What is your opinion of Rogers' LTE network in Metro Vancouver?

[Sgt_Strider]

Today is my first full day on Rogers' LTE network and I'm not very impressed by it. I spent most of the afternoon in Downtown Vancouver and I found that my iPhone 5 often go from LTE to 3G and vice-versa. Fortunately I wasn't using any latency sensitive apps so it wasn't as annoying as what it could have been. Later in the day, I decided to take the Skytrain and just go in a loop from Vancouver to Burnaby and back. I lost LTE reception several time during the trip. Does this sound about right for you guys? I know it's not a comprehensive test by any means, but I was expecting more. I'm still annoyed that coverage in the Burrard and Granville Skytrain Stations suck. It hasn't improved at all over the years. I really wonder if Bell or Telus have a better LTE network in Vancouver?

[sixteen12]

Its the same everywhere. Rogers is using 1700 spectrum for LTE, Bellus are using 2100. See Wind and Mobilicity building penetration woes to see why its not the best reception.

Even in the 3 weeks I've had LTE, I've noticed marked improvements in Ottawa's reception.

[NewsyL]

I live south of the Fraser and the best I've been able to get using the Speed Test app is about 4.5M Down and about 1M Up. I was in the Spanish Banks area on Monday and tested from there and it was no different. I think I got the same speeds with my old old 3G HTC Magic.

On the other hand, it works well enough when I want to use it. The last couple of weeks I've had to car pool some kids to soccer practice and wait 90 minutes for them to finish. It was so nice to put the phone into hot spot mode, connect my Nexus 7 to it, bring up NetFlix and watch season 2 of The Walking Dead in my car while the junkies and ho's circulated on the fringe of the parking lot at Tom Binnie field in Whalley (Surrey - right next to the BC Lions Practice Field). What a lovely part of town.... (not).

[Sgt_Strider]

I live south of the Fraser and the best I've been able to get using the Speed Test app is about 4.5M Down and about 1M Up. I was in the Spanish Banks area on Monday and tested from there and it was no different. I think I got the same speeds with my old old 3G HTC Magic.

On the other hand, it works well enough when I want to use it. The last couple of weeks I've had to car pool some kids to soccer practice and wait 90 minutes for them to finish. It was so nice to put the phone into hot spot mode, connect my Nexus 7 to it, bring up NetFlix and watch season 2 of The Walking Dead in my car while the junkies and ho's circulated on the fringe of the parking lot at Tom Binnie field in Whalley (Surrey - right next to the BC Lions Practice Field). What a lovely part of town.... (not).

I'm not as concerned over download and upload speeds. Latency is more important to me. Even 4.5Mbps is still plenty fast for most people. I rarely drive or go to Delta so it's not much of a concern for me. I'm more concerned about LTE coverage in Vancouver, Burnaby, and Richmond. That's where I spend most of my time.

[NewsyL]

I'm not as concerned over download and upload speeds. Latency is more important to me. Even 4.5Mbps is still plenty fast for most people. I rarely drive or go to Delta so it's not much of a concern for me. I'm more concerned about LTE coverage in Vancouver, Burnaby, and Richmond. That's where I spend most of my time.

What I'm indirectly saying is, that regardless of coverage, it's not working as expected. Roger's can put up all the LTE coverage maps they want, they have not optimized the network as yet.

[Obj-C]

Anyone know how Telus's coverage compares? I just upgraded my phone on Rogers and I'm not terribly impressed that I can't get an LTE signal at home and that the 3G reception is noticeably worse than my previous handset.

[kitty]

What a lovely part of town.... (not).

Is it really a good idea to pull your Nexus 7 in that part of town, even if you are in your car?

I find LTE isn't fast enough to replace my home wired Internet connection, which is what I thought it was meant for. It will probably get faster in the future, but it's got a long way to go before it will work in a multi-PC/multi-user household.

[NewsyL]

Is it really a good idea to pull your Nexus 7 in that part of town, even if you are in your car?

Maybe not.... used to be not too bad there but this year it is bad, really bad. The first time I was watching an episode in the car it scared the hell out of me when a guy tapped on the window looking for change. When the living on the street don't look much different than than walking dead from the show it ain't good. I'm going to round up some old spare clothing I have and bring it down there for a couple of guys that came by - their clothing was just tatters and the weather has turned now. I refuse to give them money.


Disregard everything I said about speeds earlier. I got suspicious of my phone due some comments here and elsewhere and only ever seeing the 4G symbol in my travels. Turns out the store clerk put a standard SIM into my phone.... A truly ffs moment. Sooooo........ I can get LTE at home in North Delta but only on the top floor of the house and it is slow, 12M down and 4M up, and that was with one bar to 2 bars showing. In White Rock today with 4 full bars I was able to get 45M down and 14M up - that's faster than my cable internet, amazing to see this in a phone.

Otherwise I haul my phone all over Western Canada and have been with Rogers 10 years. Where they say they have coverage I've always been able to get voice and that's all I need. It will be interesting to see what happens when I'm in places like Calgary or Winnipeg where the hotels have terrible wired and wireless networks and I want to use the LTE for a hotspot to my work laptop. I still can't fathom how Shaw can be so crappy for so many years in their service to the hotels near the airport in Calgary.

.

[Sgt_Strider]

Anyone know how Telus's coverage compares? I just upgraded my phone on Rogers and I'm not terribly impressed that I can't get an LTE signal at home and that the 3G reception is noticeably worse than my previous handset.

I'd like to know too. I don't think we'll have excellent coverage until either of the big 3 uses LTE in the 850mhz spectrum. The lower frequencies can better penetrate walls. I don't have any problems getting LTE at home, but in downtown, my phone goes from 4G LTE to 3G and vice versa all the time. It's like as if my iPhone 5 is going through mood swings.

[NewsyL]

At Cloverdale Athletic Park, 64th and 168th, in the rain... barely holding onto 4G with one or two bars. Down to E when rain was heavy. On my Samsung Galaxy SIII.

[feynman]

At Cloverdale Athletic Park, 64th and 168th, in the rain... barely holding onto 4G with one or two bars. Down to E when rain was heavy. On my Samsung Galaxy SIII.

Compared Telus to Rogers on galaxy s3 and galaxy s2 in surrey. Telus faster up to 25.
Rogers was at most 5 and sometimes switched from Lte to 4g. Is there a rogers coverage problem?