[Crusher3200]

I've been searching through forums and through google but couldn't find any information on speed tests and overall strength signals for Canadian carriers.

I currently have a Bold 9900 on Fido, and although the service is good enough for me, average speeds, never lost a call (I don't ever seem to get why people lose calls...), and overall just very reliable. However, the phone range is starting to get to me because when I first started off buying regular flip phones and keypad phones, their selection was good (well mediocre but got the job done). Now when I'm moving up to the flagship or the best phones out there, the phone selection just doesn't cut it.

I have bought two phones in total now from other carriers outright by paying the full $600-700 retail prices, unlocked them, and used it on fido. Now when I do the math, even if I move on to Bell or Rogers with a more expensive plan, its still cheaper than buying a retail phone and having a cheaper plan with fido.

Therefore, I've chosen to do the move. I decided to either go to Bell or Rogers. Can anyone recommend me which one is better? I live in Vancouver if that makes any difference. All I need is reliable signals, and FAST internet. I cannot stand waiting for web browsers to load. It absolutely annoys me when I have to wait for even a simple website to load. Fido, although is suppose to be the slow network, gets the job done. Granted, I'm pretty sure other carriers are faster, but I'm not frustrated by Fido's speeds (although I would definitely love an upgrade on speed).

Also, because Fido has 2G/3G, and therefore, can fall back on 2G if there is no 3G signals which sometimes happen when I'm at school, this would probably be an advantage which Rogers has over Bell since Bell only has 3g capabilities. Will the 2G fallback be significant at all?

In summary, Bell or Rogers? Why? Thanks!

[faceless_el]

depends on your location, in regards to the 2G fallback. On some areas like underground parking I lose 3G or areas with lots of buildings (Vancouver DT) 3G gets spotty
Mind you though, it was with Koodo so bell might be different.

[Reckage]

Dont worry too much about 2G, evdo and edge are being fazed out. Signal strength really depends on phone, coverage, and capacity. So getting a benchmark is hard as it is different for everyone. I recently drove across the country and my 9700 was boucing on the all the networks.

Sent from my BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5

[Guyzer]

if your up for a barter, you can get fido to give you a plan with a phone. they are a subsidiary of rogers, and if you tell them you are planning to move to rogers they can offer you a better plan. had the same thing happen to a friend of mine in calgary. he was going to switch to rogers from fido and fido offered him a better plan. they might even give you a phone credit toward a new phone

http://www.fido.ca/web/page/portal/F...omepage_bottom

like you mentioned the selection is not the greatest but on that site i noticed some phones i would be interested in.

i actually have another friend near edmonton who called all the providers and got them to bid against each other. he ended up pay $50 month for 6 gigs data, unlimited incoming, 500 long distance, 500 daytime, unlimited text, voicemail, callerid .

its insane if you call them up and say I'm looking to buy and say, so and so is offering this what can you do? at the very end of what they say you tell them something extra, like give me long distance. up my minutes or data or whatever. this is what he did and he got a great deal. this was also with a new iphone3gs (which was new at the time)

i live in calgary and i have unlimited incoming. i also have a google voice number since I have a 403 area code they let me sign up. not sure if google voice ever expanded its canadian options but i end up having free calling long distance due to google voice. google voice calls me and connects me with the number i asked it to call. i can ask it to call local 403, if i am running low on daytime outgoing miniutes (250) and it will be received as incoming. plus google voice atm has free longdistance canada and usa.

[Crusher3200]

if your up for a barter, you can get fido to give you a plan with a phone. they are a subsidiary of rogers, and if you tell them you are planning to move to rogers they can offer you a better plan. had the same thing happen to a friend of mine in calgary. he was going to switch to rogers from fido and fido offered him a better plan. they might even give you a phone credit toward a new phone

http://www.fido.ca/web/page/portal/F...omepage_bottom

like you mentioned the selection is not the greatest but on that site i noticed some phones i would be interested in.

i actually have another friend near edmonton who called all the providers and got them to bid against each other. he ended up pay $50 month for 6 gigs data, unlimited incoming, 500 long distance, 500 daytime, unlimited text, voicemail, callerid .

its insane if you call them up and say I'm looking to buy and say, so and so is offering this what can you do? at the very end of what they say you tell them something extra, like give me long distance. up my minutes or data or whatever. this is what he did and he got a great deal. this was also with a new iphone3gs (which was new at the time)

i live in calgary and i have unlimited incoming. i also have a google voice number since I have a 403 area code they let me sign up. not sure if google voice ever expanded its canadian options but i end up having free calling long distance due to google voice. google voice calls me and connects me with the number i asked it to call. i can ask it to call local 403, if i am running low on daytime outgoing miniutes (250) and it will be received as incoming. plus google voice atm has free longdistance canada and usa.

Thanks for your answer!
I have been with Fido for over ten years and my current plan looks like this
250 minutes
unlimited text, picture, video
caller ID
voicemail
500 mb for blackberry

All for 45$, Mind you that I only use like 20-30 minutes, 100-200 texts. The majority of my time is spend on the internet and my phone/blackberry is literally only for the convenience of portable internet. I need to be able to get email, and browse the web efficiently when I'm bored at school.

So all in all, the retention plans don't really appeal to me unless they are everything included above for 20$. That being said, its cheaper to move to Rogers or Bell and paying for 70$ given I will be able to get a new phone every 2 years for only 200$ rather than paying 700$ full retail and unlocking it for fido. The selections of fido phones put me off especially. They're range of smartphones are almost non-existent. The android phones aren't appealing, and I will never get an iPhone unless they have a keyboard and LED light and email like blackberry.

In the end, I will only stick to blackberries and the only phone they have is a entry level curve blackberry which will not satisfy me. (I love having the latest and greatest). I would like to sign a new contract whenever the new blackberry 10 comes out (pray god they have LED lights and keyboard) but I'm only struggling to choose which carrier is better. I don't want to be stuck with one carrier for a deadful 3 years of my life knowing that I will get poor service/customer service and unreliable internet.

Edit: And I only need 500mbs of internet. My usage is usually between 100mb ~ 300mb max even with excessive youtubing, web browsing so the 6gb retention for me is probably not useful.

[wxmancanada]

Dont worry too much about 2G, evdo and edge are being fazed out.

This is simply not true. Carriers are promoting the newer networks, and advising older network clients the benefits of upgrading, but CDMA and 2G networks are NOT being fazed out in Canada.

As for the original question - it's all a matter of your personal preference. I carry a TELUS and Rogers phone on me. Sometimes in rural areas one gets reception where the other wont, in the city however, it's all the same. I'm slightly biased as a Rogers employee, but my Rogers phone has more service in more locations than the TELUS phone.

I also notice much better battery life with my Rogers device, especially when locked to 2G. But, even on 3G I have much better battery life, signal and overall happiness with my device.

My personal two cents.

[kaydubbya#AC]

Avoid Bell like the plague. They are the worst for service in the industry. I moved to Rogers about 18 months ago and have been really happy with the call/data quality and their service is way better than you will ever get from Bell. Be aware that once you get a subsidized phone they know you are their hostage and will treat you accordingly.

[Guyzer]

my brother got a rogers phone when he was 18. a year later as a passenger he ended up dying in a car accident. we had to call rogers to let them know to cancel my brothers plan. they refused to do this telling us we were the ones now responsible for the charges. they thought we were trying to scam them like this is something we would lie about. they forced my mom to adopt his plan and use his cell phone. a phone she never needed. im sure we could have forced rogers to cancel the plan but neither of us were willing to play hardball, which rogers loves to do, and is very effective at it once you sign the contract.

this was a few years ago but i vowed never to use rogers. they were the first out west to get into the cellphone market and their profit margins are reflected by this. if you ever watch marketplace (an investigative reporter show on business practices) you will notice how often rogers ends up being on the show for bad business practices.

Marketplace Rogers featured near end

Rogers contracts push the legal limits

I use Bell out west and I only get the best in customer service. I do treat them like people and ask them how they are doing though. I dont yell, scream, or blame the operators for anything the company does. This might be a factor into why I get good service.

just my 2 cents

[bimmerdriver]

I've been searching through forums and through google but couldn't find any information on speed tests and overall strength signals for Canadian carriers.

I currently have a Bold 9900 on Fido, and although the service is good enough for me, average speeds, never lost a call (I don't ever seem to get why people lose calls...), and overall just very reliable. However, the phone range is starting to get to me because when I first started off buying regular flip phones and keypad phones, their selection was good (well mediocre but got the job done). Now when I'm moving up to the flagship or the best phones out there, the phone selection just doesn't cut it.

I have bought two phones in total now from other carriers outright by paying the full $600-700 retail prices, unlocked them, and used it on fido. Now when I do the math, even if I move on to Bell or Rogers with a more expensive plan, its still cheaper than buying a retail phone and having a cheaper plan with fido.

Therefore, I've chosen to do the move. I decided to either go to Bell or Rogers. Can anyone recommend me which one is better? I live in Vancouver if that makes any difference. All I need is reliable signals, and FAST internet. I cannot stand waiting for web browsers to load. It absolutely annoys me when I have to wait for even a simple website to load. Fido, although is suppose to be the slow network, gets the job done. Granted, I'm pretty sure other carriers are faster, but I'm not frustrated by Fido's speeds (although I would definitely love an upgrade on speed).

Also, because Fido has 2G/3G, and therefore, can fall back on 2G if there is no 3G signals which sometimes happen when I'm at school, this would probably be an advantage which Rogers has over Bell since Bell only has 3g capabilities. Will the 2G fallback be significant at all?

In summary, Bell or Rogers? Why? Thanks!

Fido is Rogers. Whether you have 2G or 3G or whatever depends on your phone and your plan. They share the same network. Bell and Telus also share networks although their plans are pretty different. I've used Rogers, Telus and recently moved to Bell. I was reasonably happy with Telus and did not want to move to Bell. So far, I've found Bell's support to be pretty pathetic.

What it comes down to is do they have coverage in the area where you live and where you will use your phone, and how how much it costs to get the phone and the services you want to use. Do you travel either domestically or internationally? If so, be particularly careful about the plan and how roaming services are billed. They can be SHOCKINGLY expensive.

Since you live in Vancouver, I'm surprised you haven't mentioned Telus. Vancouver is their backyard and it will be where Telus rolls out new services. As I said, I was happy with Telus and were it not for an accountant making a knee-j*rk move because our dealer was providing poor service, I would still be a Telus subscriber.

[Jake90087]

When I roam into Canada I am on Rogers and have no problems there really, data isn't as quick as my home network (Vodafone UK) Where I have gotten 8.60 MBPS tethered to my PC with the Wi-Fi hotspot in the UK. All I can say for Rogers is their customer support sucks badly, but it's good to have a 2G network for your 9900 to fall back on. As long as you don;t have any problems, I recommend Rogers.

[LordCrankypants]

I've been with Rogers for eight years, and so far I have not had any major issues with the provider, including their customer service. I've had a few billing errors and over-charges, but upon looking through the bills and finding the mistakes, I have never had a problem having the charges reversed.

Recently, Rogers called us and told my wife they've noticed she's had a bunch of dropped calls because of small problems in their network that they are working on fixing. As a result, they sent us a free Bold 9790 as it's capable of WiFi calling (with 7.1) to help us offset the dropped calls. I can't say I'm a fan of the network problems, but being given a free phone as compensation for it is a pretty good response on the part of the company.

Like I said, I'm quite content with Rogers at this point, and their customer service is like any other customer service you'll ever talk to - make sure you know EXACTLY what you're after before you call, and if it's because of a billing error, go through your bill with a fine-tooth comb before calling to ensure that it wasn't actually you that screwed up leading to the extra charges (because sometimes that happens). find the errors and then report them, and you'll have no trouble getting them reversed. If you call and you're not prepared, don't be surprised if you don't get the answer you are looking for.

JB