Comments on: Bell, Telus implements 3G HSPA Network, Headed for 4G LTE

By: DG

DG — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:28:03 +0000

It’s not totally the feds fault, the major telco’s in Canada have been pretty good at protecting their patch at the expense of the customer and technology advancement. Their major drive has been profit and investor return, which is why they are in business, at the expense of investment in new technology and the correct deployment of this technology. This was evident when WIND came onto the scene with Overseas Investment in Canadian telecoms, something which is badly needed…. new competition and infrastructure investment…. competition leads to new technology, better network performance, better customer service and most of all lower prices…. which equal happy customers. In overseas markets competition has lead to telco’s sharing their network infrastructure with competitors …… reducing deployment & operational costs for the telco improved network performance and covereage……………

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 04:36:55 +0000

The feds are mostly the problem. As wireless is so heavily regulated, the networks never evolve as they do in the rest of the world. Where Europe and the majority of the US switched over to GSM years ago, licensing problems and vendor lock-in forced CDMA into the forefront of things, despite it being a largely inferior standard.

Fortunately, though, it doesn’t look like CDMA is on the way out anytime soon. They’re still selling many CDMA phones and for those out in the boonies coverage is still best on CDMA.

By: BlackBerry Storm2 Verizon (9550) – Not for Bell/Telus HSDPA Network | Chucks Blog

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 02:21:29 +0000

[...] With Telus and Bell’s recent collaboration, Canada has access to a new high speed network, which does not use the CDMA standard, and is not GSM. And the coverage is terrific, other than in a few cities where the network has not been rolled out yet. Great! Or so I thought. [...]

By: Jack

Jack — Mon, 10 May 2010 04:45:40 +0000

WHEN IS IT GOING TO END ?????? I have been with Telus for over 15 Years,. We all had analog phones then we had to switch to digital CDMA , then 1X EVDO , then 3G and 3GS, talk of HSPA and GSM down the road, our phones are becoming obsolete as we purchase them… I know that the more phones Telus and Bell sell the more $$$ they make, but on the other hand how many phones do we have to buy to keep up with technology…. Somewhere down the line this has to stop… I have a 3GS iphone, it only works in southern Ontario and going east towards the maritimes, no coverage in northern Ontario untill the city of Winnipeg and then no coverage untill the Alberta Border, What good is that???? I think the FEDS should step in and draw the line on all these new networks that being proposed so we can keep our phones for long time without replacing because of an outdated signal….

By: Mic

Mic — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:40:26 +0000

I am so frustrated by the switch. I had a phone (old network) that when in my home office I would have 2 or 3 bars (not great-but it worked). I also have a Rogers blackberry from my employer.

Telus claims they have the new updated system which in theory should have the same if not better coverage. Not the case. I have 3 to 4 bars on my Rogers in the exact same spot, I have “SOS” on my new Bold with Telus on the new network.

Like many of you I need the coverage and out of frustration I purchased a cell phone booster (400 dolllars) and arranged for a professional cell tech to come to my house to install. I am standing in the middle of my street, with the attena pointed towards the tower. My Rogers has 5 bars, Telus 1 bar.

I live in a major Canadian City.

They have sold us a bunch of garbage. I am so frustrated with Telus.

By: DG

DG — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:09:50 +0000

totally agree.. 911 testing should not impact upon the network, Also it is industry standard that all testing shall be completed before a new network is in service.

Check your contract for their agreed minimum service level, if they are not meeting this then you have an out with the contract. To prove this you will need documented dates, times, and locations of where Bell/TELUS failed to provide service.

Again, check your contract

By: Adrian

Adrian — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:17:40 +0000

I have to agree with Jon and Alicia. I’ve had probelms with the Telus network with the iphone for one week as of today. My service cuts in and out like crazy (cuts out more often than in) and makes calling a real pain. If you restart it, you can make one successful call before it completely dies out and the 3g network access for surfing the web is nonexistent. I have been talking with customer support for the entire week, I have changed my iphone at an Apple outlet, I have switched SIM cards, and submitted a ticket to no avail.

At long last a technician told me that they are doing some sort of 911 testing with the new network on Telus/Bell, causing no service (or extremely patchy service) for one whole month until March comes. As a business owner which relies on calls and the reliance of the 3g network for emails, this is outright pathetic for a large phone company. If I could, I would switch companies immediately but too bad I am locked with this joke of a company for 3 years.

As a warning, DO NOT PURCHASE ANY 3G PHONE FROM TELUS OR BELL.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:26:09 +0000

I am with Telus and on this new network. I can’t make or receive calls in different parts of the city. I called and they claimed to have fixed it. The problem is back now…and now Telus is saying that the problem will be fixed by the end of March.

I use my phone for work…so I can’t wait that long! If you are thinking about going on this new HSPA network and it’s with Bell or Telus! DONT DO IT!!! The towers are not working properly….Why would they launch a network without it working properly. I could live with data outages….but VOICE!!! COME ON!

Stick with the old network or go with Rogers.

By: DG

DG — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:12:48 +0000

Alicia, the field tech was right, the network is not completed to a stage that would allow optimum performance. What’s not so well advertised is the maximum download rate can only be achieved within 1-2km from the base station, and if the number of users is extremely low…… 1 or 2. along with no signal path attenuation caused by trees, buildings, etc etc… Also the signal coverage footprint will shrink according to the time of day, number of users and data traffic volume.. so you may have coverage one minute and none the next…. thus the nature of the beast..

so how does this help you, all networks have a maintenance system that reports on drop call numbers… and the cause of these drop calls, network or operator…. they can also track individual phones and calls to see why a call was terminated…. I would go back to them with time, date, and location of each drop call you experience and voice your concerns about coverage. If the telco is smart, they will use this information and fix the problems…..or at least have some record of problem areas for new towers at a later date…..

By: Matthew

Matthew — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:47:16 +0000

Alicia, I dont know what your situation is, but myself and two others just switched to TELUS on a share plan, 2 of us got the bold and 1 got the hero and I seriously cant get over our signal strength. I park underground @ work, and where I would normally be lucky to have even 1 bar, I now have full signal!

I would suggest going back and getting a new phone. From what I can see with our phones, this network has the best reception I have ever experienced.