but only because of some real competition which you don't appear to have.

Signing out from Perth, Western Australia........

Posted by: Old Faithful

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maximum Signal

It will surprise you how much a good amplifier and antenna setup can do .It should more than solve your problems.

As long as there is actually some signal! (if they get "emergency only" it probably means they are just at the very edge of reception before the dreaded "No Service")... In any case they'll have to be able to actually connect their phone to the amplifier and antenna as I doubt a wireless amplifier would be effective enough considering the weak signal they seem to have...

I have poor signal outside my house, the CDMA just barely registers and the GSM will barely register to its network outside the house, exhibiting 'emergency only' if its switched on inside... The CDMA has an antenna port and is tri-mode so I can use it with a single band amplifier connected to the single band Yagi on my roof, BIG difference (except in the middle of winter when there is an ice storm). The GSM has only a stub and no antenna port so it's only used when we go to the big city

Posted by: N4KVE

Wow. I'm reading this in West Palm Beach Florida, but I spent my childhood summers in Ste Agathe.Trout Lake specifically. Brings back old memories. Ste Jerome, Ste Adele, Val Morin etc. Can't help your phone problem, just wanted to say hi. My mother's family is all from Montreal. GARY N4KVE

Posted by: Old Faithful

Quote:

Originally Posted by N4KVE

Wow. I'm reading this in West Palm Beach Florida, but I spent my childhood summers in Ste Agathe.Trout Lake specifically. Brings back old memories. Ste Jerome, Ste Adele, Val Morin etc. Can't help your phone problem, just wanted to say hi. My mother's family is all from Montreal. GARY N4KVE

Hey, neighbour!

Aren't you glad you're all nice and cozy by the sea while we have to deal with wet, damp and cold 5 months out of the year?!

Honestly, it's a nice day today but the leaves are falling. In a week it's going to look grey again... We've already had some frost... As for Trout Lake it still pretty much looks the same, I pass by there from time to time, my daughter has a friend living nearby...

Posted by: N4KVE

Thanks for the comeback. I miss the beans & ham at Petite Pousette. Is Cal's Pizza still around? It was my hangout in the 70's. My parents recently sold their country house in Grand Lac Long. Now have a condo in Hollywood Florida. Thanks again. GARY

Posted by: Old Faithful

Quote:

Originally Posted by N4KVE

Thanks for the comeback. I miss the beans & ham at Petite Pousette. Is Cal's Pizza still around? It was my hangout in the 70's. My parents recently sold their country house in Grand Lac Long. Now have a condo in Hollywood Florida. Thanks again. GARY

Unfortunately, the Petit Poucet burnt down, last year IIRC... But there's always that little shack nearby that I always go to, Niko's, the best greek food up north and worth the trip!!!

Cal's Pizza must still be around, the name sound really familiar... I must be passing by without even noticing!...

In any case, I actually make a detour to eat at Niko's in Val David when I'm in Ste-Adèle , St-Adolphe or Ste-Agathe... That's how much I love their Gyros!!!

Your parents did the right thing... The real estate market has been going nuts here until recently (it's slowing down a bit now) and they must have gotten a good deal on their property... My wife is American and we are noticing that in Maine it's pretty quiet and the price differential is huge compared to here (we're in the process of selling my mother in law's house at this time and the going prices there are about half what the house would fetch in Ste-Agathe)...

Cheers!
Chris