WIND Mobile Tower Map

[miloshjovic]

I'm just waiting for the IC update that shows new towers in Waterloo...

If they start expanding to Waterloo we're all in trouble, cuz it means they basically have no plans to increase the rate at which they are fixing the massive problems in the Cities they are currently already...ahem..."covering".

[canadiancow]

If they start expanding to Waterloo we're all in trouble, cuz it means they basically have no plans to increase the rate at which they are fixing the massive problems in the Cities they are currently already...ahem..."covering".

I disagree. The people who install towers and antennas are not the same people who work on the hardware and software that control those antennas (or the backend), so they could have the tower crew in Waterloo, the hardware crew in Toronto, and the software crew...well...anywhere.

[miloshjovic]

I disagree. The people who install towers and antennas are not the same people who work on the hardware and software that control those antennas (or the backend), so they could have the tower crew in Waterloo, the hardware crew in Toronto, and the software crew...well...anywhere.

Are you telling me the tower density is high enough in the GTA? I'll admit I'm not sure myself, but I made the conclusion that it isn't due to the fact that their tower density is much lower than Rogers', Telus', and Bell's.

If it's a density issue, then you can have those guys putting up towers in the GTA/Calgary. If it isn't, then my thinking is it's still an allocation of resources issue. If you have a certain budget, you can split it up into two crews, one doing new towers and one fixing current sites. You can also choose to, say, have limited to no crews putting up new towers, and a lot more resources/people into fixing the current site. They have plenty of problems, so I'm sure that there are dozens and dozens of sites that they are currently not fixing because they don't have the people to do so.

[Greg111r]

Why is it that I go to the map and cannot see any towers?

[canadiancow]

Are you telling me the tower density is high enough in the GTA? I'll admit I'm not sure myself, but I made the conclusion that it isn't due to the fact that their tower density is much lower than Rogers', Telus', and Bell's.

If it's a density issue, then you can have those guys putting up towers in the GTA/Calgary. If it isn't, then my thinking is it's still an allocation of resources issue. If you have a certain budget, you can split it up into two crews, one doing new towers and one fixing current sites. You can also choose to, say, have limited to no crews putting up new towers, and a lot more resources/people into fixing the current site. They have plenty of problems, so I'm sure that there are dozens and dozens of sites that they are currently not fixing because they don't have the people to do so.

I suppose, but from what I've read here, the issues aren't so much with coverage holes, but more that the network isn't operating properly. I agree that if additional towers are needed in their existing areas, those should have priority.

Why is it that I go to the map and cannot see any towers?

I don't know. Your browser might have an issue?

[canadiancow]

Updated with IC TAFL data from 2010-04-01.
521 tower locations (2365 antennas), compared to 511 on Feb 26 2010.

http://www.canadiancow.com/wind/

[GenXstart]

canadiancow, that map is awesome! Is that all the towers WIND has? Or might some be missing? It seems like there are a lot of gaps, at least in the GTA area. I really want to port over to WIND but those holes in coverage with large gaps between towers really scare me. I was wondering, do you have a tower at 24 Shaw St. in downtown Toronto? I was on the roof doing maintenance of their building when the guys were installing a new RAN in the building. I asked who it was for and they said it was for Globalive. That was 6 months ago. I've been up there and Rogers and Bell already have their own equipment up on the roof, so that makes the only one really left to be WIND. Do you know if that is a missing site? If so, are there any other sites that may be missing that could be filling in the holes in some of the areas?

[marisco]

Updated with IC TAFL data from 2010-04-01.
521 tower locations (2365 antennas), compared to 511 on Feb 26 2010.

http://www.canadiancow.com/wind/

And still my house is on the fringe.... (evergreen in Calgary) I even emailed wind and all they could say is it will eventually come and they look forward to getting me as a customer.... I may end up resigning bell (assuming I get a good deal) and just getting my wife hooked up to wind after her contract expires... a little dissapointing

[canadiancow]

canadiancow, that map is awesome! Is that all the towers WIND has? Or might some be missing? It seems like there are a lot of gaps, at least in the GTA area. I really want to port over to WIND but those holes in coverage with large gaps between towers really scare me. I was wondering, do you have a tower at 24 Shaw St. in downtown Toronto? I was on the roof doing maintenance of their building when the guys were installing a new RAN in the building. I asked who it was for and they said it was for Globalive. That was 6 months ago. I've been up there and Rogers and Bell already have their own equipment up on the roof, so that makes the only one really left to be WIND. Do you know if that is a missing site? If so, are there any other sites that may be missing that could be filling in the holes in some of the areas?

That's all the towers/antennas that Industry Canada has authorized WIND to bring online. They could have more, but they're not "allowed" to turn them on (yet).

[GenXstart]

ok, well, I've done some searching around. I don't know how accurate this other map is, but it seems like a good reference. The data about Bell/Aliant is obviously completely wrong, but the other data seems good, especially about Rogers.
http://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html

When you compare the coverage between Rogers and Wind, you can see that Rogers has many more cell sites, but if you look up north above the city and up to Barrie etc, you can see that the space between the cell sites is not as big of an issue. What matters is having enough towers to cover the number of people trying to make a call at the same time. What I take away from this, is it looks like WIND has enough towers to cover the GTA properly and so in many cases where people are experiencing dropped calls (Scarborough!) it's not as much an issue of too few towers as it is not setting them up correctly or directing them the right way. Hopefully that means WIND just needs to get their technicians up there or hire better technicians and hopefully that will solve most of their network quality issues.. Anyway, just my two cents, don't even know if it's all correct or not.

[canadiancow]

ok, well, I've done some searching around. I don't know how accurate this other map is, but it seems like a good reference. The data about Bell/Aliant is obviously completely wrong, but the other data seems good, especially about Rogers.
http://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html

When you compare the coverage between Rogers and Wind, you can see that Rogers has many more cell sites, but if you look up north above the city and up to Barrie etc, you can see that the space between the cell sites is not as big of an issue. What matters is having enough towers to cover the number of people trying to make a call at the same time. What I take away from this, is it looks like WIND has enough towers to cover the GTA properly and so in many cases where people are experiencing dropped calls (Scarborough!) it's not as much an issue of too few towers as it is not setting them up correctly or directing them the right way. Hopefully that means WIND just needs to get their technicians up there or hire better technicians and hopefully that will solve most of their network quality issues.. Anyway, just my two cents, don't even know if it's all correct or not.

The main issues are the number of subscribers and the bandwidth allocated to the provider. One tower might be able to server (this is a guess) 1000 subscribers. If WIND has five thousand subscribers in the GTA, but Rogers has two million, then Rogers is going to have to build more towers, with lower power/range, but a lot closer together.

As more people join WIND, they too will have to build towers that are lower power and closer together.

[Alberta Clipper]

Thanks canadiancow! I love your updates. Am I correct that since Edmonton does not show any BLUE towers that there is nothing new over the last month?

[Alberta Clipper]

Calgary btw is showing 12-15 new (Blue) towers as compared to the prior month.

[Kraylin]

Thanks for the update Canadiancow!! Interesting that they still didn't fill that Oakville hole... I suppose oakville is a small population and it makes sense to focus on the larger areas but a lot of people from the GTA would drive right through that hole in Oakville whether they live there or not.

[gzorp]

http://www.canadiancow.com/wind/


A tower marker will be blue if any of its antennas are new.

Nice feature.