|
|
|
|
|
Has a car phone
Hello everyone, I'm glad I found this forum. I'm a first-time poster and I'm looking for some help with a problem I'm having.
Late last year I bought an iPhone 4S from Telus on a 3-year plan and for a while, it was working well. Over the past couple of months, the signal for my phone in my house has deteriorated considerably to the point that I rarely get two bars. Most often, I get a single bar or no signal at all. Although I can connect by wi-fi, I cannot use the phone option reasonably; I can hear the conversations but the other person I'm talking to cannot year hear me at all. When the signal deteriorates to one bar, I also lose data-connectivity because people have told me that my iMesages do not get through and must be sent as text messages.
I called tech support who tried to convince me that "one or two bars wasn't all that bad" and that in the interim, I should just forward all my calls to a land line, but they put a ticket through for me anyways. A day or two later, a second technical person called me back to say that the nearby tower was being overloaded by more people being on it, so that the problem may not be solvable for some time (they said to check back in 3-6 months to see if the situation has improved, one assumes after a new tower or towers have been built). They also informed me that they cannot guarantee a signal for me to use. When I leave my residence to go outside, the signal is still weak; however, if I head south from my house on a major road at least 1km away, then the signal improves considerably.
As I have this phone number on many resumes currently in circulation, the option of waiting for many weeks or months for the problem to be fixed sufficiently is not a realistic option. Someone I know put my SIM card in their unlocked iPhone 4S and the problem was replicated but when he put his Fido SIM card back in, he had full signal strength (thus leading me to believe that the signal is not reaching my house and that it's not an equipment problem re: my phone or card). I also did field tests and my signal tests have been as bad as -114 in the front living room by a large window.
I do not use this phone in a basement or an area that would have difficulty receiving the signal. I'm on the second floor of a house in North Burlington in a built-up residential area, by a window, with no tall buildings nearby that would obstruct the signals. I'm of the opinion that if Telus cannot provide a timely solution to this problem, that they should release me from my contract.
I'm looking for advice on how to proceed. I would prefer to stay with Telus as up to now, the service and products have been sufficient for my use (I was a CDMA customer up to the time I got my iPhone 4S) but I'm appalled at them telling me to wait for months to see IF the problem is fixed. Has anyone else had this problem as well? I would appreciate any advice / constructive suggestions. Thank You.
Lock & Load!
Welcome to the HowardForums, rmfoster! I'm sure someone here will be able to point you in the right direction. Thank you for providing lots of the pertinent details right up front. One thing I'd like to know is if you've tried your SIM in another TELUS/unlocked phone? It seems odd that service was fine at first, but has since deteriorated to the point where your phone is basically unusable. Did you ever have signal problems before?
I've climbed a cellphone tower
While it may not seem like it to you, but it's unfair to compare two networks in a single location. Fido/Rogers likely wins at your house because they happen to have a site in closer proximity. At any given random location, there will always be a provider with a closer site.
What probably bugs you the most is that the service SEEMED to be stronger when you first signed up. This was probably the case, but Bell/Telus might have installed a new site in your area and then re-tuned existing sites to cut down on overlap. While putting in a new site USUALLY means better service in the area all around, it also means that in some instances the signal can get weaker when an existing site is de-tuned so that it works more cooperatively with the new site.
CDMA (and therefore HSPA as well) does suffer from a phenomenon called SITE SHRINKAGE, in which the coverage area decreases in size as the number of users goes up. However, this will mostly be evident during the day and NOT in the middle of the night. If your problem is persistent no matter when you try, then the number of users on the site IS NOT a valid explanation.
Another issue that people overlook is foliage. In the winter signals can penetrate residential areas better because the trees are bare. As leaves begin to appear on those trees (especially in older neighborhoods with lots of big trees) the signal is absorbed by them. You didn't say where you were, and so I can't necessarily assume that you don't yet have leaves on the trees in your area (I don't know how much earlier Vancouver gets foliage than Toronto for example).
The trouble with network coverage is that, no matter how good it is overall, it is still a hit-and-miss situation in some areas (especially large residential areas without many apartment buildings and with lots of NIMBYs keeping sites to a minimum).
Has a car phone
I havne't tried the SIM card in another TELUS/unlocked phone but I can borrow a relative's Android to try and see if it performs the same. She also is with Telus but has had issues with her phone's reception (albeit not as bad as mine). I had a decent signal at my home 3-4 bars usually but then it went downhill after a while.Originally Posted by DennyCrane
Has a car phone
I wanted to verify if the SIM card performed the same way when put into someone else's phone to see the problem could be replicated outside of mine and the results confirmed that his device was working well and that the service was the problem, not my phone. The reference to Fido was anecdotal and not meant to imply that since it worked in that area, therefore Telus should work as well as Fido too.
My research showed that there are two towers for Telus nearby: one's on top of an apartment building (the closer of the two) and the other is on an apartment building farther away down the street (where my signal works better) so this being the case and my area may have been re-tuned to my disadvantage, could it be that Telus just has to re-tune the towers again or is it something that they can't / won't fix? Has anyone called them to request this and if so, have they done it?
I have tried to see what the signal was like in the early hours of the morning a couple of times (3am) and the signal didn't improve, so now I'm skeptical about the volume of users being the issue.
I mentioned I was in North Burlington, which is west of Toronto. Some of the foliage is already but even when the foliage wasn't in full bloom, the signal wasn't the best though.
I've climbed a cellphone tower
I guess whether they can "fix" the problem is strongly dependent upon what the problem is. If they lowered the output of existing sites to better accommodate a new site, then chances are they won't turn them back up, but they can certainly tweak things a little.
What you've described is a common issue as the density of a network increases. Engineers go to great lengths to get the most out of an existing set of sites, but much of that goes out the window as new sites are added to increase capacity. This requires the reduction of output from many existing sites to conform to a much tighter (smaller) network footprint. In doing so they radically change what areas are now on the boundaries between sites, so while you might see a marked improvement in your coverage as a result of new sites, you can also find yourself newly relegated to a spot that falls between two sites.
It's also unfortunate that residential areas are often the most likely to suffer when this happens. They offer far less opportunity to install sites close-by and the number of trees (as I previously mentioned) absorbs quite a bit of the RF if the site isn't right nearby. Add this to armies of "Not In My Backyard" types and it can be very difficult to install smaller filler sites to help.
I might be able to be a bit more specific if you can tell me where you are. I understand if you don't wish to make this information known, but you don't actually have to give your EXACT address. Also, you can PM me if you simply don't wish to make the information public.
Has a car phone
I managed to get in touch with the president's office at Telus and they contacted me back to say that they're going to look into what kind of upgrades (if any) are taking place in my area to solve what they say is the congestion due to the tower problems. They said they'd call back in a couple of days and if it turns out that the upgrades won't take place for a while (a month or more), they'd let me out of my contract BUT also said that in order to get out of the contract, I would have to return to the iPhone to avoid the $400+ cancellation fees. I know that I have as a balance still left on my bill as the "Current Device Balance" that is in this dollar range. This is after asking if I can leave the contract without penalties. Has anyone else heard about a situation such as this where they had to return the phone to get out of the contract due to their inability to provide sufficient service?
Road Foot
^Seems fair..except how much have you paid into the device balance + at the store already...you'd be out this if you took their offer.
Mobile Pro
On your iPhone, under settings then carrier... Is the automatic tab clicked to on? In Ontario, Telus has some dedicated towers, but also will roam on Bells towers. If you are with Telus, and your phone can't find a Telus tower, or the signal from it is weak, it will bounce to a Bell tower if you have the carrier setting set to automatic...
Just something to check...
Has a car phone
Ok, so after going through Telus and explaining everything to them, they agreed to let me out of the contract and waived the penalties. I had to return the iPhone and they refunded my initial payment, minus the outstanding balance on my account. Since then I've moved over to Fido and everything is working well now. Thank you everyone who contributed their advice and suggestions.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks