how is Fido's network compare to Rogers?

[Stratus_Power]

i've been tempted to switch to Fido for its Great long D plan and per sec billing.
curious Fido and Rogers both run on GSM. and Rogers had known to be shitty in campus ( U of A)..
would this also apply to Fido?

[Davetronz]

Fido is pretty ASS.
My mom has a Fido phone and there is NO reception and isnt good if you need to travel out of Calgary.

[silvercivicsir]

rogers just put a site on the U of A campus after a long 10 year wait, so if Uof a is your concern it should be awesome there now.. But i'd go with fido, no contract, per second billing, free day of your choice.

[CRXguy]

I'm using FIDO. It does kinda suck if you travel a lot though. No reception between Calgary and Edmonton. When I was coming back from the U.S., I had no reception from the Washington State/B.C. border all the way to Banff, so my dad couldn't get a hold of me for the whole day.

That's the only thing bad I have to say about it. Plans are cheap(200mins/$20 since I don't use my phone that much), per second billing, and no dropped calls like Rogers.

[Abom]

Fido is GSM only. It will only work in 1.9 GHz GSM areas only, where as Rogers has their analog network to backup in remote areas. Being GSM only, Fido can only supply service in major cities and their outlying areas (Airdrie, Okotoks, Strathmore, etc). The highway to Edmonton is fully serviced, so you should get reception the whole way up. Other than that, every other highway outside the city is outside of the network.


If you rarely travel, and usually don't go out of the city, then you'll be fine with Fido.

[Ven]

Originally posted by TurboDSM
Fido is pretty ASS.
My mom has a Fido phone and there is NO reception and isnt good if you need to travel out of Calgary.

That's the phone, tell them, get a new one.

Fido/MicroCell has the best municipal coverage of all the providers. Their network is built from the center outwards (start downtown, spreading out), the rest just kinda drop towers to make a wide spread network and hope all the dead spots won't be too much of a problem, Rodgers being the absolute worst at that. They'll brag about their cross contry coverage, meanwhile you have no signal in your home in the damn city.

If you travel out of town a lot I'd say get Telus, but if 95% of your life is in the city like I suspect most people I'd get Fido. Actually Fido isn't too bad out of town. Full signal between Calgary and Edmonton :)

[Altezza]

Originally posted by CRXguy
No reception between Calgary and Edmonton

Are you sure? I have no problems with signal...Highway 2 is all good for me. I'm on Fido.

[CRXguy]

Originally posted by Altezza


Are you sure? I have no problems with signal...Highway 2 is all good for me. I'm on Fido.

I guess they changed then, cuz I haven't been to Edmonton for almost 2 years now, and there was no reception last time I was driving up there. I know going south on Hwy.2 towards Lethbridge is pretty bad for reception still.

[Stratus_Power]

thanks man.. Fido is it!! their plan are soo much cheaper than Telus. i need a Lond D.. and Telus has

$50- 250 min anywhere in Canada
caller ID extra

Fido:
$45-
200 min anywhere in Canada
400 min local
includes caller ID, call foward
per sec billing

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by silvercivicsir
rogers just put a site on the U of A campus after a long 10 year wait, so if Uof a is your concern it should be awesome there now.. But i'd go with fido, no contract, per second billing, free day of your choice.

hm rogers still sucks. their customer service/tech is run by morons. i call them all the time (cuz i work at the telecom dep. in future shop) and those guys put u on hold for a long time and half the responses i hear from them are "im not sure" or "i dunno".

Originally posted by CRXguy
I'm using FIDO. It does kinda suck if you travel a lot though. No reception between Calgary and Edmonton. When I was coming back from the U.S., I had no reception from the Washington State/B.C. border all the way to Banff, so my dad couldn't get a hold of me for the whole day.

That's the only thing bad I have to say about it. Plans are cheap(200mins/$20 since I don't use my phone that much), per second billing, and no dropped calls like Rogers.
fido is supposed to cover calgary to edm. but i know that whenever the highway dips into a valley the signal cuts out. that and most ppl with fido use cheapass vtech phones that have shitty reception anyways.

[RCBVtec]

Originally posted by Stratus_Power
thanks man.. Fido is it!! their plan are soo much cheaper than Telus. i need a Lond D.. and Telus has

$50- 250 min anywhere in Canada
caller ID extra

Fido:
$45-
200 min anywhere in Canada
400 min local
includes caller ID, call foward
per sec billing

If I were you I would be careful going with Fido, there phones aren't very good and only 1 phone works outside of the city. I was in there yesterday doing a little research ;) They do offer PSB (per second billing) and phones without a contract, the reason is fairly simple, they are going out of business and the service area they have isn't good. There phones, as mentioned earlier, are 1.9 GHz only = major city coverage only. You should check out Bell man, they are very competitive right now as they are trying to get some of Telus Mobilities clients.

[RCBVtec]

Originally posted by Altezza


Are you sure? I have no problems with signal...Highway 2 is all good for me. I'm on Fido.

Only 1 phone they offer is a dual mode (analoge and 1.9 GHz) you probably have it.

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by RCBVtec


Only 1 phone they offer is a dual mode (analoge and 1.9 GHz) you probably have it. when ure on analog mode with the fido phone, its roaming off other networks, so u are charged for roaming...

[RCBVtec]

yeah it roams off of Rogers right...

[Altezza]

Originally posted by RCBVtec


Only 1 phone they offer is a dual mode (analoge and 1.9 GHz) you probably have it.

Nope... Both my Nokia 8890 and my SE T68i are digital only phones. Fido has coverage in the Calgary-Edmonton corridor.

Fido uses Telus for Analog...

I can assure you that Fido is not going out of business anytime soon. You must have been fed that crap from a Roger's dealer - they've been using that line for ages now. Microcell just completed a debt/share recap and will be kicking for some time in the future.

[RCBVtec]

Just doubled checked and your right it is Telus... I figured it would have been Rogers as Fido uses GSM (TDMA) and Telus is 1X (CDMA). I actually work for Telus... I know they filed for Bankruptcy protection a few months back so I just assumed it was a matter of time before they were out of business. Don't follow them too closely, more so Bell and Rogers...

[BebeAphrodite]

I'd go Fido

[RCBVtec]

why?

[BebeAphrodite]

I don't even feel like getting into what is wrong with Rogers cuz it would just get me aggrevated. Rogers does have one benefit, they sometimes randomly call customers and ask for feedback. I felt so much better after I was on the phone w/ customer service for about an hour and a half explaining why I hated Rogers. And the most ironic part - he agreed with me - basically he told me that he has not received a postive comment since he started calling customers.

[RCBVtec]

I would agree, I have heard a lot of the same re the customer service and tech support from Rogers... but both Telus and Bell are better than Fido and Rogers! Of course you are going to get people that have had bad experiences with all 4 carriers but overall Bell and Telus are the best IMO.

[K271]

There was some study done a year ago or so about people masking phones and stealing numbers. Apparently Rogers network has the most phones masked out of the four major carriers in Canada. They were also number one for most masked in the U.S.

[Ven]

Originally posted by GTS Jeff
....that and most ppl with fido use cheapass vtech phones that have shitty reception anyways.

I have no problems lending friends my "cheap ass" 68 gram vtech unit when their $600 Moto's and Nokia's lose signal. :)

[Redlyne_mr2]

Bottomline is fido worth switching too because rogers gsm sucks, I hate bell, and telus's plans are getting worse by the day

[kenny]

Originally posted by CRXguy
I'm using FIDO. It does kinda suck if you travel a lot though. No reception between Calgary and Edmonton.

Yeah, my phone worked fine driving up to Edmonton, and there is coverage from Calgary to Banff now too. If you travel alot, Telus is the only way for now.

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by RCBVtec
Just doubled checked and your right it is Telus... I figured it would have been Rogers as Fido uses GSM (TDMA) and Telus is 1X (CDMA). I actually work for Telus... I know they filed for Bankruptcy protection a few months back so I just assumed it was a matter of time before they were out of business. Don't follow them too closely, more so Bell and Rogers... uh to let u know, u should get your chit straight.


tdma, cdma, gsm - 3 different sorts of pcs standards
1x - a data transfer protocol. generation 2.5 of cdma....the halfway point to g3 (cdma2000)
gprs - the data xfer protocol for gsm networks.

[silvercivicsir]

Dude I wouldn't Talk.. Future shop Rep don't know shit all. I've never see a good rep at future shop.. They are the worst out of all the dealers they don't know what they are talking about and all they want to do is sell a phone to you and get there 35 dollar Spiff, they don't care you can't activate it, on an exisitng line and will lie to anybody just to get a sale.



Originally posted by GTS Jeff


hm rogers still sucks. their customer service/tech is run by morons. i call them all the time (cuz i work at the telecom dep. in future shop) and those guys put u on hold for a long time and half the responses i hear from them are "im not sure" or "i dunno".

fido is supposed to cover calgary to edm. but i know that whenever the highway dips into a valley the signal cuts out. that and most ppl with fido use cheapass vtech phones that have shitty reception anyways.

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by silvercivicsir
Dude I wouldn't Talk.. Future shop Rep don't know shit all. I've never see a good rep at future shop.. They are the worst out of all the dealers they don't know what they are talking about and all they want to do is sell a phone to you and get there 35 dollar Spiff, they don't care you can't activate it, on an exisitng line and will lie to anybody just to get a sale.


wtf, FUCK YOU. just cuz u had a bad experience with one person doesnt give u the right to bash me. i know exactly what im talking about, i activate the phones i sell in the store before u even pay a dime, and i dont lie to my customers cuz if they get jacked - then they return their phones - and i lose the commission - which is bad. and btw, i make like 15 dollars on a phone, and i sell maybe 3 a day.

if a black dude beat your face in at a club, would u spend the rest of your life hating the entire black race? ure doing the same thing here, under different circumstances. so u can eat a dick, bigot.

[TrevorK]

Just so everyone knows the facts, Rogers is UPGRADING their GSM network here in Aug/Sept. They are adding the following sites (Straight from a Rogers Employee):

ALBERTA

AB Almonte Almonte
AB Brooks Additional coverage for Brooks Alberta, this GSM 1900 & 850 site will improve coverage in the city of broock
AB Calgary 14 st and 33 ave SW - calgary ab
AB Calgary/Woodbine Woodbine District area calgary
AB Cold Lake 2 NW of Hwy 897 and 55 (nw of cold lake)
AB Drayton Valley 2 We are adding a 2nd site to drayton Valley - GSM only Hwy 22 and 620
AB Drumheller 2 Hwy 9 and Hwy 56
AB Edmonton GSM only site which is located in the Carlisle area - 121 st and 117 ave nw edomton
AB Edmonton Northlands - 82 and 112 ave - Edmonton ab
AB Edmonton Roper Industrial 51 ave and 50th st
AB Edmonton This GSM only site is located in the Corona area of Edmonton (Jaspar ave and 109 st)
AB Edmonton This site will improve coverage in the Canon Ridge area of edmonton (Meridian rd and 127 st nw
AB Edmonton This site will improve coverage in the north mount area of edmonton (94th and 114 st)
AB Edmonton University of Alberta - this much anticipated site will improve coverage in and around the university of alberta
AB Jasper Jasper III is a 1900, 850 gsm only site that improves the coverage in Jasper
AB Lethbridge IV 18 ave n and 36 st N, lethbridge ab
AB Strathmore 2 Hwy 817 and 791 in Strathmore ab

[K271]

I agree with silvercivicsir. I have never met a Future Shop salesperson who knows what they are talking about. So many times I'm asking for info and the sales people just talk smack. It's embarassing when the customer can know more about the product then the salespeopele.

[Ben]

Originally posted by K271
I agree with silvercivicsir. I have never met a Future Shop salesperson who knows what they are talking about. So many times I'm asking for info and the sales people just talk smack. It's embarassing when the customer can know more about the product then the salespeopele.


Whats sad is this is often the case at MANY places.

I've known my share of shitty and good sales people...Jeff is Ethical, which apparently is rare!

[RCBVtec]

Originally posted by GTS Jeff
uh to let u know, u should get your chit straight.


tdma, cdma, gsm - 3 different sorts of pcs standards
1x - a data transfer protocol. generation 2.5 of cdma....the halfway point to g3 (cdma2000)
gprs - the data xfer protocol for gsm networks.

I got my shit straight... I am very well aware of what the pcs standards are, I have been doing this for 3 yrs now. What did I say wrong in my post that made you post this? I was simply mentioning what the various carriers offered as far as networks go.

[silvercivicsir]

Your the Bigot Ass hole do you forget what you wrote about Rogers CSRs ?

hm rogers still sucks. their customer service/tech is run by morons. i call them all the time (cuz i work at the telecom dep. in future shop) and those guys put u on hold for a long time and half the responses i hear from them are "im not sure" or "i dunno".

So since you didn't get your question answered Are all the rogers Employees Morons ? Are you going to hate the whole company since somebody couldn't give you a answer to one of your stuipd questions. ?





Originally posted by GTS Jeff
wtf, FUCK YOU. just cuz u had a bad experience with one person doesnt give u the right to bash me. i know exactly what im talking about, i activate the phones i sell in the store before u even pay a dime, and i dont lie to my customers cuz if they get jacked - then they return their phones - and i lose the commission - which is bad. and btw, i make like 15 dollars on a phone, and i sell maybe 3 a day.

if a black dude beat your face in at a club, would u spend the rest of your life hating the entire black race? ure doing the same thing here, under different circumstances. so u can eat a dick, bigot.

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by silvercivicsir
Your the Bigot Ass hole do you forget what you wrote about Rogers CSRs ?

hm rogers still sucks. their customer service/tech is run by morons. i call them all the time (cuz i work at the telecom dep. in future shop) and those guys put u on hold for a long time and half the responses i hear from them are "im not sure" or "i dunno".

So since you didn't get your question answered Are all the rogers Employees Morons ? Are you going to hate the whole company since somebody couldn't give you a answer to one of your stuipd questions. ?




i said "half" the guys at rogers dont know what theyre talking about. which is is pretty close to the truth, since every other time i call rogers to do an activation for a customer, i am on the phone for about an hour because joe-tech there doesnt know what a subsidy unlock code is. i never said every rogers rep is a fuckin moron, im just saying their customer service in general isnt that great, since their training program obviously hasnt educated their employees equally. telus on the other hand has never made me wait for longer than a minute and i can always finish phone calls in under 5 minutes with them.

i havent said anything like, "hey u work for rogers, u must be an idiot". so no, im not a bigot asshole at all.

i find it pretty low of u to go off on me telling me that i dont know shit, simply because i work at future shop. its not fair to me at all to be judged because of your bad experiences with my coworkers. i agree that there are definitely shitty future shop reps out there. in fact, of the 4 other guys i work with, 1 of them is pretty bad, he makes shit up and bs's about the phones to get a sale. guess what? he also makes the least commission because he has a really high return ratio and no repeat customers. i try my best not to be like him, i honestly do my best to help customers to find a good plan/phone, and if they ask me something i dont know, ill just say "i dont know" instead of making shit up. even after the sale, a lot of my customers ask me for my card because they know im on commission and they know i provided them with good service. i put all my effort into doing a good job and i feel terrible that all that effort is wasted by you slandering me like this.

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by RCBVtec


I got my shit straight... I am very well aware of what the pcs standards are, I have been doing this for 3 yrs now. What did I say wrong in my post that made you post this? I was simply mentioning what the various carriers offered as far as networks go. u said fido uses gsm (tdma) and telus uses 1x (cdma)

gsm is not related to tdma at all, as the brackets may suggest. and 1x is a data standard of cdma, not the other way around.

[RCBVtec]

Originally posted by GTS Jeff
u said fido uses gsm (tdma) and telus uses 1x (cdma)

gsm is not related to tdma at all, as the brackets may suggest. and 1x is a data standard of cdma, not the other way around.

Understandable... I meant that TDMA and CDMA are the foundations of those 2 wireless providers, I did not mean to imply that GSM and TDMA are related at all, nor 1X and CDMA.

In fairness to Jeff and other good F/S dealers, I speak to them quite often during a business day, some of them are very knowledgable while others aren't so much. It's not right that we judge him or anyone for that matter until we get to know that person. Everyone just needs to relax, all is good :D

[Altezza]

Originally posted by GTS Jeff
u said fido uses gsm (tdma) and telus uses 1x (cdma)

gsm is not related to tdma at all, as the brackets may suggest. and 1x is a data standard of cdma, not the other way around.

Sorry to be nitpicky, but GSM technology is heavily based on the TDMA principle.

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by Altezza


Sorry to be nitpicky, but GSM technology is heavily based on the TDMA principle. but still far from interchangeable, although gsm is the logical progression for a tdma network.

[Altezza]

Originally posted by GTS Jeff
but still far from interchangeable

Absolutely! :thumbsup:

[jdmyeung]

Ya well said Altezza!!! If some of you do read the business section of the newspaper you would understand Microcell is far from going under if you check Market mall and Marlb Mall they just received brand new and very expensive kiosks as with the whole country so Im sure they didn't do that on purpose to go out of business. Yes they did go through their debt recap the past month and they are going strong! Watch out for the new plan coming August which will blow the competition out of the water. Mark my words:) Just watch out for it!! If you notice and are in the cell phone business you will see that all the carriers wait till Fido comes out with a plan then they follow it, check out Rogers and Bells packages and you will see.

Per second billing no contract, best quality in city and its been proven to have the least dropped calls (survey was done recently)

"Per Second Billing Regrettably Only from Fido" hahaha ever see their new commercials!! Stupid but funny!!

[3G]

yo jeff, can you hook me up with something?? i need a cell

[jdmyeung]

Also to add to what Rogers reps have been saying to customers that they are buying Microcell out and how this and that is all the sales tactics they were told to use to get customers and dogging the competition is the only way they sell their services. As for the debt recap they reduced their debt by $1.7billion and now have claim to have the lowest debt level in the industry and some of the best credit ratios. They have increased their liquidity and protecting all of their assests to maintain strong revenue.

VTECH phones are great phones and will go toe to toe with the more expensive $600 phone in terms of function and reliability. No point having a pimp phone that doesn't have any reception or slow software IMO.

[redbeast]

I must say I agree with jdmyeung comments, very true Rogers reps are notorious for trash talking the competition regardless of whether its Fido or Telus. I know cause I have friends working at some Rogers locations. Well I guess whatever it takes to sell their great plans with crappy coverage, shows u that they aren't confident in the products and services. I guess I would be a little biased towards this topic since I work for Microcell but to be honest everyone is right, Fido offers number 1 voice quality for calls inside the city with a very low ratio of dropped calls as said above but outside coverage is limited. Before I joined Microcell I had Rogers, Telus and even Clearnet for those who can remember them. They all had crappy coverage and big holes in city and especially Rogers had horrible cust and tech support.

Im currently using Nokia 8390 and love it!! No problems at all and wicked coverage in town and for the VTECH A700 its the best bang for your buck with good options and great reception and durability.

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by jdmyeung
VTECH phones are great phones and will go toe to toe with the more expensive $600 phone in terms of function and reliability. No point having a pimp phone that doesn't have any reception or slow software IMO. the a700 (which only works on 1900mhz hahaha) is definitely not a good performer as far as reception goes. of course, when the signal is strong, itll have no problems (like any phone), but when the signal gets weak, the better phones can still cope, but the a700 craps out. ive also had customers complaining that the phone took forever to dial out (as in signal searching)

other than this, i think its pimp that a welfare phone like that has shit like vibrate, games, and other features that u wouldnt expect in a $25 phone. its also damn light and quite thin, which i like.

[redbeast]

Ya I sell alot of VTECHs and the only complaint I get from customers and I also have known is that ita takes forever to find the network but once it finds the network its great. Also there has been problems of it freezing but only in the earlier batches just like the Sony Eric T200 where they had severe software problems. So bad that even the OTC units (Over the counter exchange) were recalled and problem has now been fixed. At seems the black ones have less reliability issues. But as for VTECH (price went down to $125 on prepaid its still a good deal IMO. As always you get the 333 mins with that:)

Hey GTS Jeff: Where is the VTECH for sale at $25?? Thats on a monthly activation though. We selling em for $50 on monthly.

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by redbeast
Ya I sell alot of VTECHs and the only complaint I get from customers and I also have known is that ita takes forever to find the network but once it finds the network its great. Also there has been problems of it freezing but only in the earlier batches just like the Sony Eric T200 where they had severe software problems. So bad that even the OTC units (Over the counter exchange) were recalled and problem has now been fixed. At seems the black ones have less reliability issues. But as for VTECH (price went down to $125 on prepaid its still a good deal IMO. As always you get the 333 mins with that:)

Hey GTS Jeff: Where is the VTECH for sale at $25?? Thats on a monthly activation though. We selling em for $50 on monthly. well we sell them for $50 w/ month-to-month activation, but theres also the $25 gift card included. where do u work?

[redbeast]

Oh i see, thats a good deal. I work for Fido, the corporate locations. You work at Future shop right? Hey I totally forgot but by judging by the pic below is off the Charlesglen Toyota Meet back in June. What car were you driving?? I didn't make it for that cruise to Cochrane but was at that show. It was a pretty big turn out.

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by redbeast
Oh i see, thats a good deal. I work for Fido, the corporate locations. You work at Future shop right? Hey I totally forgot but by judging by the pic below is off the Charlesglen Toyota Meet back in June. What car were you driving?? I didn't make it for that cruise to Cochrane but was at that show. It was a pretty big turn out. i drive a red ae86 coupe....i got there late and we found out in the parking lot that my cone filter had fallen off heh....the cruise to cochrane was cool, toyotas owning the roads, but too much traffic!

[redbeast]

Oh I see. there were many AE86 out that day I was very surprised! Any mods you can list?? I drive a Mk3 Supra Turbo but didn't have it there that day it was still out of commission:(
Ya heard the drive out there was fun, nice pics too.

[redbeast]

Jdmyeung: What do you know about the new plan coming in August for Fido?? ITs quite secretive and even our Managers won't tell us but I've found out already and I must say its really good and will help Fido out with the postpaid customer increase.

There is the new Monthly packages paid in advance program that is launching real soon which lets people under 18 get on a monthly plan so a credit check will be done and they will automatically be a credit class 5 which is no credit history and they can get on 2 plans only. so its great a 14 year old can now get on a plan w/out $250 sec dep

[roopi]

FIDO actually does have coverage outside of Major Centers. They have analog coverage across a major portion of Canada. The thing is you need a phone that will work on it. Right now they offer the Nokia 6340.

[2.2vtec]

Isn't the nokia 7210 a world phone too???

[roopi]

World phone means 900/1800/1900 GSM networks. It doesn't support analog.