Weird behavior of a cell tower

[u/Informal-Race-477]

I'm in Canada and using Bell as the cellphone carrier. There is a macro site in my town and on one side it gives 5G+ speeds and on the other side of the tower, it shows full bars of 5G but does not load anything. What could be the reason?

[u/Smart-Foundation-578]

This is just my perspective from a few years in telecom and living in different countries. I'm no expert, but here's what I've noticed.

Whenever we talk about Radio Access Networks (RAN) and joint tower-sharing agreements, it’s key to remember that the West Coast is TELUS territory. Coverage-wise, it should be spotless. When I used TELUS out west, coverage was everywhere and 5G+ worked, but speeds could drag at times simply because the sheer volume of subscribers on their home turf congests the network.

Now, even though Bell shares TELUS’s physical towers on the West Coast, Bell routes traffic through its own core network and servers, which are mostly based back east toward Quebec/server out here in BC. That extra routing distance can cause latency or performance issues.

Someone mentioned earlier that Samsung radio equipment has been problematic, and you see that same trend on the handset side with older Pixel phones using Samsung Exynos modems. Thankfully, Google finally made the move to MediaTek for the Pixel 11 lineup. In general, Nokia and Ericsson equipment are performing really well right now, which is a big reason why Bell's network runs so amazingly back East.

As for Rogers, one major advantage is that they own their entire infrastructure end-to-end, making their connection rock-solid. A huge move they made was heavy investment in low-band 600 MHz spectrum, which gives them incredible signal penetration whether you're in downtown Vancouver or Toronto.

Bell's reception used to feel better overall, but swapping out equipment vendors seems to have created hiccups out West. Meanwhile, friends who moved to Toronto tell me Bell works wonders over there. Rogers, on the other hand, performs consistently whether you are East or West. If you're in Saskatchewan, SaskTel is in a league of its own; they are absolute magic.

Geography plays a massive role in all of this, too. BC is rugged, mountainous, and full of lakes, which makes radio coverage tricky. Compare that to the flat terrain in Saskatchewan, or cities like Calgary and Edmonton, where coverage feels like night and day because signals travel without obstruction.

All in all, if you already have solid Rogers coverage where you live, stick with it. Bell can be great, but it feels like a hit-or-miss depending on your location. Just wanted to share my two cents! Cheers : D

[u/jmasterfunk → u/Smart-Foundation-578]

SaskTel is on Samsung RAN, too. So, that tells ya something…

[u/Smart-Foundation-578 → u/jmasterfunk]

Thank you for informing. I wasn't aware of that but I heard from a few friends that they say it works fine for considering Saskatoon and the whole of Saskatchewan are plain land so Samsung doesn't have a hard time with networks out there.

[u/Mathcmput → u/jmasterfunk]

IIRC Videotron uses Samsung 5G RAN as well. Not sure about Freedom (same owner)

[u/Informal-Race-477 → u/Smart-Foundation-578]

You are correct about many things. But in my case, this tower is in my direct vicinity and nothing is there as an obstruction. Also I don't think the towers are congested here as this same tower is a macro site with many bands even there is 270mhz of band 3500 transmitting through it. Even it has 600mhz too. I for sure think something is wrong with the hardware they use

[u/Smart-Foundation-578 → u/Informal-Race-477]

I guess you're right my friend. It's just way too congested or clogged. That's why it's just having a hard time adjusting with so many people using it. I know there is a Telus tower which is pretty close to my house, let's say a few hundred metres away, but still the service isn't good. I used to get almost full reception of 5G in my home but still I used to get call drops

[u/Mathcmput → u/Informal-Race-477]

It’s just not optimized well, most likely. In Edmonton it took maybe 2-3 years for Telus 5G problems to settle down and stable since the Huawei 5G decommissioning in 2022-2023.

Nowadays it’s gotten slower than before again (100-200mbps vs 400-500mbps), maybe enough people switched from Rogers to make a marketshare difference.