PREPAID - Koodo VoLTE Changes - Manitoba

Similar discussion in this thread. Try checking what bands your phone currently connects to when making a call while inside.

User864023 wrote: ↑ I do have a question though. Does anyone know if similar things are happening or have happened in BC, particularly in the Victoria area? We are heavily considering a move to the coast this summer, so would like to know if this is an issue there.

1. Don't move to the coast.

2. Bad policies always spread. If Telus is using 3G shutdown as a tool to force people to pay more for cell phone service in one area, you can be certain they'll be doing it everywhere else sooner rather than later. You can also be certain that the other carriers will follow suit. This is the nature of markets that are both non-competitive and under-regulated.

middleofnowhere wrote: ↑ 1. Don't move to the coast.

Yeah, the alternative is staying in Winnipeg, which is fast becoming a non-option.

I got a similar message from Public Mobile today:

"Public Mobile here. As of March 16, 2021, our Prepaid network in Manitoba will be changing and select areas of Winnipeg and Brandon may experience reduced voice coverage. Data speeds will remain unaffected. In order to maintain the best voice coverage after March 16, 2021, changes will need to be made to your account. For more information, please call us at 1-866-975-3058. Free Public Mobile Msg"

My understanding is that they are turning off some 3g towers in Winnipeg and Brandon and volte is the only option. Does lucky mobile allow volte calls? Or are my only options to switch to Telus, Bell, Rogers, Zoomer, or Fido?

teefer22 wrote: ↑ My understanding is that they are turning off some 3g towers in Winnipeg and Brandon and volte is the only option. Does lucky mobile allow volte calls? Or are my only options to switch to Telus, Bell, Rogers, Zoomer, or Fido?

The three carriers only allow VoLTE access to postpaid customers, and then only with a very narrow selection of pre-approved phones. It looks like the carriers are using the 3G shutdown to further increase profits by ending prepaid plans, wiping out the (3g-only) MVNOs, and to do an end-run around the CRTC's anti-locking rules by restricting VoLTE access to phones that that have directly sold.

Unless their is fairly rapid government intervention, there is a very good chance the more fairly priced cell phone options are going to disappear very soon.

Double check this with Public Mobile - but it may be that all of Winnipeg and Brandon will no longer have voice service after March 16. That is the answer I got from a Public M moderator when I asked which areas of Winnipeg would be affected.

Telus will be using their own towers in Winnipeg and Brandon. These towers will only run 1900 Mhz frequency on 3G. When Telus is doing tower sharing with Bell, both 850 Mhz and 1900 Mhz are available on 3G. The loss of 850 Mhz could affect 3G performance. Judging by the tower density, it should not be a big problem.

This has been very frustrating for me.
I brought my own Android google phone to Koodo. I have no desire to change my phone or my plan (had for 3 years now)
I disregarded their attempts to keep harrassing me with automated messages. Anytime I wanted to make a phone call, I had to listen to a 30 second automated message, telling me again and again about the impending network upgrade. I called Koodo and told them that this is not tolerable and I want it gone. It took several tech people to "reset" my account or something on their end. The automated messages were then finally gone.
March 16th has come and gone and my phone is working just fine, making calls like before all throughout Winnipeg and other areas.
However now the automated messages are back. Now they say, the network is recently upgraded and you may lose coverage. I called Koodo and over 1.5 hours and several escalations with their reps, they accepted the fact that this is pure harrassment. My wife has Public Mobile and an even older phone (iPhone). She only received several text message s about the same network upgrade. That's it. No automated messages and harrassment. Why does Koodo have to do this? They were able to perform another "reset" on their end, where their system is supposedly told me hat my phone is not compatible with volte (which it is) so that the automated messages will stop. The very next day, they started again!
I'm DEFINITELY making a complaint to the CCTS. and calling them again. I don't give a shit , they cannot force consumers to give up and give in to their demands to buy new phones from them. It's not even a financial thing for me, it's just the blatant bullying. They offered several deals to make me go away. Their whole "list of compatible devices" is arbitrary from what I can tell. Telus does support my google pixel phone to conduct volte, but Koodo has chosen not to support my device. That's fine. They can either cut off my service entirely, which will force me to switch carriers. But they can't randomly not "support" my phone, when everything works fine and all my cell coverage is unchanged - while continuing the automated messages. I use the phone for work and can't tolerate a 30 second message prior to each call.
I kept telling them - what if I want to move to Steinbach, or Morden, or Dauphin or anywhere else for that matter. I will not be affected by your network upgrades at all (Wpg and Brandon), but my phone is now locked into a network wide automated message frenzy. Bullshit. I know that they can just suspend these messages from their system for all users, but are chosing not to.
I will provide an update on what happens in the next couple days. Any recommendations are appreciated.
If you are also willing to send a complaint to the CCTS, please do so. Thanks.

Winnipeg resident here. I was a Koodo prepaid customer and waited until March 16th to see what would happen. On that day I lost my ability to make phone calls and text service was very poor inside. I could not make phone calls even with full bars. I read that it was because Koodo prepaid will not support VoLTE. It is utterly ridiculous they are still selling prepaid plans here, when they know they will not work. Since my phone was VoLTE capable, I took their recommendation to switch to postpaid. After switching, I could not send texts either (although I could receive them) and still could not make calls, which was very frustrating. I typed in *#*#4636#*#* into my phone and discovered that although my phone is capable of both VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling, it is not provisioned by the carrier to do so, and Koodo is apparently not provisioning phones for VoLTE or wi-fi calling that you don't buy from them even after shutting down 3g. If you have a BYOD Android phone, you're out of luck once 3g is shut down. Winnipeg/Brandon may be a test case but I expect this will happen across the country, and will destroy the BYOD market, the prepaid market and the MVNO market if nothing is done. I switched to chatr for now, but I don't know what options there will be come June when Rogers shuts down 3g on chatr.

Koodo would not reimburse me for the 500 minutes I pre-paid for through their phone booster, nor my boosters for US minutes and texts. They said all they could do was give me credit on pre-paid service--a service that, thanks to them, I could no longer use.

Now that this change is almost two years old, I am wondering if Koodoo prepaid or Public Mobile users still exist in Winnipeg? Going there in the summer and am wondering if my Koodo prepaid service will work. Currently using an Samsung A53.

It seems that they're have been varying experiences. I have an A51, my wife has an A52, and neither of us have had any noticeable problems in Winnipeg. At the time of the change we had an iPhone 6S and a Moto G4 and there was not really a noticeable difference. Others obviously had different results.

My advice... Wait and see.

Edit: Haven't had any issues in Brandon either. Only issue I've had was on the train coming back from BC. Of course there were big dead spots in the mountains. There is also a dead spot just east of the MB/SK border around St Lazare, MB. But I have had few problems with text or voice in the Winnipeg/Brandon corridor.

User864023 wrote: ↑ It seems that they're have been varying experiences. I have an A51, my wife has an A52, and neither of us have had any noticeable problems in Winnipeg. At the time of the change we had an iPhone 6S and a Moto G4 and there was not really a noticeable difference. Others obviously had different results.

My advice... Wait and see.

Edit: Haven't had any issues in Brandon either. Only issue I've had was on the train coming back from BC. Of course there were big dead spots in the mountains. There is also a dead spot just east of the MB/SK border around St Lazare, MB. But I have had few problems with text or voice in the Winnipeg/Brandon corridor.

Thanks for the info. I will take my chances and assume my service will work. If not, being in Winnipeg, I will have other options.

@CheapRuss
It's more dependant on your phone. Telus no longer has 3G B5 (850Mhz) in Winnipeg or Brandon so your phone must have 3G B2 (1900Mhz) for voice calls. Outside of these two cities Telus still has both B2 and B5 in Manitoba. You may still have issues in a couple of spots with a weak signal crossing coverage zones or in basements or large concrete buildings. There have been surprisingly few public mobile customers reporting an issue in these cities and have been related to their international version device not being B2 (1900Mhz) capable.

coffeybean wrote: ↑ @CheapRuss
so your phone must have 3G B2 (1900Mhz) for voice calls. Outside of these two cities Telus still has both B2 and B5 in Manitoba. You may still have issues in a couple of spots with a weak signal crossing coverage zones or in basements or large concrete buildings.

This would explain why none of our 5 phones that we've used on Koodo or Public have had any issues. All of them have 1900MHz.

My A53 is the Cdn variant and the Samsung website does say it supports 3G B2 (1900Mhz), so I should be okay (accept for perhaps inside some buildings). Memories of this and other similar threads caused me in part to buy the Cdn variant of this phone.