Huge Signal Improvement at UBC!

[ovovov]

yes.

huge improvement!!!

back in 08/2010, i was away all the time...

[Sgt_Strider]

It's nice to know that Wind has added UBC to its network coverage. I remember having bad coverage with Rogers at UBC in 2004.

[darkapocalypse4]

Any idea when the west side of UBC will get a tower? I get no service in my residence (marine drive) unless I'm within a foot of a window. Then I get 0 bars on WIND Home.

[cmstlist]

Okay well I just fortuitously ran into a colleague who works in my building and has been on WIND since before the new towers went up. We walked into Chemistry/Physics A, and strolling along the first floor hallway his Nokia briefly lost reception. Then it came back, and we got 3-4 bars of WIND Home coverage upon entering the lab.

Perhaps the time to switch is nigh... =)

[cmstlist]

I stopped by to chat with the folks at the WIND tent on campus today. The tent is operated by their affiliate store Westwind Communications. They're offering pretty much all the same plans including the $25 credit, but apparently later this afternoon they're throwing in a new Westwind-only promotion.

Apparently if you buy an accessory (e.g. case, headset) worth more than $30, they'll throw in a free Huawei U1250 (normally $70 - $20 rebate). No idea if you can still get the rebate on top of that. So for a $30 headset you get a free phone and $25/month Always Shout for a year.

Compare that to Bell who is going around waving "Free phone!" with an admittedly beautiful Samsung Galaxy S, but the big asterisk is "only if you sign up with a minimum voice/data plan of $$blabla and a 3-year contract"...

[cmstlist]

Well, I ported over last night. Today is my first day trying it on campus. I get a good enough signal in my office, and it's okay at the SUB but sometimes drops out if I'm deep inside the building.

One thing I've noticed is, when my Nexus One switches to WIND Away on campus, it doesn't come back. Even if I walk out into an open area where the Home coverage is good, my phone stays on Away. The only way I can get it back is to scan for networks again and tell it to select the preferred network.

I know that I can ban my phone from roaming by setting 3G only. I don't really want that - if I'm away from coverage I would still like to receive my calls. But it'd be nice if it could clue in once native coverage returns.

[siberx]

It's not that tough to switch between the 3G only and 3G preferred modes - there's a phone info app in the market that gives you home screen access to the menu where you switch them. The latest build of Cyanogen also has an enhanced power bar that lets you add a single button to swap between 3G and 2G (or 3G and 3G preferred) modes (this may also be available elsewhere, but this is where I first ran into it).

I would recommend setting up a scheme so you can switch easily between the two modes and then just leave it in 3G only unless you expect to be out of coverage. It's a bit of a pain but not that bad; I rarely am in an area where I need to roam myself anyways.

[cmstlist]

As long as I'm at UBC, 3g only mode is not an option. Coverage would drop to zero deep inside the buildings. So I do expect to be in need of roaming mode, but I'd just like it to do a better job of returning me to 3g automatically when the signal is available.

[DarkQuarterer]

As long as I'm at UBC, 3g only mode is not an option. Coverage would drop to zero deep inside the buildings. So I do expect to be in need of roaming mode, but I'd just like it to do a better job of returning me to 3g automatically when the signal is available.

You will not receive calls if you're at UBC connected to Away. Wind away is disabled in Home zones

[cmstlist]

You will not receive calls if you're at UBC connected to Away. Wind away is disabled in Home zones

Normally that's the rule, yes, but at UBC the calls do come through in Away mode. It's probably still authorized since UBC is still a work in progress.

[cmstlist]

A few more notes to report.

The 3g widget in Cyanogen is helpful but I wish I could set it to select only between "both modes allowed" and 3g only. At the moment it's a 3 way switch that includes 2g only mode. So when I'm stuck in away mode and can't get out, the first tap makes it worse and then I can't tap the widget again until it has finished re-registering on the wrong network. Then a second tap gives 3g-only, and after some more wait time it lets me reselect mixed mode.

It occurred to me just now that the behaviour I'm seeing may be the same as the well known 3g problems that Americans are having on the Nexus One. It gets stuck in 2g mode and then doesn't switch back even when coverage is good. So at least I know that I'm not alone.