Mobile service in the GTA

[Moore]

I have the newest iPhone and the capability of 5G. I work all over the GTA (Brampton to Pickering, Toronto to Barrie) and it doesn’t matter, where I am it is rare to have full service! My service is slow and takes time to load.. half the time my phone gets kicked down to LTE or 3G.. I’m wondering, where does bell actually offer 5G? Small pockets? Specific parks maybe. I am finding 5G way worse than LTE was. Bell no longer has the infrastructure they once had. 

[MDM]

I have only two bars of LTE signal in my apartment and only one bar of LTE in my room. So I am barely able to use internet in my phone. To use internet I have go out of my apartment and it is not really acceptable. I live on the second floor of a small condo building near Queen/Beverly. I am paying a high amount of money every month for the service. Tried reaching out to customer service and they can’t provide a solution at all. And the only option I have not tried is factory resetting my phone. That is impossible. I can’t lose all my data. On top of that I ordered to install a bell home internet service in my apartment and the technician who came to connect it couldn’t complete that job also. How poorly run a company can be when they can’t help their customer. Where do I go for solution ?

[Jonn5]

Anyone else getting pathetic mobile data speeds in the GTA? I moved from Telus recently and am extremely disappointed in the mobile data speeds and coverage. I had a lot better coverage with Telus. I work downtown and am experiencing a lot of dead zones. I'm using a pixel 8 pro

[Tahnya]

Same issue constantly and at home no obstructions and so many times my network isn't available to even make calls. 

I'm currently in Markham outside the mall and no 5G.

Switching to a better provider. 

[dks]

Thank you for your concern. If you do not receive a 5G signal, your phone will go to LTE, then 4G and finally 3G before losing connection. Radio signals are, by their nature, variable. They can be subject to interference and even blocking. Unfortunately the 5G marketing from all carriers rarely mentions that fact of physics. As consumers, we are all free to move our business where we choose. But we can't change the laws of physics.  

[Amoman]

Is there a coverage issue along the Lakeshore East line? There is little to no data coverage at Union Station (one bar if you are lucky), Union Station to beyond Danforth, and between Pickering to West of Rough station? The issue is not with my iPhone. Others have the same data access issue. I checked with Metrolinx and they said this is up to Bell to investigate and resolve. Thank you!

[dks]

Thank you for your question. My favourite cell map shows lots of cell sites in proximity to Lakeshore East GO line. There is a thread on Reddit that suggests the cause has two parts. There are

• Not enough channels for the demand and
• a high number of users all trying to get on line at the same time. 

It is also possible that the metal shell on the outside of the train coach is acting as a Faraday cage and reducing or blocking radio signals, depending on where you sit. 

That may not be the answer you want, nor can I suggest it will be a quick fix. 

[Amoman]

Thank you for your note. A colleague suggested I turn off 5G and select LTE. That seems to do the trick both at Union and the other locations. So my non-technical answer, based on one day of testing, leans towards Bell towers not fully/properly supporting 5G at these locations or Apple's iOS doing something wonky. 

[Braps]

Hello,

I recently switched to Bell from Freedom for better connectivity, but I’m experiencing significant issues with internet data at Markham, ON (L6G area). Despite the Bell coverage map showing 5G availability in this area, I can barely get 3G with 1-2 signal bars.

Steps I’ve already tried:

• Reset network settings on my iPhone 14 Pro Max.
• Verified that the issue is specific to this location (data works perfectly fine with 5G+ in Scarborough and other areas).

The lack of connectivity is quite frustrating as I expected better performance. Has anyone else faced similar issues in this area? Are there known coverage issues or ongoing maintenance? Any suggestions to resolve this problem?

Thank you in advance for your help!

[JenJJ]

Last year I moved to Bell as we also needed to stand alone watch plan that is only possible with Bell and Telus. I consistently have issues with people on calls not being able to hear me. It’s not all the time, but during a call for about 5-10 seconds all of a sudden they can’t hear me then it comes back. Bell insisted it’s not on their end and I got a new phone. We moved my son and husband to Bell as well for the group deal. Well now all 3 of us are having these issues on calls! It happens at home, at the office, it is not specific to one area. We live in West Toronto, our offices are downtown and in Mississauga. This cannot be an issue unique to us? What exactly can we do to fix this as it’s obviously a Bell issue.

[dks]

I wanted to reply to this user. I noticed that a recent meeting of the West Grey municipal council, three new cell towers were approved by the municipality, all north of Durham. This may address improved connectivity in that area. 

[NB1]

Wwhen are you going to improve mobile signal in GTA?!?? Dropped calls and one bar at best are NOT AS ADVERTISED! Fix it or I’m going to your competition 

[Poneymom]

So many postings like this and no answers. Just lots of questions. I’ve made sure to have a phone with satellite capability for emergencies as I can no longer trust cell service if I get hurt hiking or stranded in my car. Sad. And potentially dangerous. I came to bell because they assured better coverage but that has not been my experience. 

[Khamlin]

Hi.  This is a new post.  For some reason, our phones with our Bell account are dropping calls from our location in Collingwood Ontario.  This problem has not existed for the past year, but has consistently existed for the past month.  And this is not a singular phone issue.  Multiple people, all with Bell accounts, are experiencing the same thing. A 5 minute call typically leads to the call being dropped 2-4 times times.  We have 7 different phone lines on Bell Cellular, and simply can't move forward with Bell unless this issue is resolved.    Thanks for replying asap.

[WelshTerrier]

Good Day & Welcome to the Bell Community Forum.

In order to assist you further, can you please provide us with some further information?

Signal reception can be affected by many factors such as topography, line of sight to towers, network congestion due to heavy traffic, where you're located when attempting to use the service (indoors, basements, etc.) and many more. 

In order to have a better understanding of the issue, please provide all of the below information:

• Is your phone 5G compatible? If so, try changing your network settings to 4G/LTE to see if the same issue occurs.
• Is the issue happening indoors, outdoors or both? If indoors, have you tried Wi-Fi calling?
• Is your phone updated to the latest OS/IOS version?
• Have you tried to simply restart your phone and/or manually reset the network settings? If you haven't tried either, give it a try and let us know the results.
• What troubleshooting steps have you tried?
• Have you contacted Bell Customer Service - Mobility technical support team to report your issue and get it verified? If so, do you have a trouble ticket number? Please call: 1 800 667-0123 or dial *611 from any Bell mobile device.

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:  Troubleshooting making or receiving calls on my smartphone

Let us know if we can be of some further assistance.

Take care.

[dks]

Thank you for sharing your concern. You indicate that dropped calls have been an issue in the last month in the Collingwood area. I have a possible explanation.

This has been an exemplary winter in the Bruce-Grey-Simcoe-Muskoka area for snow, cold and winter sports. Living in the area, the snow depth is as deep as I can ever remember it. This snow has brought a lot of people out to the ski resorts at Collingwood. Lots of people mean lots of cell phones and cellular radio sites can become overloaded, dropping calls.

I don't have a definitive answer, but it makes sense, especially given that this has only happened in the last month. I can't comment on whether this will improve or not as cellular network management is beyond the scope of the forum.

Thank you for sharing your experience.