Troubleshooting data connectivity on your Bell Mobility phone

[BellDRock]

Hi Bell community,

We’ve all had this happen before: you’ve lost data connection or data speeds are slow.  Not to worry. Here are a few quick troubleshooting steps to run through.

Turn your phone off/on. It sounds so simple, but sometimes a fresh connection to the network is all you need.

Make sure your phone is on the most up-to-date OS.

Check your phone settings for these basics:

• Turn airplane mode on/off
• Turn Wi-Fi on/off
• Make sure data connectivity is on
• Check that your network mode is set to automatic
• Check that you have network coverage
• Ensure you haven’t used all of your data or used all of your max. speed data

If none of those work, you’ll need to get a little more technical, and steps will change depending on your phone.

Check out a full list of data troubleshooting steps.

[Charlotte4566]

I have been a Bell Mobility customer for about 40 days. Out of those 40 days I have had access to data for very short periods on occasional days.
I was shocked to be told by Bell that they have no 5G service in Cobourg, but what’s worse is the only service I seem to have access to is BELL LTE. This means that the wait is so long to - MAYBE -access the data that I’m paying for that I just forget about it. 
This is SO annoying and such a waste of time. 
Well, at least I had data with Rogers which I don’t with Bell mobility. I’m at a friend’s house on HIS Wi-Fi. 
If Bell doesn’t sort this out I’m going back to Rogers. 

BTW. I’ve done ALL these so-called troubleshooting things several times! Nothing! Bell just doesn’t have service in Cobourg near the downtown

[Retiredandbored]

My daughter and son in law dumped bell mobility due to no 5g and poor lte and went to Rogers in Cobourg just a month ago. 

Totally satisfied now. She learned Rogers has two towers and the little mini extender antennas for weak areas where in Brighton we get 5g, but our small area near bay is poor lte one tower covers centre of town well and we are in dead zone. We are waiting for our daughter to visit we will put her sim in one phone and leave bell sim in my wife's and put my bell sim in my daughter's and test.  My wife and I have identical phones and daughter is on different brand but same android is. 

We have to use wifi calling all of the time. Currently because the LTE is so poor, we can connect to slow speeds but can't keep a phone connection in the home. 

Good luck. Bell claims greatest coverage awards, but recently arogers ranks highest reliable 5g and Telus next bell last. 

My daughter was asked why the cancel and could they give a loyalty discount to stay. She said no price is satisfactory to sell 5g when you don't provide it in a town. I will let her know about this post that a staff told the truth about 5g in Cobourg not!

Bruce

[dks]

Thanks for your comments. With all respect, my favourite cell tower map shows four cell towers in the Brighton area; one in Brighton proper and the rest to the north, east and west of the town. Cell signals are affected by many factors, as they are high frequency radio signals. Bell's map, which can be a bit optimistic, does show 5G coverage, but again, there are many variables which are beyond Bell's control. Telus uses Bell's towers in eastern Canada, so they have the same footprint as Bell. In the end, we are consumers and go with what works for us. 

[Retiredandbored]

Thanks for feedback. I would be interested in knowing that site. I was told by bell there was only one tower in the town itself not the municipality that encompasses many communities. 

Large sections of the town get somewhat stable 5g. We have a tower to north at 401 out of our range, one in mid town to east at railway tracks. It is in a low lying area as it was a real debate I have read in town newspapers. The location of the now four year old tower was not in the optimum are on high ground highway 2 and downtown are. NIMBY won out and put both bell and Rogers in the industrial areas at 6 railway tracks away from neighbourhoods. Bell is renting tower space to a third party there to. Rogers got a location closer to the majority of housing. There is a bell and Rogers tower over on south side of presquille bay to service the harbour, presquille point community Trent canal and sailers/boaters but signal is spread to meet primarily the shorelines. 

A bell rep requested a survey request on the tower that feeds the town and indicated it was not in optimum location as town would not agree. They also found that the tower is overloaded and beyond capacity at peak times. Looks like there are those little Rogers nest model towers on telephones around the town. My understanding is bell does not use these nodes. 

There in lies the challenge for Bell customers in Brighton. I know where the towers are physically as we are a small town and we have walked and driven the whole community and I checked ertyu.org

So bad location and overloaded tower no use of nodes like rogers and too low and south of Bell tower we get poor lte for our whole small rural block to lake and other areas in town. 

  Rogers is a key partner in the Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN) project, which is focused on improving cellular service in rural and underserved areas of Eastern Ontario, including the deployment of new 5G cell towers

The whole Kingston to Port Hope has benefitted from this initiative. 

My daughter has seen great improvement after going Rogers out our way. 

Yes in rural Ontario coverage can be a crap shoot and I have nothing holding me to bell anymore after leaving TV and Internet. Rate and data plan is really good on a loyalty plan, but I don't mind paying more for improved service, as my daughter did with Cobourg. 

I use Wi-Fi calling around my home and at our local community HOA centre up the street. I just tell people I will call back when I get home. 

Thanks. Always a good conversation. Bruce

[dks]

Thank you for your comments. If you click on this link you will see all the Bell towers in and around your community. Zoom out to see more. 

The cell towers along the 401 are some of the oldest in existence, being installed around forty years ago, when the first cellular networks were being established. Cellular providers built their towers in large urban areas first and along major intercity routers such as Montreal, Toronto, Windsor, Ottawa. Of course they have been updated in the intervening years. 

Your provided the real reason why your cellular reception is marginal when you said, "A bell rep requested a survey request on the tower that feeds the town and indicated it was not in optimum location as town would not agree. They also found that the tower is overloaded and beyond capacity at peak times."

In other words, location and overload. That won't likely change overnight.

Today, municipalities can not block a new cellular tower outright, although they are asked by the provider for comment.

Recently a cell provider to my community (not Bell) wanted to erect a tower on the waterfront, but there were some local objections; properly so, in my opinion. The provider went back, took another look and found a nearby property, an apartment building, that was quite suitable. There were no objections. 

It might also be remembered that the planning and installation of a cell tower is not a matter of weeks or months, but years. Even upgrading a cell tower requires infrastructure planning (fibre, microwave), network engineering (integration with existing systems), equipment purchasing (equipment is in high demand and there can be wait times measured in months; many months) and lots of other moving parts of a very large puzzle. 

I understand the frustration. Unfortunately, there is very little we can do about it directly. Rome, as the saying goes, wasn't built in a day. 

[Retiredandbored]

All great points. I thought of a way for my area of testing Rogers as my greatest challenge is on dropped calls dropping down below 1 bar 4g and Cal is gone. 

Can't build Rome in a day, but I can take a BYOD Rogers plan and use their standard 30 day cancellation policy if it doesn't pan out. We all have minimum 15 days CRTC rules for trial, and if self declared disability upfront which I have, I have 20 days always. 

Only challenge is porting if I decide to stay with Rogers as I would keep bell active until I test. I have read you can port at anytime but that may trigger the setup fee one or both sides. Could just cancel Rogers, worst case is one month fee depending upon how trial period works. Then set up new plans for spouse and I port lines and get very good rates on prepaid and 2 lines. 50.00 each 2 lines with seniors 65 yrs + and we move on. 

Or just live with poor phone service around my neighborhood and just use Wi-Fi calling. We use cell data away from wifi and like 5g when we can get it, and set wifi calling to wifi preferred. Just have to give companies call back number and tell people if we drop I will call back so we don't both try at same time. It works, but if we can get better service from a competitor and it is a lower price too worth considering. 

Only when I switched to Cogeco recently did they up front ask me if I had a self declared disability so trial period was 30 not 15 days and first time any company bell Rogers Kudo has explicitly said I have the trial period to opt out no penalty. 

Important point in this response, consider your trial period options and ask up front how it works and more details at CCTS site. 

Always learning. Now if bell would consider node use. It is how 5g and up was intended to be implemented engineered and tested that way. Nodes are easy to set up, most public third party MVOAs are going this route because it is easily affordable route and expandable anytime congestion introduces the need. Basic web best design like pods on wifi and zigabe and zwave in security. 

Maybe someday. 

That's it I am all talked out and know how to proceed. 

Bruce