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. 

[Jay6]

Living in Etobicoke, speeds have been horrible for over a year on both my line and my wife's.  Both phones latest gen 5G one iPhone and another fold 6.  Recently calls have been bad too.  I get one to two bars or reception on 5G.  

[Pat-k]

In my area, the LTE cellular signal strength is almost full, but the LTE internet speed is very slow — even slower than 3G. Could there be an issue with the cellular tower?

[dks]

Thanks for your question. You don’t say where you are located, but there are many reasons for your experience including overcrowded cell sites, the site needing equipment repairs, increasing tree foliage affecting cell signals and more. 

[Pat-k]

Thanks. I walked through a strip just north of King Road, close to Keele Street. In that area, I noticed the signal was LTE, the cellular Internet is very slow and stable. However, south of King Road, near the GO Station, the signal switched to 5G, and it was very fast.

[Gredy]

I am experiencing no signal on my cellphone from past 3 months. It is very hard to commute without proper signal on my mobile. I live in Guelph and the Signal is worst. It only has one bar when i leave Guleph and travel towards Toronto and other western parts. This is very Frustrating!! i am in a contract and I am not getting support to break the contract without fines. Please help me find a way to move to a different carrier.

[dks]

Thank you for your concern. As this is a peer to peer web site, we have no access to account and billing matters. We can not advise on breaking your contract with Bell. The penalties for breaking your contract with Bell are outlined in the contract you signed and cannot be waived. 

Cell service is a radio signal and, as such, will vary due to location, geography , topology, cell tower location and other variables. The number of bars you see is a visual indicator of signal strength. Bell does not guarantee a specific level of service. What matters is your experience. Are you having calls dropped? Are there other issues? If you can tell us what phone you are using we may be able to offer suggestions for improvement. 

[heatspeedy]

I've had Bell Mobility for over a year and a half and always thought my low 5G signal on my Pixel 8 (one bar or less) was normal but I finally contacted Bell in July 2025 and more recently Google to see if there's an issue with my phone. Anyone else using a Pixel having issues with low 5G signal strength? I'm not using 5G and have switched to LTE. I'm in the area of Rexdale Etobicoke in Toronto. Thanks.

[WelshTerrier]

Good Day & Welcome to the Bell Community Forum.

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:

• You mentioned changing your network settings to 4G/LTE. How is your signal strength? Better or worse?
• Are calls disconnecting unexpectedly?
• Are you experiencing this issue everywhere or just in the Rexdale Etobicoke area within Toronto?
• 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.

Please check out this full list of:  Troubleshooting making or receiving calls on my smartphone

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

Take care.

[heatspeedy]

Hi there. Thanks for the message.

On LTE I don't get dropped calls and data works just fine. It's only 5G im having issues with. This happens in many places including Vaughan Mills malls at Langstaff and Jane in Vaughan and in Georgetown. There is a spot where I get 2 to 3 bars of stable 5G service which is at Queens Plate Drive in Etobicoke. Usually though on 5G I get dropped or missed calls. I've also reset network connections and Google had me try and set the cell mode to NR only while I was on 5G but that didn't work. I called Bell Mobility support back in July but they weren't able to provide any further assistance and that's when I decided to contact Google support and their engineers are investigating to see if my phone has the problem. When I get an answer from Google I will contact Bell support if I'm not satisfied with their findings. Thanks again.

[WelshTerrier]

Good Day.

@heatspeedy Thank you for updating the community & your feedback on the steps you have taken.

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

Have a great day!

Take care.

[dks]

Thanks for your question. What you may be seeing is normal cell phone behaviour. Your phone will not always be on 5G but will automatically shift back and forth from 5G to LTE to even 3G and then back LTE and 5G. What you are seeing is your phone automatically selecting the strongest signal available. and switching antenna and even cell tower. Your phone is also increasing and decreasing transmitting power to prioritize voice calls. This is how all cell phones work. While all cell providers publicity paint a rosy picture of "fastest 5G" or "best coverage" or other such sales phrases, which are intended to convince potential customers they will have a superb customer experience, sales does not want to recognize the technical realities of cellular service. It is a radio. Signal strength varies, depending on your distance from a cell tower. Call are dropped. Let us know if things improve. 

[Cyclecalves]

Hello,

I've switched 2 of my cell lines to Bell almost a month ago (coming from Rogers) and I've noticed worse reception, call quality, and data transfer in quite a few of the places I frequent. I'm not in some rural neighbourhood either. I'm typically in Markham, Richmond Hill, Vaughan (in Ontario). I could be talking on the phone while driving a certain stretch of road and signal strength would drop sharply to the point where I can't hear the person on the other end and they cut in and out. There is a gym I go to where I had full signal strength with Rogers. On Bell, I couldn't even send a text message or load a webpage. Same with a park (even though it's in a bit of a ravine). Even walking around my neighbourhood I can see the signal strength going up and down and conversations can become choppy. I've looked at cell tower maps and I see a few towers near all those problematic location, but what does that really tell me? Maybe the equipment Bell uses is worse and isn't as powerful. I have no clue. I'm on an iPhone 13 and the other line is on an iPhone 16. Same signal issues on both.

Is there anything Bell can do here or is this just how their service is and I'm destined to go back to Rogers?