Rogers 1900Mhz

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Matt - 09 May 2005 15:00 GMT

I was told this week-end by a Fido CSR that since Rogers took over and
started merging the two network, the replaced the fido 1900mhz band by
Rogers own 1900 wich is flaky to say the least. According to him, buying
a 900/1900 phone since the merger was a complete waste of money since i
would get close to no reception on Fido/Rogers network.apparently Rogers
works flawless on 850 but offer the 1900 band only as legacy... bummer
since i was plannig on a new phone which don't offer the 850band. Can
anyone shed some light over this issue ? Is there anyone still using a
900/1900 handset on Fido now Rogers Network getting good reception ?
Have fido replaced their old device for customer locked in an agreement
but stuck with these uncompatible device (ex:T300)

TIA

Reply to this Message

2004TL.NBP - 09 May 2005 15:43 GMT

It's either he's an idiot or he's just pulling your leg!

If you are in a Fido urban footprint and in an area where 1900Fido is
poor and 1900Rogers is strong, your phone should automatically roam to
1900Rogers. If your phone doesn't have 850 band and you are in an area
where 850Rogers is stronger but no 1900Rogers, even if 1900Fido is
poor, your phone will stick to that 1900Fido.

With regards to coverage, there is actually a great benefit to Fido
subscribers this merger that have took place. The term swiss cheese is
now a word of the past. You should be able to use your phone virtually
anywhere within the Fido digital footprint. And with an extra $5 a
month, you can have digital coverage anywhere Rogers has digital
coverage in Canada. And a phone with a 805band makes it all even
greater!

If you are in the Fido digital footprint almost 100% of the time,
having a 1900band phone is sufficient enough. If you want to take
advantage of the Rogers network digital coverage, either inside Fido
digital footprint or nationwide, a 850/1900bands phone is a must.

Reply to this Message

JF Mezei - 09 May 2005 21:20 GMT

> If you are in a Fido urban footprint and in an area where 1900Fido is
> poor and 1900Rogers is strong, your phone should automatically roam to
> 1900Rogers. If your phone doesn't have 850 band and you are in an area
> where 850Rogers is stronger but no 1900Rogers, even if 1900Fido is
> poor, your phone will stick to that 1900Fido.

On paper yes.

But what is happening now is that the microcell network is being
shutdown. Rogers then decides on a case by case basis which antennas it
keeps and converts those to Rogers antennas (possibly shutting down some
of its antennas).

Microcell had a pretty good (albeit not perfect) network. They had much
higher standard of quality for its network than Rogers does. And Steve
Punter often spoke of Rogers dismal voice quality and dismal echo cancellers.

Since Rogers is taking Microcell over, and not the other way around, the
expectation is that Rogers's standard of quality will prevail, so we
can't expect the combined network to be as good as what we had before.
They aren't going to be keeping more antennas than really necessary.

And what remains to be see is whether fringe area coverage will improve
or not for those who do not buy extra coverage.

In the village of Hudson, west of Montreal, Fido advertised full
coverage , but there was very very very weak (if any) because the
village is hidden by mountains from the antennas along the trans canada
highway to ottawa. Rogers has coverage. So this will probably be an
improvement for fido customers.

However, there are plenty of spots where Fido advertises no coverage,
but there is coverage. (areas between st-eustache and lachute for
instance). Will those actualy lose service because Roger's towers will
refuse service and the phone won't try to lock in to the more distant
Rogers's antenna which would accept the call ?

Only time will tell.

> coverage in Canada. And a phone with a 805band makes it all even
> greater!

What percentage of Fido customers have 850 capable phones ?

Reply to this Message

2004TL.NBP - 09 May 2005 23:17 GMT

<<<snip>>>

> On paper yes.
>
> But what is happening now is that the microcell network is being
> shutdown. Rogers then decides on a case by case basis which antennas it
> keeps and converts those to Rogers antennas (possibly shutting down some
> of its antennas).

<<<snip>>>
Not totally true. They are actually shutting down not only Fido cell
sites but Rogers cell sites as well. It all depends on which has a
better performance / coverage in a specified area. If Fido antenna
gives a better coverage than that of Rogers 1900, then that of they
will keep the Fido antenna and shut down te Rogers 1900. You do the
math!

<<<snip>>>

> What percentage of Fido customers have 850 capable phones ?

<<<snip>>>

Not much. All I'm saying is that if one's phone is 850 capable then
that's a big plus to that subscriber.

Reply to this Message

JF Mezei - 10 May 2005 02:00 GMT

> Not totally true. They are actually shutting down not only Fido cell
> sites but Rogers cell sites as well. It all depends on which has a
> better performance / coverage in a specified area.

The problem with this is Roger's competance in the matter, the small
mount of time to essentially rebuild a complete national network, and
the resulting mishmash of microcell and rogers antennas.

Also, remember that since microcell towers don't have 850 (tdma, analog
and gsm) equipment, nor paging equipment used by rogers, I suspect
strong preference will be made to keep the rogers sites.

There are also financial considerations. If the microcell site is better
but has higher rent to pay for the location, will Rogers keep its own or
the microcell one ? Rogers isn't know to be high quality, "cheap" better
qualifies Rogers.

We,,l each see in our areas how the changes affect quality of service.
I have no expectations that it will be an improvement. If t is , then
I'll be pleasantly surprised. If not, I won't be surprised.

Reply to this Message

2004TL.NBP - 10 May 2005 15:37 GMT

Good point, JFM! But, if I may say, let's give it a chance! A lot of
Fido subscribers I talked swear that they've been getting coverages in
areas where Fido use t be poor. Altho, they say (even I can attest)
that when their phones are on Rogers the voices of the people they are
taking to sound softer. But hey, they got coverage, didn't they?

We're from the west. My wife recently travelled to Moncton, NB where
there is no Fido coverage at all. Guess what? Her triband (no 850) T610
worked without a problem! To many subscribers, that's all they care
about -- coverage!

And who knows, those Microcell techies who were absorbed by Rogers
might be able to kisk some a.s@s at Rogers and teach them how to do it
the right way! (Am I shooting for the stars here?) ;-)

Cheers!

Reply to this Message

JF Mezei - 11 May 2005 00:57 GMT

> taking to sound softer. But hey, they got coverage, didn't they?

Yeah, but you might get tons of echo with that too.

> And who knows, those Microcell techies who were absorbed by Rogers
> might be able to kisk some a.s@s at Rogers and teach them how to do it
> the right way! (Am I shooting for the stars here?) ;-)

In most acquisitions, when duplication of jobs exist, it is the acquired
employees who go first, unless they truly have special skills.

And even if they are kept inside fo Rogers, if Rogers doesn't give them
the budgets to fine tune the network properly, there ins't much they can do.

Reply to this Message

2004TL.NBP - 11 May 2005 02:03 GMT

> Yeah, but you might get tons of echo with that too.

Let's just wait, shall we? I know someone who works at Rogers and he
swear that they are doing all they can to fix that echo and soft voice
thingies. It's actually that TDMA band that causes all those. Probably
all will get better when TDMA is totally shutdown.

I've been a Fido subscriber for quite a long time now. I told myself
once that I'd rather not have a mobile phone if there were only Roger,
Telus or Bell to choose from. But what I've been experiencing since
Fido's acquisition is quite good if not great. Imagine being able to
use my Fido phone along Sea To Sky highway! Now, I don't have to carry
my analog surf board and my old N5190 when I'm in Prince George.
Actually, I haven't noticed the echo problem that you were saying even
in these 2 areas that I mentioned. And I'm OK with the soft voice. I'll
just pump up the volume a little and the problem is gone.

As a Fido old timer, I haven't experience anything that totaly turned
me off. I actually had more turn offs when they were still Microcell,
especially when they started removing some options or increasing the
prices of some options even to those who have them already.

> In most acquisitions, when duplication of jobs exist, it is the acquired
> employees who go first, unless they truly have special skills.

I don't believe this! Not in Canada! That's prejudism as far as I'm
concern. The company I am working for had 3 mergers/acquisitions
already since I joined. I can tell you that I never saw anything like
that -- at least nothing that I know of.

> And even if they are kept inside fo Rogers, if Rogers doesn't give them
> the budgets to fine tune the network properly, there ins't much they can do.

Well, that's another thing. But I guess even for Rogers existing
network, if they didn't get the budget to fine tune, there's nothing
much everybody can do.

Reply to this Message

repatch - 09 May 2005 16:02 GMT

> I was told this week-end by a Fido CSR that since Rogers took over and
> started merging the two network, the replaced the fido 1900mhz band by
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> fido replaced their old device for customer locked in an agreement but
> stuck with these uncompatible device (ex:T300)

HEHEHEHE, and you ACTUALLY BELIEVE what a Fido CSR says????

Rogers' 1900 MHz network is very good, there have been some areas downtown
where Fido was marginally better, but not enough to really notice.

OTOH, go outside of the GTA and the zero Fido coverage you get is surely
worse then the usually useful Rogers coverage you get.

Oh, and yes, I use a T310, and there's NOTHING "uncompatible" with using
it on Rogers... TTYL

Reply to this Message

RdR - 11 May 2005 14:57 GMT

When Fido was not acquired yet, I get no signal in the middle of Brooklyn NY
or even Newark Airport in New Jersey, Now I do, this may be due to Rogers
facilities being available to Fido subscribers. I would rather have coverage
than no coverage at all, yes the quality of the coverage might be an issue
but the fact is, you can communicate to the other person on the other side.

RdR

>> I was told this week-end by a Fido CSR that since Rogers took over and
>> started merging the two network, the replaced the fido 1900mhz band by
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
> Oh, and yes, I use a T310, and there's NOTHING "uncompatible" with using
> it on Rogers... TTYL

Reply to this Message

JF Mezei - 11 May 2005 15:31 GMT

> When Fido was not acquired yet, I get no signal in the middle of Brooklyn NY
> or even Newark Airport in New Jersey, Now I do, this may be due to Rogers
> facilities being available to Fido subscribers.

Not quite. This has more to do with Cingular's purchase of AT&T which
forced the dissolution of the AT&T control of Rogers as well as
co-branding and shared advertising.

Once Rogers no longer close ties with AT&T, Cingular (including AT&T)
was free to roam with both microcell and Rogers.

The changes in the USA started to happen at about the same time Rogers
got Microcell.

(this was a big drain on Rogers because it not only bought Microcell,
but also had to buy back all the shares that AT&T owned in Rogers. )

Reply to this Message