Heyden cell site is on the air!
A year after the tower was constructed. Tbaytel turned up the cell over the April 29th weekend. The site is 2/2.5 CDMA and that means Rogers hardware will not connect to the site. Bell, Telus, Virgin Mobile and other CDMA based hardware will work. Some pay-as-you-go (prepaid) service add-ons may not work but the basic voice service will.
I understand they used an older software build to get the site operational rather than wait for the latest version. This has no direct impact on the user except a disruption of service for 30-60 minutes next month during early morning hours to allow installation of the latest version.
I drove from Capt. Tilley Park on Saturday, 30 Apr 11 and had an usable cell signal all the way along Hwy 552 West and Hwy 17 into Sault Ste. Marie.
The next step is to get the Canopy broadband (high-speed Internet) service up and running. As previously noted this is scheduled for the end of May timeframe.
From my personal knowledge, discussions with Tbaytel and other sources, I know there is a large number of people interested in getting the Canopy service. The local installer has hired more assistants. He will likely be able to handle between three and five installations a day, subject to the vagaries of the ease of install, travel time to the locale, weather and other things that can affect the work. Therefore, it may take a few days or even weeks to meet the desires of all potential users.
Once the Canopy service is ready to accept users, Tbaytel will get in touch with those who have previously contacted Tbaytel Customer at 1-800-264-9501 or mailto:customercare@tbaytel.net and arrange an appointment.
"A year after the tower was constructed. Tbaytel turned up the cell over the April 29th weekend. The site is 2/2.5 CDMA and that means Rogers hardware will not connect to the site. Bell, Telus, Virgin Mobile and other CDMA based hardware will work. Some pay-as-you-go (prepaid) service add-ons may not work but the basic voice service will."
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From this post I would expect that my phone should work in the Goulais area (Pine Shores Road, 2 km from Hwy 17), but it does not, although the signal is fine. I recently activated a PC Mobile pay-as-you-go phone, which works fine in the Sault but not anywhere north (including right underneath the Heyden tower). It's puzzling that I am able to place calls to 611 (reaching TBaytel) and the 800 number for PC Mobile, where I talked to technical support, but cannot place or receive any other calls. If I try to make a call, it's either a recorded message from TBaytel, or a message on the screen that the service is currently unavailable. Would you know if this is because of limitations from this carrier, and I should look for another phone from another company, or is it related to the ongoing work on those towers, and so may work eventually?
Thanks for all your hard work on improving the communication options in the area.
Claudio
It sounds like Tbaytel may not have a roaming agreement with PC Mobile pay-as-you-go (PAYG). PAYG phones often have restrictions on them when they are operating off the home network. For example, to get my PAYG Bell Mobility phone to roam in the USA, I had to provide a credit card number.
ReplyDeleteI will s check the status of PC Mobile with Tbaytel and post the results of my inquiry.
cdma (bell/telus/solo) has worked in downtown goulais river for years via tbaytel..nothing has changed! I still don't get telus service using my smart phone (iphone or droid) only with my old cdma phone as i did back in 2007...Mark.
ReplyDeleteI will address your points one at a time:
ReplyDelete" cdma (bell/telus/solo) has worked in downtown goulais river for years via tbaytel" [sic] - This is true. The long time signal is provided through the Bellevue Tbaytel CDMA site at the intersection of Bellevue Valley Road and Hwy 556.
There are a number of coverage gaps from this site due to terrain features. That is one of the reason the blog title is "Heyden CDMA Cell Site Operational". The Heyden CDMA cell site fills a number of gaps in the coverage area along Hwy 17 and Hwy 556.
" nothing has changed!" - Some of the Heyden signal reaches into parts of Goulais River and gives improved signal strength for some users. Depending on where you live and how you move about you may or may not notice an improvement.
"I still don't get telus service using my smart phone (iphone or droid) only with my old cdma phone as i did back in 2007" [sic] - As noted in the blog title the Heyden site, as well other Tbaytel sites in the North Sault area, are currently 2/2.5 CDMA. Unless the hardware is multi-mode, - 3G HSPA with2/2.5G CDMA fall back - smart phones and tablets will not work over the CDMA network.
In addition, the Bell/Telus version of HSPA is not compatible with the Rogers version of HSPA. As stated in previous blogs and elsewhere, Bell/Telus hardware will not work using Rogers SIM cards and vice versa.
Tbaytel is working with Rogers to provide a HSPA overlay using the existing Tbaytel network. The work will be completed over the summer of 2011. Once completed, the Rogers and Tbaytel hardware will be able to access both networks.
Unfortunately, the HSPA overlay network will not support Bell/Telus HSPA hardware.
As of this writing, current plans indicate Bell/Telus HSPA service will not be in the Goulais River area until 2013 as part of the Deferral Account program.