We switched from a Bell landline to Rogers wireless home phone service a few months ago. Ever since then, we've had a problem with intermittent service. Rogers kept telling us they were fixing it, but it never became really reliable. Finally, they told us that we were 7 km from the nearest tower, but unfortunately, not in its beam. Funny they forgot to tell us that when we signed up. It sounds like they've given up trying to improve our signal.
I'm tempted to try a signal booster, or possibly just an outside antenna, before I give up and switch back to Bell. All the information on boosters on the internet seems to be geared to cell phones. How different is Rogers' wireless home phone? It seems that a booster for it should be simpler than a cell-phone booster, since it only has to deliver a signal to Rogers' router in a fixed location, not to a cell phone moving around the area.
We also have Rogers cell phones, which usually work outside the house and usually don't inside. The unreliability of cellular service is why we need a landline. Since we already had Rogers cell service, we went for their package deal. They assured us that their wireless land line would be as reliable as a hard-wired service. It isn't.
There was actually nothing wrong with Bell's service, apart from the price. I suppose I should look into what kind of plan I can get from them now. Maybe I've been away from them long enough to qualify as a new customer. Where can I find out if there are any resellers in my area offering home phone plans using Bell's wires?
If you have internet, look into VOIP. Teksavvy resells Bell POTS but they are not as cheap as VOIP. I had similar issues with Rogers cellular service. Took the phone back and cancelled immediately for a full refund. There is no excuse for such bad service. Bell cellular or a Bell reseller will likely work better. Check with other people in your area first.
We have internet, but it's also wireless (no cable in our area), and it occasionally goes away for a few minutes, or gets shut down for "scheduled maintenance". We've also been advised to look into something called a femtocell, but it's also an internet device, and I'd really prefer a phone that doesn't depend on the internet. I guess I've been spoiled by 60 years of hard-wired phone service that always worked.
I'll look into teksavvy and try to find out what other resellers might be available in our area. Does anyone know if there's a site that has a directory of what resellers are available where? If there is, it could save some time .
Can you possibly "move" the rogers wireless home phone device to a different part of the home? My Godfather also uses Rgoers Wireless Home phone, and he has had similar issues, but one side of his home was getting much better "cell" signal than the other so he picked up the device, and moved it to the location with "better" cell signal, plugged the RJ11 wire into the nearby bell jack, and connected the power and to his surprise, it worked quite better. After all, it does utilize the same cell signal that Rogers cellphones pick up so where your cellphone will work better, in theory so will this device.
Most phone service resellers have moved to selling their own brand of VOIP service. Markups on reselling VOIP are much higher than than POTS. The only company I am aware of that still sells Bell POTS is Teksavvy (TSI.)
Under the circumstances, the best option may be to install a cellular signal booster. These may be what was referred to as a femtocell. The best work by placing a high gain antenna outside to get a good signal and using a low power transponder to provide a signal to nearby devices. There are several threads already on that subject so please use one of those to discuss it.
Edit: On second thought, Rogers should be doing this for you.
The Rogers and Fido Wireless home (ZTE Device) Does not only have a signal strength indicator on it, but I noticed it also has an antenna connector on the back. So it may be entirely possible to attach a matching cable to the port, and re-locate your antenna or even use a higher gain antenna on it, to achieve better signal strength. But this also requires that the near by Cell Tower you are connecting to is working properly, if that site is not working correctly or some channels or frequencies are turned off, no matter what you do you will still have problems. You should go to one of those web sites and check how far you are from a near by tower.
That its mentioned that the internet may just cut out randomly.. could be a cell signal drop on the internet.. so same thing happening with the wireless home phone.
what's the location like and what are the home construction details?
Modern energy efficient UV windows can reflect most if not all radio signals.
A metal roof will reflect all signals. Foil backed backer board under typical vinyl siding
doesn't help either. nearly 4.5 miles to the nearest site is quite a ways away...
Bound to be plenty of obstructions between you and it I imagine.
Rogers did suggest moving the receiver to the side of the house facing their tower. I did and it may have helped (the problem is intermittent, so it's hard to tell) but it isn't perfect. I can still watch the led change from green to amber and back.
The receiver is mounted in a second floor window. There's nothing sophisticated about the glass in either the window or the storm window. There are trees in the signal path. There are also metal clad barns and possibly windmills. I don't know the exact location of the tower, so I can't be sure.
What frequency does Rogers' home phone system use, and does it need an unobstructed line of sight, or does it bend around obstacles?
Rogers did suggest moving the receiver to the side of the house facing their tower. I did and it may have helped (the problem is intermittent, so it's hard to tell) but it isn't perfect. I can still watch the led change from green to amber and back.
What is the nature of the problem? Is it merely that you can't get a "green" led indication?
Are you actually dropping calls, are you having any problems getting through?
Keep in mind that in wireless, it doesn't take much signal strength at all to be able to make and retain phone calls. For instance on a normal cellphone, theoretically one should be able to make and retain calls down to about "1 bar". I don't know anything about the hardware you are using, but I suspect in a clean environment (absent of external interference and capacity problems) it should work fine as long as the LED isn't "red".
^^^^
They use their cell network, which means it could be on any of several bands. All of them are pretty much line of sight, though there may be some diffraction around objects and reflections
If Bell worked reliably, I would go back to them. It might be possible to get a better deal through one of their sub-brands or resellers. Considering the lack of reliable service from Rogers and the broken promises, I would start pushing for a cancellation of all contracts, a full refund on all hardware and compensation for lost service. Document all correspondence and send a registered letter if necessary. Also consider filing a complaint with the CRTC.
^^^ That's what I would do as well if I was in that situation. Teksavvy for Bell POTS home phone seems like a good idea @uglydukwling in your situation if you want to save money and Bell doesn't offer better. For cell service I dunno, you shouldn't be getting poor service and to me I wouldn't put up with that but you might have grown attached to your cellular devices and you may lose them if not under contract? Either switch back to Bell for that or get a cell phone booster like femtocell. That's the best I can say.
We tried Teksavvy, and they won't talk to us. From what I've read in other threads on this site, Bell has forbidden them to sell to anyone who ever had Bell service. It also seems they're the only ones still reselling hard-wired service. Everyone else has gone to voip.
My wife found another service called Canquest. They have a great price and lots of features (if they work). Does anyone have any experience with them? She's looking into them, and I presume they'll turn out to be voip also. Mind you, I've got nothing against voip, if it's as reliable as hard-wired. So far we haven't found a version that is, but we're willing to be convinced.
I wonder how long Bell will be offering a hard-wired service. Will they eventually go all-wireless, too, and abandon anyone who doesn't happen to live close enough to a tower?
We tried Teksavvy, and they won't talk to us. From what I've read in other threads on this site, Bell has forbidden them to sell to anyone who ever had Bell service.
Canquest appears to be yet another VOIP service. The company has been in business for over 20 years so it shouldn't be too difficult to find something about their customer service history.
Canquest's prices appear to be good because they compare themselves to the most expensive phone providers in the business. It's not difficult to find a VOIP service with similar features for under $10/mo. Light home phone users can do much better with a service such as voip.ms. VOIP options and providers discussed in existing VOIP threads. Looking for ISP Providers - Discussion thread
We tried Teksavvy, and they won't talk to us. From what I've read in other threads on this site, Bell has forbidden them to sell to anyone who ever had Bell service.
This is probably against CRTC regulations as well. Bell is required to sell access to their service at wholesale rates. TSI may just be saying this to push their more profitable VOIP service. Reselling POTS has very low profit margins. Reselling VOIP is almost all profit at the prices TSI charges.
It looks like an external antenna will be the simplest solution, so we'll try that first.
An added benefit will be that the router can be moved out of the window. It's interesting that the instructions say it should be mounted in a window for best reception, and also that it shouldn't be mounted in direct sunlight. It does get uncomfortably warm on a sunny day.
If Rogers will give us the exact location of the tower, I can probably aim the antenna well enough using a compass. An alternative would be a signal strength meter. Will any of the cheap ones work at cell-phone frequencies, or are they strictly for tv? The router doesn't have a meter, just a single led, so all it can tell us is signal or no signal.
It looks like an external antenna will be the simplest solution, so we'll try that first.
If Rogers will give us the exact location of the tower, I can probably aim the antenna well enough using a compass.
Does the router firmware have a signal strength indicator? This would likely be accessed by entering 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 in a browser. A password might be required. If the router still has the default password, change it to something more secure.
An FTA or satellite signal strength meter might work. Another option might be a RTL2832U+R820T DVB-T USB Digital TV Tuner (cheap on eBay.) They will tune a wide range of frequencies and PC software is available that turns it into a signal analyzer. The software setup is not the easiest but it works well once done. Not sure if it's possible to check cell tower signal strength with either of these though. It might require more specialized equipment.
If the signal strength cannot be measured, I would approximate by using the LED. First get a signal using the yagi. Then move it in both directions until the LED goes out. The best aim will be approximately halfway between the two extremes.
Does the router firmware have a signal strength indicator? This would likely be accessed by entering 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 in a browser. A password might be required. If the router still has the default password, change it to something more secure.
If you are refering to the wireless home phone device, it is not a router, it is merely a stripped down cell phone radio with no microphone, speaker or keypad and rely on a external PSTN phone for those. Don't connect just any External antenna or TV or Wifi antenna, they will not w ork correctly. The antenna needs to be specific for cellular frequencies ie 850/1900 Mhz to work correctly.
Wireless internet was mentioned as well. Not sure why separate devices would be used but I'm sure Rogers has its reasons. If reliable internet can be obtained, it might make sense to use VOIP over that link and drop the Rogers phone service.
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