3G Issues on Bell Canada Network

Funny you told me about the extension. Initially it was going to be extended to April 8th, 2011 and then to May 2nd and then now to June?!?

Must be frantically trying to retain people in their plans perhaps?

You are not alone! Bells 3G network is messed up. I often can not make phone calls in certain areas and it's becoming fairly annoying. My dad also is with the 3G network (also a Bell employee for many years) his phone is having the same problems. We have yet to have someone over the phone admit to having any complaints. I went to the bell store and the guy there told me that there was networking problems and that they have had many complaints and they were working on fixing the situation soon. This was three weeks ago and yet I am still having problems. Keep phoning bell, we will be demanding a discount on our phone bill because of lack of service. Why do we have to pay the full price for the phone when we can't use it to our full advantage. (In your case your ipad)

The code I gave you was for a smartphone plan (Android & iPhone) and a small business voice plan only. However, some people at the Howards Forum tried the promotional deal with their own Corporate EPP plans and they got them attached to their plan. A friend of mine did the same, but through retentions without mentioning the code. Rogers offers $30 for their 6Gb iPhone plan with their preferred customers anyhow. This is nothing new. Also, the most you can get with the iPhone is not 3Gb, rather it is 6Gb at least for me and a few others who took the promotional deal back in June of 2010 when the iPhone 4 came out.

Secondly, when you were out of town, did your wife came along with you? Did your iPad came only along with you and not the iPhone? If the iPad is the only device with you when you were in Edmonton and on the Bell network separate from the iPhone which is in Calgary, then I suspect the sharing billing problem that is procluding your access to the network when both iPhone and iPad are accessing the same regional Calgary network.

You should talk to retentions and see what they can do for you.

Hi

I am having the same problem, just got the IPAD 2 and it will not connect to internet using the Bell network, I have an IPAD plan, etc... was on the phone for 2 hours with tech support today and they tried everything, they don't know why it doesnt work either. They suggest I try it in a different location ( as I live out in the country ) - will try in town tomorrow and see what happens - having said that, I have 5 bars and they say I am in a 3G area! IF no luck tomorrow I will switch to Rogers. Let me know if you get yours going and how!

Thanks

I've been having the exact same issue with both of our iphone 3G phones. One thing that's weird though is that we can access the rogers.com site only. Nothing else works, just that site. They both stopped working the same time yours did, but ours are on Roger's Pay as you Go, accounts in good standing and up to date.

I've been through 9 hours of tech support now, 2 new sim cards, and 3 trips into the city to a Rogers store, and "tier 2 tech support" closing 2 of my tickets without even looking at them. It's now been over a week since we've had the 3G we've already paid for. Grrr.

Unfortunately, disconnecting and reconnecting has not worked for us 😟

Yeah they said it was the sim card so I got a new one from the apple store. I then tried activating it and that took me 2 hours with the assistance of bell support. They said they had to do a bunch of stuff on their end. After all the waiting and numerous phone calls it now works but I lost the remaining 3 days of my previous plan and was not offered any sort of reimbursement or free data. If it happens again I am switching to Rogers.

I'm having the exact same issue as spitfire. After the 1st billing cycle on a corporate account, 3G on the iPad 2 died. I talked to customer service who after an hour said to get a new SIM card. He also said to call back and have the account deleted and recreated if that didn't work. Bell didn't even give the poor guy a service manual for the iPad 2, so he knew to check the APN, reset the network, etc, but had no idea where to find those options on this device.

About a year ago EVERYONE in my office had their phones lose connectivity due to defective Bell SIMs. Even now, about every two months or so someone in the office needs a replacement SIM. According to the people at the Bell store, this SIM card/3G network problem is most prevalent in Alberta.

Seems like bell 3g has some issues activating new accounts for ipad 2 data plan. 1st attempt - filled all info and paid by credit card. Went half way through and returned error - server busy unable to connect. Called bell and after 3 hrs of back and forth they deleted the account and asked me to try at nighttime.

2nd attempt - did the whole thing again, everything went smoothly till i try to open safari and it gives error - cant connect to the server. Called them again 2nd day and another 3 hrs of phone time and no result. They cant figure it out.

My credit card is charged and they tolds me that they have to escalate issue to tech team and will get back to me asap.

Its been a full day and i am still waiting for the phone call.

I paid $5 for the sim card and for 4 days its all but nothling.

This is terrible... I have to movme to rogers if i cant get them to figure this out.

Theytold me that the problem is on their end and my ipad is fine. Just tried every possible settings and stuff.

I thought it was as easy as opening a beer bottle !

Rogers charges $10 for sim card.

Someone is makin money for just a SIM !!!

Lets hope i get this thing work somehow.

There is no question this is Bell's problem. My iPad lost its cell number, which we determined after a lot of mucking around when I called them and reported that I got a good 3G signal but could not access. We tried everything they could think of over the phone. No luck.

I popped in my Rogers card (which came with the iPad and which I used for a few months before switching) and it had the Rogers cell numbers and I could get to the sign in. Bell was to call back that day - nothing. Late that night I signed on to Rogers for 5GB. I had no other choice as my Bell DSL modem got knocked out in a storm and they could guarantee when I get a replacement (it arrived the next day). The would NOT permit me to get a new DSL modem from the corporate Bell store nearby.

Two days later I got a call from a fellow at Bell and he said problem was at their end and they had to do some reprogramming. He asked me to try again. I said hang on, I'll take out the Rogers card. In went the Bell simcard and it would not work. He asked me to try Safari and it worked and then continued working. I told me I'd committed to Rogers for a month and were they going to defer my month with Bell (only took the 500mg/$20 plan) and he said best he could do was a $10 credit.

Today I had to go out and I took the iPad since I'd be sitting for an hour waiting for someone. Ha, Bell gone again. Came home, inserted Rogers, everything is fine. Rogers stay in now until Bell sends a new card. If this doesn't get fixed soon Bell is history on my pad. I do have to put up with Bell for 2 satellite dishes and 4 receiver/PVR's, phone and internet. We've been (surprisingly) happy with their service except for the slowness of DSL - rarely if ever now get to 2mb (Rogers card knocked of 3.5 mb speed in the iPad).

So, now I've got to call them and go through all that nonsense again about the postal strike and getting handed over from one agent to another. I'll report back if I learn anything of relevance.

Also got a note from AT&T - they said they cancelled my service because I wasn't using it. Well, I use it for 6 months in the winter in FLA, when we shut down Bell here. So when we cross the border we are going to have to sign on new - PITA frankly.

Just to add to the fire

I have 2 ipad 2's in my house.. both of which were using Bell 3g after switching from Rogers. At first I found Bell to be much faster than rogers and I was quite happy however, with my wifes Ipad 2 after about a month the 3g stopped working. I tried all the resets etc.. and couldn't get it to go. A quick call to tech support (atleast they answered quickly) and they ended up cancelling my account and reinstating it promising I would be refunded for the extra charge (which I have not been yet). This worked for a week then it happened again. So I called back this time they just told me to do network resets etc.. and that worked, for another week. Now I am back in the same position. Do I want to call them back again? no!

I popped out the sim card and put the rogers one back in. Works fine now. At one point the tech support guy told me maybe i should go to the apple store and have my ipad swapped out for a new one. That the hardware was killing the sim card. Come on BELL if you have multiple people wiht the same issue how can you suggest someone waste there time going into an apple store to have their hardware swapped.

The weird thing with this whole story.. my ipad2 with Bell works perfect (knock on wood) and I consistently get faster speeds than rogers.

I am having a similar experience, spitfire411. I was started using Rogers for my iPad 3G data plan, but found their coverage was limited so I switched to Bell. For about 3 months all was fine with Bell until I travelled to Ontario. While in Ontario, I saw that the service was strong but could not access the internet using 3G (only Wifi). After I got back I still could not access the internet but then one day it started working again. Until.... I travelled to PEI. Then the same thing happened--no access to the internet using 3G (but Wifi works fine). But now that I'm home the 3G has not come back and I've been home for 3 weeks now. I can see the Bell signal is plenty strong, but my iPad can't pick it up.

I called Bell a few weeks ago on this. They tried to help me over the phone but couldn't do it. They said they would put it on file and call me back if they can find a solution.

Should I switch back to Rogers? I'd rather have limited 3G service than no 3G service at all!!!

My time period on Bell expired yesterday. I still have Rogers for another day. I decided I'd go with Bell and not renew Rogers since Bell was working OK. Well, I can sign on, order the plan I want, and then I get the following message:

"There was a problem with the activation of you account or feature. Please try again later."

Well, I've tried four times in 2 hours. Called Bell but it is closed at this time of day. If it doesn't work tomorrow Bell will be history and I'm going to renew with Rogers. Enough is enough already.

GR