temporary service interruption

[fhouewjdsklma]

Hi,

I am having a reoccuring issue where my connection to data service and call service is being "temporarily" out of service. The message reads as follows: "connection is temporarily not offered by the mobile network at your area." This occurs in an area where at least the on screen display shows there is a strong radio connection. I can confirm that all settings are set to on for mobile data and calling. Furhter this occurs in areas where wifi is accessible and where it is not. I have done a bit of research and found that if I am frequently in a service area that is not what is set as my home area then I may have service suspended temporarily. I believe the fix for the issue is to change my home service area if possible. I am not certain this is the case but I feel it couldn't hurt to try. I know that I will probably need to provide more information that I am willing to on the public forum. Should I be contacting technical support directly?

Thanks in advance

[FidoFrancois]

Hi @fhouewjdsklma. Welcome to the Community! We're glad to have you with us. 

Let's have a look at that and narrow down our troubleshooting. To do so, could you please answer the following questions: 

1) Did you reboot your phone when you get that message? Does it reestablish the connection or the message reappear? 

2) Does the message occur while you're on the standard network or the extended one? 

3) Is it in a specific area or place that you notice that you lose the network temporarily? 

4) Have you tried to use your SIM card in a different phone? Does the issue occur as well in that other phone? 

Please keep the Community posted.  

[fhouewjdsklma]

1.A reboot did not work. A battery pull did though. I will need to wait until I travel again next week to know if it will come back. Either way it is working at this time. 

2. The issue appears to only occur in the extended area. Though I am not sure where the border of the area is.

3. The connection is lost in different places. When I lost the connection the connection stayed off until I did the battery pull this morning.

4. I haven't tried in another phone. I will call fido today (now that it is working ) to see if I can change the local area so that I do not frequently exit the local area. I will update on whether this stops the connection cutting issue.

[Cawtau · Accepted solution]

Hello Fhouewjdsklma,

  Welcome to the community!

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@fhouewjdsklma wrote:...

2. The issue appears to only occur in the extended area. Though I am not sure where the border of the area is...

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  If the issue only occurs in extended coverage, it's possible that you have exceeded the acceptable usage limits. Extended coverage (Fido-EXT) use is only meant to be on a temporary basis. The majority of usage must be on the Fido/Rogers networks.

   While there are certain areas designated as extended coverage in the coverage map (no Fido/Rogers cellular towers; ie parts of Saskatchewan, etc), a device might connect to Fido-EXT simply by being outside of Fido/Rogers coverage, but within another provider's coverage -- even within areas designated as Fido/Rogers coverage on the map. These spots of Fido-EXT occur because the cellular towers of the different providers are not located together. Each provider have their cellular towers strategically placed. That is why I prefer to use cellular tower maps rather than the coverage maps. You can get an idea of the location of the cellular towers using online tower maps such as here.

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@fhouewjdsklma wrote:...I will call fido today (now that it is working ) to see if I can change the local area so that I do not frequently exit the local area...

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  The local calling areas (LCA) merely determine whether calls will be deemed local or long-distance and is not affected within extended areas. If your plan includes Canada-wide calling, LCAs would not be a factor for yourself within Canada. On the other hand, the cellular towers are in fixed locations, so it is not possible to change the area(s) of extended coverage.

  I understand there are people who are upset with the limits on extended coverage usage. However, I do not believe it's Fido/Rogers who have placed the limits. It is likely a stipulation within the roaming agreements. If you spend the majority of your usage on the other networks, those providers would rather you pay them for services.

  It's a common misconception that any provider will suit anyone everywhere. Unfortunately, if one lives/works/goes to school/spends most of their time etc outside of a provider's coverage, that provider may not suit them.

Hope this helps

Cheers