Rogers or Bell

Which company has better coverage in the ottawa area?

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› See More: Rogers or Bell

In Ottawa, most definitely Bell, especially if you go to the rural parts of town. Since Bell owns the towers, Bell users get better reception. I'm often out in the country and my phone (Bell) is the only one that works when my friends' Rogers and Telus phones don't. Coverage was the whole reason I switched to Bell in the first place - was tired of my phone not working.

Yeh man, I'm mostly in my basement and I never get reception, like it rings and ****, but talkin is liek a mofo.

I hate Bell here in Orleans (specifically chapel hill). rogers owns bell here.

btw... both companies claim to have the best coverage nationwide, and both companies claim to have the most telephone poles! you can only trust yourself nowadays.

I work for Bell and we have the most (and best) coverage nationwide (and many parts of the US). Many other telcos (ie. Telus, Rogers) piggyback off our network so they also claim to have "nationwide coverage"

My Bell gets better coverage in most places than the Rogers phones in our family.

Rogers would be alot better because say if you have to travel to Europe the rogers phones are ready with GSM and which Bell you would have to by a phone from them which is really expensive and the quality of the phone is not the greatest. Rogers has excellent reception.

Here is what I believee from personal experience...

If you are travelling within Canada, it would be better to get a phone from Bell Mobility. I have reception almost everywhere I travel (I travel to Saskatchewan / Alberta / British Columbia / Manitoba) every year, and have had very good reception with Bell.

When I had Fido (same as Rogers), I had no reception about 1 / 2 of the time while travelling, and was made that I could almost never use it.

The province that Rogers / Fido are probably the worst in is Saskatchewan, however, Bell runs of the SaskTel towers there.

So in Canada, I would easily suggest Bell.

To add to this, when I traveled to Europe (when I had Fido) I had very good reception, where as my sister's phone (Bell) did not work as good.

So here's my overview

If you are travelling around Canada or just staying in Canada > Bell
If you are travelling outside of Canada > Rogers / Fido

I would never suggest Telus unless you live in Alberta or British Columbia by the way...

Originally Posted by help_me

I work for Bell and we have the most (and best) coverage nationwide (and many parts of the US). Many other telcos (ie. Telus, Rogers) piggyback off our network so they also claim to have "nationwide coverage"

Can you explain to me how Rogers (GSM 850/1900MHz) piggybacks off Bells CDMA network?

Thanks I would realy like to know.

Bell is alright in the city and their analog coverage is alright out of the city. I chose Fido (Rogers network) so I could have full GSM 2.5G EDGE whereever I go. I dont want some first generation technology like analog I want the latest stuff. ALL ACROSS CANADA. I would say Rogers coverage is better in the city and when I have travled in Canada it has been better. I have been able to surf, text, recieve vm, mms, ect while my friends have had trouble geting a week analog signal. Thats why I chose Fido. But serously it depends on where you go. There are some analog roaming agreements that Fido can not compete with. Enough said, I would go with Fido or Rogers BUT the final choice is up to you!!

Oh and by the way "help_me" Ill answer your question so you dont look bad. Bell piggybacks off Telus's network in the West and Telus piggybacks off Bells network in the East. Rogers has their own totaly different network. Rogers uses GSM while Telus/Bell use CDMA. They are NOT interchangeable. The one difference is Telus/Bell have a small digital network while most of their coverage is analog which Rogers is all digital. This digital coverage area is HUGE. Just look at the map.

I would never suggest Telus unless you live in Alberta or British Columbia by the way...

I would never suggest Telus...period!

Bell's service area is pretty much digital, look at the service map. Analog is light blue. Yellow and orange are digital and 1X. Dark blue is EV-DO.

Here in Toronto we had that big blackout a few summers ago. From what I gathered, only Bell mobility service continued to work throughout the blackout. My brother's rogers phone couldn't get service while my Bell phone did.

Bell Mobility's cellular sites have more redundant backups in case of power failure when compared to other companies. One thing about Bell, they spent $$$ on the network and it's redundancies.

So from looking at the two maps it looks like the only place Bell Beets Rogers/Fido is in sask. and Alberta. I bet that’s because of roaming agreements with other more local providers. Rogers network looks more complete in BC. Also in PEI I could get full signal all the time when my friends Bell phone could barely get a week analog signal. He had the throw his phone in the air about 10 feet to get a signal. With that the call only lasted about 2 minutes. I live in Vancouver and have friends with Telus. I can truthfully say I almost have full signal EVERYWHERE I GO!! With this all my friends are switching to Fido. Which is great....lots of referral credits. Anyways as I said it totaly depends on where you live. I chose GSM because of what I need in a phone (good reception, clear call quality, freedom of choosing my own phones, can use my own ringbones/wallpaper, can download mp3's thru data cable (iTunes(I have a v3i)), Telus/Bell not crippling every useable feature of my phone. I have my reasons and you CDMA guys have yours. This thread could go on for ever. I would suggest that adom closes it.