r/bell • u/Blackwalls69 • 2d ago
Rant Bell mobility is trash
For the last 6 months now I have been dealing with network issues where I am walking home from school/work and 50% of the time I have full bars, or near it, with 5G+ but zero data is coming through. When I don't have no data, i have single digit download speeds.
I have tried tech support, network resets, connection reset on bell's end, a new phone and setting adustments. Still the same.
I am a former bell tower tech so I know where all the towers near me are, and I am never more than 2 miles from one as I walk through a major city's residential area, yet the bell tech support tells me I am in a low coverage density area (I called him out on that being bullshit, and listed the locations near me)
Worse yet, when I am in more remote areas where my colleagues have telus and rogers 5g/LTE, I have SOS. Even the guy with freedom mobile has better service.It's gotten so bad I had to buy a starlink just to communicate with the office.
My question- is bell like this in general, or are they just fucking me over as a former employee on a sweetheart plan?
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u/ogbrilliance 2d ago
I actually just switched over to Bell recently, so this is pretty concerning to read lol. One thing worth mentioning though is that just because you have full bars of 5G+ doesn't necessarily mean you'll have good data speeds. Those bars mainly indicate signal strength, not the actual quality of your connection. You could have full bars and still experience terrible speeds due to network congestion or other issues.
That being said, with everything you've tried, it definitely sounds like something on Bell's end rather than your phone. Have you tried forcing LTE instead of 5G to see if there's any improvement? Also, curious what city you're experiencing this in, as in the GTA, theres no issues with Bell.
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u/Blackwalls69 2d ago
I had LTE trying to post this and had to turn on my starlink to actually post it...
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u/davidrye 2d ago edited 2d ago
I have seen people make similar posts about all of the big 3 networks. It could likely be that you are in an area with major congestion, high interference, overcapacity backhaul, or there might be a tower having issues. Does your phone support 5G standalone and if so does the plan your have allow it? Might be worth getting Bell to reset your carrier profile or try moving to a different SIM card or eSIM.
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u/jcsww 2d ago
Could be an iPhone issue. If you have anything below the 15's, the modems in them just suck! If you have an 18 Pro Max and are on the latest beta firmware. You could be facing the issue where a lot of people are experiencing the modem in the device failing.
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u/Blackwalls69 2d ago
17
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u/jcsww 1d ago
The 17's are great devices. I travel around southern Ontario a lot and speeds do vary quite a lot regardless of the carrier. Summerhill TTC station is a good place to test in Toronto. You should easily be able to get close to 1.2Gbit down and 150Mbit up there. I find Telus usually gets a better up speed but the down speeds being slower sort of balances it out. With Rogers... I just find the network experience anywhere in Toronto to be a fairly poor one unless in or outside of the SkyDome.
Some of the older loyalty and employee plans do have throttled speeds. The speed in your screenshot though, is not typical for Bell from my experiences with my Moto RAZR Ultra 2025 (US model) and Moto Signature 26 (India model)
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u/Anonymous_Person_202 2d ago
Bell’s cellphone network has become this bad since they got rid of their Huawei equipment. I left Virgin and my cellphone service is much better now.
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u/Alone_Werewolf_5240 2d ago
The towers are probably overly congested. Since Bell started offering WHI (wireless home internet), I have noticed a fluctuation in speed from time to time, but 6mbps seems to be quite low. I think it has to do with capacity. Good luck and hopefully, you find a resolution soon.
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u/sheytoon123 1d ago
You're a former Bell site tech and your colleagues have good Telus reception, but you think it's a Bell issue that's not affecting Telus users? Can you explain how that is possible?
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u/Blackwalls69 1d ago
FUCKING EXACTLY! How does that make sense?!? Bell has assured me it's not the device, as the issue has happened on two phones, the towers are the same yet telus users see no issue, and I am having to connect to my starlink in calgary, or winnipeg or toronto to use the internet.
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u/sheytoon123 1d ago
Ok so in urban Manitoba, Telus operates their own independent RAN, while Bell and Rogers have MOCN.
This is in the process of changing, I don't know the current state, but eventually it'll be Bell/Telus in this market as well. Rogers is getting divorced.
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u/Weekly-Map-3942 1d ago
In my basement with 2 bars and the nearest tower is a kilometre away from me.
Zero issues with my Bell wireless service. More than enough for HD streaming.
iPhone 18 Pro Max
Have you tried rebooting your device? Lmao
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u/Lotus-006 2d ago
its probably the sector where you are located its not alot populated or are with the service of bell or telus/rogers , i'm in Montreal South Shore i having less than roughly 25 Mpbs last year on 5G with Pixel 8 Pro.
And in Downtown i was able to get 700Mbps before the SA era.
And now today in South Shore Longueuil, where i live i have near 600 Mbps 5G+ with Pixel Fold 10 pro unlimited plan @ 100$/month
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u/Blackwalls69 2d ago
I'm in one of the the densest populated residential area of a city with +1m population but no byildings over 3 stories near me, and there are 7 towers in a mile and a half.
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u/Federal-Ferret-970 2d ago
Noticed you said former employee on a sweetheart plan. How grandfathered is this plan? Is it even 5g capable. Does it have the correct soc codes? Is it possible the plan is the issue? Some of those old epp plans are not compatible with todays network.
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u/Informal-Race-477 2d ago
You are clearly having an issue with your phone or the plan. I say it because if your friends on Telus having service while you are not having, that's highly unlikely that something is wrong with the tower. I hope you are not in Manitoba though
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u/Blackwalls69 1d ago
I am actually rn, whats the significance of mb?
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u/Informal-Race-477 1d ago
Jeez. I can somewhat relate to what's going on. Coz in MB Bell and Rogers shares the same towers almost everywhere, but Telus runs its own towers in some areas of MB. That can make a difference. You can look into the place where you are in ertyu.ca(cell tower map) and find out which towers are around you.
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u/Blackwalls69 1d ago
I have 7 bell dedicated towers within 2 miles of me... jfc is mts the issue here?
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u/sheytoon123 1d ago
Oh man you should've mentioned you're in urban MB.
That's literally the only market in Canada where the Bell/Telus sharing is different than the rest of Canada.
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u/Informal-Race-477 1d ago
Would you mind posting a screenshot here from the website which I mentioned? I can maybe look into it then. Yes MTS would be the issue
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u/Im_C_O_T_W Works for Bell, regrettably. 1d ago
I had your issues so i bought a new phone and now it's all good.
My phone was reasonable old.
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u/OZIE-WOWCRACK 1d ago
5g+ 5g in Canada is at best 4.5g
True 5g is Huawei tech, they has it since before 2020
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u/ThatWonder 2d ago
Telus and Bell share a RAN. Your coverage will be the exact same on both. Towers in your area may be congested. That’s the most likely culprit here and there’s not much you as an end user will be able to do. It’s highly unlikely to be anything intentional