Dear Editor,
Our cell tower in Providence Bay has finally arrived and working, just 30 years after the start of cellular phone service in Canada. Patience is a virtue.
My thanks to FedNor (who provided 33.3 percent of the funding), NOHFC (33.3 percent), NetCentral (zero percent), Bell (14.5 percent), Rogers (18.81 percent), and all others who supported and worked to achieve this long awaited cell phone coverage at a cost of $1.115 million per tower. Providence Bay’s tower is one of the four towers constructed under this 2015-2016 project.
This brand new tower provides LTE type cellular service; technology originally launched by Bell in 2012, with speeds up to 150 Mbps theoretically, but more likely limited to 25 Mbps on average. However, Bell started upgrading their Canada-wide network to LTE+ technology in 2015, which offers speeds of 260 Mbps (i.e. 73 percent faster than Providence Bay’s tower). Bell’s latest technology (LTE+advanced) offers speeds as high as 335 Mbps (i.e. 223 percent faster than Providence Bay’s tower). Bell seems to reserve LTE+ for Toronto and other elitists. So Providence Bay has received obsolete technology with just 45 percent of the speed and capacity of Bell’s best available systems.
Perhaps Providence Bay shouldn’t complain, as Sandfield still suffers from “Cave Man” cellular (4G HSPA+ technology) at speeds of just 42 Mbps; just 12.5 percent of Bell’s best technology.
Cell towers have a theoretical range of up to 35 kilometres, but usually provides complete coverage for just a five kilometre radius, and spotty coverage (i.e. weak or fluctuation signal, causing calls to disconnect) in the 5 to 10 km. radius.
My house on Firehall Road in Providence Bay is just 3.3 km as the crow flies from the new tower at Hwy. 551 and Sand Rd., so I should have excellent service, yet I have no cell service whatsoever inside my house, and spotty, weak service (i.e. 1 bar out of the maximum 5 Bar signal strength) while standing outside.
When I inquired about my poor cell service from our new cell tower, Bell said their systems were working normally, but their antennas were pointed North (i.e. away from my home), so I shouldn’t expect cell service. Bell said they will log my report as a “trending” priority. That means Bell will only investigate further if many other people also complain.
My poor cell reception also means that hunters, hikers and ATV riders in the woods and homes to the west of Providence Bay may not have reliable cell phone service (neither regular nor 911 emergency service) and any boats offshore in Lake Huron may not be able to signal for help in an emergency.
If you care about the taxpayers poor return on this $2.97 million investment, please contact Morry Brown at NetCentral morry.brown@netcentral.on.ca (705)-523-1677, Bell Mobility (800)-667-0123 to complain about Bell Tower #5236, FedNor, NOHFC, CCTS, or CRTC.
I leave Rogers side of the tower for others to investigate and report.
Glenn Black
Providence Bay
