Data speeds in Ottawa

[Newcustomer]

Same in Ottawa and Gatineau. I am 16 days customer with less than 10% of the official internet speed that they advertise.

[dks]

The cynic in me wonders if that issue is related to the House of Commons coming back into session, but it is most likely related to any of the reasons outlined in the post tagged by the green checkmark at the top of the thread as a helpful reply. To be clear, there is no “official” internet speed with any provider, including Bell. There is always the qualifier “up to” in any contracts and advertising, although it is in small print. 

[Newcustomer]

 Thank you for your response. I apologize if I was misunderstood. Here are the tests since I became Bell customer. The last 3 Digit bandwidth number belongs to my previous provider 

[dks]

Can you please clarify the service? Is this a cell phone? Fibre internet? 

[MAras]

The entire family uses Bell. We have 4 Bell phone lines, but the internet in our area is terrible; we can’t access the internet, and pages won’t load. We can’t use social media or make video calls through WhatsApp or other apps. Our provider advised us not to turn off 5G, but we switched to LTE, and the result is the same. There is an issue with the cell tower in the area.Area is Kanata , Terry Fox road , Costco , Tanger Outlets Area,Centrum Shopping Centre etc 

[dks · Accepted solution]

Thank you for your concern. I went to my favourite cell site mapper and looked for the Bell towers in that area around Costco in Kanata. It appears there are two towers nearby as well as others. I suggest that the issue may be more likely cellular system congestion. Phones also switch towers and frequencies automatically, so letting your phone do the work by not turning off 5G is a good suggestion. 5G is also much shorter range than LTE, so switching is not unusual the further you go from a tower.  

[Vorck]

We're almost a year-aff issue with the 5G data on my cell phone I can try to make a Google search or trying to load a video in the middle of the city and for some reason I lose signal or I have only one bar of signal. I don't know what's the issue and the promotion that Bell say that the 5G supposed to be the best but it's the worst since the 5G was in place it always hasn't been slower than the 4G before. Even if I try to switch to 4G, it's still really slow. I don't know what's happening with Bell data mobile but but it's really bad 

[Vorck]

I don't really switch my 5G Network. I'm just letting it work but just don't work as fast as before the 5G was released. I guess a tower have too much customer using them but selling the fact that they have the faster mobile 5G is not true cuz 4G was way faster and LTE also was faster than my 5G at the moment. 

[dks · Accepted solution]

Thank you for your concern. There are many factors that can have an impact on cell signals. They include, 

Distance from the Cell Tower
Obstructions and Environmental Factors
Buildings
Natural obstacles
Weather
Network Traffic
Mobile Device Type
Frequency Bands and Network Standards
Cellular Coverage Areas and Network Optimization
Tower Placement and Small Cells
5G Networks

5G signals, because of their higher frequency, are especially subject to shorter range. Phones will compensate automatically by dropping to LTE, 4G and 3G connections. 

You do not say where your location is, but you can determine the distance from your local cell towers by using a cell tower map . You can remove all carriers except Bell. 

Unfortunately, advertising hype (all carriers do this) is often difference from real world application and experience. 

If you have other questions, please feel free to ask. 

[dks]

Yes, that happens. I live in a rural area and 5G is intermittent, depending on my location. It will get worse in the spring, when the trees leaf out as the leaves block the cell signal. 

[MichelS]

This problem is getting worse and now includes Nepean, Barrhaven, Kanata, Westboro and on West Hunt Club up to the Keg. Tried different phones, reset the phone multiple times, etc.

Everyone I know that works at the office are now with Rogers, and have absolutely no connectivity issues. I'm about to do the same unless someone can confirm that a fix is being implemented with a timeline. It's been two years now!

[Vorck]

It took about 1 month for them to fix my issue but I had to call and report the issue multiple time. It was a problem with their Tower. I don't know what they did. Maybe they reset it but now my issue is fixed for my area but sometime when I go to other areas the same problem occurred 

[dks]

Thank you for your concern. One of the issues in urban areas is overcrowding of towers. All providers monitor those loads, but a fix may require a lot of planning, purchasing of equipment and government approvals as well as time, more often than not measured in months or, yes, years.

 There are a variety of radio signals available including 4G, LTE, 5G and 5G+. Setting your phone to search for the best signal (see your phone manufacturers web site) can be helpful. It is normal for a phone to move between bands as it finds the best signal. There is nothing magical about 5G, actually. It’s a radio signal. And it is the most affected by distance from a cell tower. 

[Vorck]

For me my issue was not urban area. It was in the middle of the city at 800 m of a tower. Their towers . and they need to fix the issue as soon as possible because people are leaving because their service are so bad. I was having two Mbps of download. When I'm supposed to have an average 200 or more they need to fix this

[dks · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the clarification. If you were in a tower at 800m, that perhaps you have been outside of Canada. The CN Tower is only 553m high. Cell tower antennas are designed to broadcast horizontally and slightly downward. To receiving a signal above 600m is problematic as signal strength decreases significantly above that height. If you were within 600m of a tower horizontally, many other factors come into play, such as other buildings, local construction and even trees. Sometimes the sales talk is not the actual user experience. I was in a building recently within 200m of a Bell tower and received an LTE level signal. The difference? The building I was in had a steel roof. I stepped outside and got a 5G signal. The building was a Faraday Cage.