The Preamble
Oh the horrors of bleeding edge technology and the companies that push them as ‘stable’ and ‘useful’. Those of you who support RIM products will probably enjoy the next few paragraphs, but let me just defend myself one last time and point out the crummy support Blackberry’s provide for Mac computer users. If the Blackberry played nicely with my computer I’d get one of those. But let’s not let the Bold off the hook, as it too has had many reported 3G network problems, while the iPhone has not been without complaint since its debut. From what I’ve heard my problem is with Rogers and their 3G network, and not the iPhone specifically. But I digress.
The Problem
I picked up a 3G iPhone last week to replace my dying Motorola flip phone. I’m currently involved in some work that requires I have access to the Internet when I’m away from my computer, so I figured the iPhone was the solution I was looking for. With advertised 3G speeds and wi-fi I would be covered pretty much anywhere I travel. Everything was well and fine until a couple of friends let me know that when they called me they got a busy/network error beep after a few rings. They’d call the number again right after and the second try would go through. However on my end I never received any indication of the first attempted phone call, while on other occasions I would get one ring followed by a missed call message. Having finally received a call from a friend i was startled to experience no less then 4 dropped calls during the conversation. My other job hinges on me receiving phone calls and not dropping any calls. If I don’t receive a call, or if the call is dropped I don’t make any money, so one can see how these two habits of my new phone could be devastating.
The Call to Rogers
I made the call to Rogers technical support, and after the mandatory 15 minutes on hold I was met with a real person ready to solve my problem. They made sure I was running the latest software update (2.1) and had tried a hard reset, as that sometimes gets the phone back on the network. They then suggested I try turning 3G off and just using the Edge network. If I did not drop/miss calls on the Edge network then I should leave 3G off and just turn it on when I wanted to use data.
Ummm, excuse me? Your solution to my problem is to have me go into my settings when ever I want to use data to turn 3G on? Ok, but what happens if I get a phone call while I’m using data, and that call then drops or is missed?
They told me to take a day and try it on Edge to see if I drop any calls. I made a few 20-40min calls to test and no calls were dropped. I turned 3G back on and tried the phone and sure enough within 10 minutes I would get a ‘call failed’ message on my phone. I called Rogers back today to follow up on my problem. After another 15 minutes on hold I talked to a technician who gave me the same solutions, and also suggested that it might be my SIM card, and told me to go to a Rogers store (on a nice sunny Saturday in November) and have them put a new SIM card in. If the calls still drop I should call back and they will try another solution. It was at this point that I grew ever more frustrated and asked to speak with a customer service rep about my situation.
The Frustration
My frustration is that I was sold a phone that utilizes Canada’s fastest high speed wireless network with the network that has the fewest dropped calls, and this is what they told me when I was buying the phone. They never made mention of this apparent common 3G problem. My other frustration is that I was loosing out on income because my phone was not receiving calls. I expressed these frustrations, along with the fact that I know had to spend my Saturday in line at Rogers to try and fix a problem that should not exist with a brand new phone. For my troubles Rogers credited my account $50. Gee, thanks Rogers, that really helps (please note this sentence is laced with sarcasm).
The Story Continues
I spent my Saturday waiting at Rogers store for them to try a new SIM card that resulted in the same dropped call problem I’ve been describing above. They instructed me to call back Rogers and tell them I went to the store and tried a new SIM card that did not solve the problem. They suggested that Rogers send me a new iPhone, and if that phone performed the same they would know it was a network issue. I called Rogers back and proceeded to spend 20 minutes on hold before speaking with a technical support person who told me they have been experiencing 3G network problems and my ticket would be escalated and I would be issued a ticket number that I would use in 3 days when they called me back. They took my nearest intersection and suggested that I use the phone in Edge until I hear back from them.
The Conclusion
My iPhone has been missing and dropping calls while on 3G, so I called Rogers and managed to get a $50 credit from them, and after many phone calls and hours on the phone they have told me to use the phone with 3G off while they investigate network issues in my area. That investigation should take about 3 days. The technical support people openly admit that dropped calls are a ‘common’ problem on the iPhone, yet the sales people aren’t so forthright with this information during the sale (should I expect anything less?). It’s funny that after you explain your problems, and they admit their problems and don’t offer any real solutions, they still end there calls with, “Thank you for choosing Rogers”.
So I guess we will see what transpires over the next few days. I really enjoy the functionality of the iPhone, along with its wi-fi abilities and other tricks, but am just frustrated that I can’t use 3G, as I can’t risk not receiving calls.
Update (11/06/2008): It has been 5 days if you count Sunday, or 4 days if you don’t, since I placed my last call to Rogers. They indicated that they would get back to me within 3 days regarding my ticket number. Nice of them to keep their word. I love how they say, “We’ll call you back within 3 days, but if we forget then you call us.” Way to put the onus on your customers to fix their own problems with your network. That is brilliant consumer relations.
Update 2 (11/06/2008): I received a call from Rogers tonight about my problem. It came directly from a tech who wanted a bit more information on my problem. He texted me some instructions on what he would like me to do with m phone and 3G, and asked that I text him back in 24h to report, or to text back as soon as I experience a dropped call. I’m mildly impressed by this service. Here are the directions he gave me to ‘fix’ 3G:
Under ‘Settings-General-Network’ set ‘Enable 3G’ to On. Wait 20 seconds. Under ‘Settings-General-Reset’ select ‘Reset Network Settings’. Wait 20 seconds. Press top button for 5 seconds until ‘slide to power off’ appears. Power off for 30 seconds. Turn power back on and monitor both calls in and out.
Update 3 (11/09/2008): I’ve been using my iPhone since Friday afternoon with 3G turned on (having performed the steps listed above) and have not experienced any dropped calls, and don’t think I have experienced any missed calls. However I don’t feel confident enough to leave 3G on during the week when I can’t afford to miss or drop any calls. I’m not sure what evidence I have to back this up, but it feels like the dropped/missed call issue is something that creeps back after a while, and will require a network reset to fix again (sort of like how the iPhone needs to be turned off every few days to maintain proper functioning). The rub is that the indication that the iPhone needs to be reset/the network needs to be reset is a missed or dropped call — and at that point the damage has already been done.
Update 4 (11/10/2008): It seems I spoke to soon yesterday. I just experienced two missed calls with 3G turned on. The caller informed me it rang twice before giving them the ‘busy’ signal, and the second time they tried it rang busy right away. My phone rang once on both calls only to display ‘missed call’ after one ring. I have informed the tier 2 tech support person who is working on my account.
Update 5 (11/21/2008): I have have no further communication from tech support at Rogers regarding my missed call issues, despite having a tier 2 tech on sms-speed-dial. I continue to use my phone in Edge mode when I know I might be receiving important calls, and occasionally switch over to 3G in the evening and on weekends when I am out and need to use data. Apple has released v2.2 of the iPhone firmware today, and some of the promises are fewer dropped calls. Has anyone running 2.2 experienced better performance on the Rogers 3G network?
Update 6 (11/25/2008): Having upgraded to v2.2 I am still experiencing missed/dropped calls. I called Rogers today to re-open my ticket and got through within 3 minutes. I talked to a wonderful support person who was very knowledgeable about the problem, and actually expressed that he was upset that Rogers keeps giving people the run-around when it is obviously a network problem. He then went on to say that he has spoken to people who have the Bold and the iPhone, and the Bold does NOT drop calls when on 3G, so this makes it sound like it is an iPhone problem. He went over my account, and since we had documented all my previous calls he was able to get authorization to send me a new iPhone. I am pretty confident it won’t fix my problems, but if it does great. If it doesn’t at least I have a newer device to live with. I don’t blame the support folks on the phone, as they aren’t the ones making decisions about network capacity or (if it is an iPhone problem) the inner workings of devices. It’s not their fault, so I make it a point not to take out my frustrations with my Rogers service on them.
Update 7 (12/02/2008): I just received my replacement iPhone via UPS. This being Canada, and December, the new phone is freezing cold (as it’s probably been on the truck all day). I’m going to wait until tomorrow night to make the switch to the new phone. Hope the cold doesn’t affect the phone in any adverse ways (i.e. screen problems or the insides getting damp from the thaw).
Update 8 (12/17/2008): I still don’t trust 3G enough to leave it on full-time. I forgot it was on when I placed a call on Monday evening and my call promptly dropped within the first 5 minutes. I switch back to Edge and was able to complete my call that lasted about 20 minutes. I haven’t had 3G on since this new dropped call and haven’t found the time to call Rogers to update my file. I want to make sure I bug inform them every time I have a problem so that it’s easier to negotiate compensation for this on going problem.
Well, I guess it’s a good thing that Telus and Bell are moving to provide a GSM network in the next couple of years as well. It’ll be a good time to short Roger’s stock, as they’ll be seeing some real competition soon.
Yesterday: tech support told me the same thing – hard reset, SIM card, network reset, etc.
Today: I called back and was asked if yesterday’s Rogers rep explained the 3G problem. “The 3G problem?” Apparently, the entire 3G network across Canada is causing this on all 3G phones. The solution is to turn off 3G do a network reset, followed by a hard reset. “O.K., then wait?”, I asked. “How about an ETA on the fix on your network”. He said, “It’s across the entire country. This is big. I have no idea when this will be fixed”.
I jokingly said that the due date on my invoice is “big” and “I have no idea when I can get around to paying it”.
At least this guy told me what was going on without having me waste my Saturday. Then the inevitable, “Thanks for choosing Rogers”. STOP REMINDING ME!!!
The problem with their solution is that it is a short term fix. Turning off, doing a network reset followed by a hard rest is a temporary fix and must be down the next time you notice your phone dropping calls. That’s great for calls to friends, but when it comes to mission critical business calls this is unacceptable. I can’t risk not receiving calls or dropping calls as receiving phone calls directly relates to how much income I can earn.
For me it is the edge network until I can get Rogers word that 3G will work as advertised, and until then I guess it will have to be weekly calls to Rogers customer support.
just wanted to add i was on the phone with rogers aswell today about the same problem when i was told the problem is because we dont turn are phone off ever. tech suggested to turn phone off 2 times a week at night when u sleep and the problem should fix its self
The only thing that is clear is that Rogers is lost, it has no single message to reassure the 100% iPhone users in Canada that they have the capacity to resolve this issue. Unbelievable that we, as consumers, are expected to put up with this mediocrity in customer service. By the way Rogers, the “victim of our success” spin will not do. First, you add nothing to the product, as a matter of fact you’ve charged me more than any other country to use it on your network. And, finally you could’ve have said, “Stop. We’ve reached capacity”, instead you’re still selling iPhones and other 3G phones and putting them all on an already over-burdened network. Way to go. Idiot$.
Do you use push email with Exchange by any chance? Anyone I talk to who is having the same problem as you describe (me included) are setup with an Exchange server. Its been just recently getting really bad (past 2 weeks or so).
Same problem here, although I only noticed missed calls, no dropped calls. Called Rogers and they had me reset the phone, although obviously that is not really a “fix”. If this is a widespread problem, then I expect Rogers would be flooded with complaints… does anybody have an indication that Rogers is getting lots of complaints?
As mentioned by James, a technician from Rogers technical support told me also to turn my device off and on twice a week. However, time to time I still get “call failure” when trying to make any call. Then, as suggested, I turn off and on my iPhone and the issues are gone.
It was mentioned by the technician that the problem is not with the 3G Network but with the iPhone itself that looses the signal from one cell to another when I am driving through the city. He also mentioned that Apples knows about this and is current working to solve the problem.
I have my iPhone since Rogers starts selling it in Canada and I spend a month in USA and I did not get any call drop or call failure before. My problems have started less than 2 weeks ago.
It’s apparent to me that we have at least one pattern that we can all clearly see. This issue has started about two weeks ago. The absolute and reliable solution for me has been to turn off my iPhone’s 3G setting. My wife, who also owns an iPhone does not need to use the phone feature during office hours but always requires internat access, so leaves 3G turned on – she continues to have missed call messages and when she does use the phone she constantly has dropped calls. This continues until she turns 3G off as she leaves her office. I no longer have the issue – that is, until I turn my 3G setting back on – it’s predictable and we’ve tested it often. So, two weeks ago sounds like was the point where Roger’s capacity reached the tipping point. The sad and pathetic thng is that any one of us can walk into a Roger’s location and purchase an iPhone 3G phone today without any warning of this ongoing issue – proof that this will only get worse, with no end in sight. Speaking of sight, it should be said that Roger’s has had no foresight in this – I’ve heard “the victim of out success” line – a total of 4 times now in various forms from CSRs and a corporate sales executive. It’s clear that they don’t get it. I’m sure this was predicable. Afterall, the iPhone’s in-market success was not only evident to those who read the headlines around the world but even before the iPhone came to Canada Rogers was the recipient of the highest number of unlocked iPhones. The easiest thing was at least figuring out the capacity formula. No, I’m positive someone at Roger’s new that this would happen, when it would happen and chose to ringing the cash register than doing the more difficult thing and spend the resources to NOT have this happen. Unbelievable, unacceptable and unfortunately, completely predictable from a company who has been a zero in so many critical areas of customer satisfaction – at best Rogers is a distributor of phones, a warehouse and a vacuum of new and innovative ideas in an era of the greatest potential in commmunications. Truly pathetic.
Well it just happened on the east coast (Halifax). 3G service has been nonexistent for voice for the last 3 days. All the Rogers network support rep would tell me is that it is a known issue, a ticket was opened on Sept. 26, and that “they’re working as fast as they can to fix it”.
No more 3G for me. I think our rates should be dropped if we’re not receiving the service we were sold.
I have both an 8 and 16G Apple 3G Iphone with Rogers in Ottawa. Both phones don’t ring at all on the 3G network. Calls go directly to voice-mail if I’m lucky. There are more than 200 users who have this or similar issues with dropped/lost calls. I was told by tech support the problem is well known and is widespread. It’s a big headache and may only be resolved with the next edition of firmware whenever 2.2 comes out. Haven’t we heard this tune before? I’m thinking of returning both phones and asking for a refund. The only workaround is to disable 3G and go to the Edge network where both phones ring every time. So why am I paying 3G rates and getting 2G service? Apple knows about it too but there hasn’t been any public announcements that I know of from either company to describe the real extent of the problem and when it might be resolved. Whatever happened to truth in advertising?
@Brian ;
I have the exact SAME problem as you, since the last 8-10 days i keep getting “missed calls” at random times during the day! REALLY FRUSTRATING! and never had network issues before that, and i’m from ottawa too
Well, I am having the exact same problem, receiving missed call texts when the phone never actually rang, and people telling me that they are getting busy signals or not even connection at all while trying to call me. I have reset it from time to time, which seems to fix the problem for a very short while before ultimately returning. This is pretty despicable, and my experience with the ‘phone’ part of the iPhone has been nothing short of a total letdown. So glad I decided to sign that usurous contract against all my better judgement. =/
WOW…Listen to all of you! Let me get this straight. You figure that Rogers knew that their 3G network would crash? That’s just tarded. I can honestly say without doubt that a large corperation wouldn’t intentionally tick off their customers…especially when their competition has stated that they will be matching (or trying to) the network and services available on the network. When someone says to me “It’s a known issue…do you not figure that someone is breathing down someones neck to fix it? Think about it in your own work…if something goes wrong and people get angry what do you say? “I’m so sorry. We’re really trying to get it fixed. We hope it will be working soon. Thanks for choosing (insert company name here)”. Fact of the matter: Wait time for customer service is bad no matter what cellular company you choose. 3G is still pretty new…it’s gonna have kinks. A Tech is someone that sits at a desk and has no idea what a cellular tower even looks like. The people at Rogers retail are knowledgeable about features of phones…no one comes in from head office to tell them that “hey…the 3G network is acting up”. Fact is…the Iphone is awesome. Rogers is as good a cellular company as the rest. Give it a rest…someone, somewhere, is working on the problem. In the meantime…use EDGE…that’s why it’s there!
Verbal, right. I hope the kool aid was refreshing. :-) I’ll keep this light; answer two questions for me:
1. Is this an issue – a direct result of over capacity? Yes
2. Can you walk into a Rogers store right now and purchase an iPhone 3G? – without warning of this problem? Again, Yes.
Now, some info for a little perspective: I’ve heard all contracts between Apple and exclusive carriers are based on a 2 year term. Why are we one of the only markets forced to sign a contract longer than the carrier’s own contract with Apple? With no clear advantage – price or otherwise, actually we pay a premium to Rogers for having the iPhone in Canada – do the math. Apple and their products have always been well received in Canada and in particular – southern Ontario, starting back in the day, with Apple’s $10K Laserprinters and the start of the desktop publishing revolution. There were more Apple laser printers sold, per capita here, than in any other place on earth. Apple stores in Toronto’s Yorkdale and Sherway Gardens perform consistently at the top based per square foot figures compared to equally-sized markets.
I’ve been a cell phone user since the late ’80s and work in tech; I can assure you that Rogers could easily have calculated capacity of their 3G network. They could have easily have forecasted the success of the iPhone in our market. At best they should have erred on the side of their customers, instead they continue to choose to add to the problem. They can’t stop it now. Maybe they’d be sue’ed by their retailers – best to not admit the problem outright. The victims in all this continue to pay their monthly bills and Apple gets a bad rap by association.
All posters here have purchased the iPhone 3G not the ‘iPhone EDGE’ and definitely not a model experiencing a 3G melt down sold in any other market.
Why does Rogers continue to add to their long history of questionable business practices and lack of positive customer focus? Simple. Because they can.
Well I had the same issue with calls going directly to voicemail
I went to the Apple store and they ran a diagnostic on the phone and replaced it on the spot.
Two days later, same problem exists so now i’m switching 3G off until Fido/Rogers fixes this issue.
Btw, my 3G BB Bold doesn’t have this problem
I’ve had the iphone since the first week it was released in canada. I’ve never had any dropped or missed calls until about 2 weeks ago, now almost everyday people tell me they had to call a few times to get through. I believe this is a short term network problem that affects all 3g phones. I’m just wondering, which cities are you all in, i’ve had this problem in Richmond Hill and Mississauga (Ontario).
Unfortunately 3g is somewhat new to the mass market and most networks (including ATT in the US has problems in certain areas). I’m guessing highly populated areas during peak times have the worse problems.
Having the same problem. Have had the iPhone 3G since it came out, but the calls going directly to VM without ringing issue has just started within the last couple of weeks. I’ve also just had the problem where calls would be dropped consistently after just a few seconds. This was resolved by resetting the phone.
Same issue is occurring here. Had the phone for three weeks and have had numerous calls go straight to voicemail without even a ring. Have 3G enabled and am using an exchange server for my mail. This is ridiculously unacceptable to have to disable the main selling feature of a phone to get it to work reliably.
Same problems here. I know of three other iPhone users in the same area as mine and 3G keeps dropping to EDGE. This started in early November like everyone is experiencing.
I am living in Vancouver BC and have been experiencing these problems over the last couple of weeks as well. All of a sudden I get a “new Voicemail” alert but my phone did not even ring?
The solution that fixed the problem was to take the phone to an altitude of at least 75 feet. Then drop the phone from this level on to the head of a Rogers or Apple representative that may be walking below. Fixed both problems right away.
I called rogers and they are replacing my phone. Although I don’t believe this will help. Whoever had this problem should call rogers and pressure them to escalate the issue to network techs
Hi, I’m having the same issues, seemed to start a week or so ago. All my calls drop within 10seconds of them starting rendering the phone useless… I live in Hamilton, ON.
I don’t have a data package so using the phone with 3g off isn’t a problem.
Let us know your progress with rogers tech support, I’d rather not talk to them…..
Hi guys,
This issue does not only happen in Rogers network,Fido’s customer has the same issue too. I am with Fido and I am experiencing problem. I called Fido almost 11 times and I did everything they said, but I still have the problem.
After 11 calls and complains, today they decided to send me a new iphone, but I am pretty sure that is not going to solve my problem.
I am working for TELUS as Sr.IT Developer so I know exactly how things works technically.
The issue is their network. They sold iphone 3G more than their network capacity, so their system has to drop or miss some calls randomly, in order to NOT keep their network busy all the time.It looks like sharing a pie among 10 person or 100 person. Your cut would be different.
The only thing that we can do, is just to be patient till they improve their networks.
patient is virtue ;)
Hi Paul,
Thanks for your post, ya it makes sense. I just hope it doesn’t take them another month to up their service, i’ve been running my phone of edge for past few days as i kept missing calls.
I have had a 16G Iphone 3G for one month. I now have a text messaging problem. I switched from Telus and brought my number. My wife still has a Telus phone and I was initially able to text her and she could text me. Now I can only receive texts from her Telus phone. I have tried to text others on Telus with no luck. Rogers has had me jump through all the hoops, even replacing my sim card to no avail. I am still waiting for tech support to diagnose it after one week.
Well just today my 2 week old iphone stopped making calls (call failed) or dropped the outgoing call and no calls incoming were incoming. My husband’s BB (also on Rogers) was still working. When I spoke to the tech at Rogers support she said that the problem is not the iphone but the 3G network (so only iphones are affected). Turning the iphone off at least once a day or manually resetting it should resolve this. So far that seems to work for me. I’m in Toronto.
Hey, Thanks Verbal for a bit of help clarifying the issue. Truth is he is very close (if not exact) on how it all works. The bit about a Rogers tech support person is “someone that sits at a desk and has no idea what a cellular tower even looks like.” is actually very true. From a tech’s standpoint the standard information given on this issue is as follows:
1. The network is congested,
2. Escalate to the network techs if you can’t fix it.
That’s basically it, so when people call in, fuming about dropped calls, all the tech can do is, what you’ve all stated repeatedly. Which are: reset network settings, power cycle the device. Test on 2G (EDGE). Turn 3G back on and if it’s not fixed, to escalate.
Answers:
1. Yes, the issue does in fact look like it’s stemmed from an over crowded network. Regardless, it is what it is and unfortunately for now the work around is the best option until the greater issue can be resolved.
2. The store representatives selling the iPhones really dont know what’s going on. Most Rogers stores are 3rd party contracted dealers. They aren’t told about what’s wrong with the phone, I can understand that you would want to know the possible down sides and issues before you buy it, which is perfectly reasonable. Truth be told, they honestly just don’t know.
Facts:
1. The iPhone does not suffer any damage from this issue to current knowledge,
2. Explaining your frustration to a technical supprot rep is fine, but if you yell at them you wont get anything free or done. If someone yelled at you all day, do you honestly believe you’d do your best to make sure they’re comfy cosey. It would be nice as you are paying for a service and rightly so, deserve the service. But, in all honesty, technical support people are exactly that “people” and will be offended and become vindictive if others hurl personal attacks, or raise their voices at them. Keep in mind, they can’t give anything out for free, and they will do their best to help you, so just bare with them and they will try to help as best they can.
Also, it is known that the troubleshooting for the issue is only temporary but it is mandatory for the issue to even be escalated. If the troubleshooting of the problem temporarily resolves it, they cannot escalate it as it will just be rejected. Basically, all I’m really saying is yes, “they” are working on fixing it, ETA: none at the moment (in my opinion), and the technical support representatives cant do anything about it no matter how much you pressure them. Also, 2G isn’t all that bad, the only difference between the 2 network types is mainly faster data streaming. Everyones patience is appreciated, believe me.
Hopefully this clarifies things a bit, or at least lets people in on whats going on from a standpoint of someone that has a fairly good idea of what’s going on.
I am in no way speaking on behalf of Rogers or its affiliates etc. This is just my personal opinion as a person and do mean to imply in any way that im affiliated with Rogers. I’m merely trying to shed some light on a very frustrating situation. Thanks again.
Sorry about the double post, I had to correct a typo. I DON’T mean to imply that I am affiliated with Rogers.
I am in no way speaking on behalf of Rogers or its affiliates etc. This is just my personal opinion as a person and DON’T mean to imply in any way that im affiliated with Rogers. I’m merely trying to shed some light on a very frustrating situation. Thanks again.
Ha, If I told my story starting back on Aug 18th, to Today Nov 20,2008 It would be the exact same as yours. Still having the same issues of missed and dropped calls. I also get an instance where someone calls, it goes to voicemail and at the sam time I had 5 bars of service and I get no rind nothing, no call history or mail message, but magically I get an SMS text message of missed call. What’s the fix? Turn phone off every day or as often as possible and don’t use 3G.
Paul, can I ask which city you live in?
I think the issue has gotten worse all of a sudden since the beginning of november, i’ve had mine since launch and had no problems up until a few weeks ago. I’ll give it another 2 weeks, if it’s not fixed by then i’ll cancel my rogers plan, not worth 100$ a month for snail speed on edge and missed calls on 3G. When calling rogers support they have an automated message saying they know things are messed up
Good luck with that Acilles, let us know how much the early concellation fee works out to be. Their response to me was that the difference between Edge and 3G … get ready for it… “was only about 10 seconds”. Huh?? That’s right, and that was after being put on hold so that he could speak to a techie. I was stunned by the ignorance.
They also told me that the cancellation fee was going to be $20 for each month left on the 3 year contract, to a maximum of $200.
I have cable for 2 homes, two phone lines, 2 internet connections and 4 cell phones (all NOT in contract) on my account, i’ll tell them if they charge me the 200 i’ll cancel my entire rogers account (which is costing me around 600$ a month). Worst case scenario, i pay 100$ a month now, not that big of a deal paying 200 to cancel. I didn’t sign up for edge, sure as hell wasn’t going to pay 30$ for 6gb of internet to be run on edge.
I do have hope though, as support people actually admit they have a 3g problem, so i’m sure they are at least trying to expand their network
oh one other thing carlos, in case you are thinking of cancelling and they insist on the 200$ cancellation fee, the iphone 3g is being sold on ebay for about 600-700$ CAD, so u’ll even make a profit;)
I am in Kitchener,ON. I have had the same problem since the day I got it. The first day I missed two calls. Not many days between then and now that I dont miss at least one call. Not having many dropped calls lately. Especially if I turn it off before I use it!
The problem seems to be be the same from London to east of Toronto. Haven’t been any where else yet.
Hi, I am having the same problem as described above, however I live in the UK, and am wondering therefore is it maybe more a hardware issue?
For our case its not a hardware issue as both iphone 3g’s and none iphones (i.e. bb bold, and other 3g phones are having this issue too)
I f**king hate Rogers! I have a Telus phone but my dad uses Rogers (not for long! cancelling after his contract ends) and everytime there’s a problem with his phone, the average wait time on hold is 1 hr!!!! The had to call them about 6 times within the last month because of a billing problem and could never get through. How many people do they have working at their call centres!?!? 1!?!??!
Achilles I’m impressed — no contract ? How’d you swing that? My wife and I have 2 iPhones (just cancelled internet with Rogers – because I could), absolutely love the phones. It’s a real shame that such a brilliantly designed device is so badly hampered by these idiots. I mean, the network being the bottleneck!!! — How the hell could any well run organization screw that up so badly and rely, solely, on a contract to keep their customers from running? The real pathetic thing is, if we’re honest about this — we could be talking about any telecom provider in Canada. BTW, any word on Yak’s progress with their network?
The 2.2 software update is now available, and according to Apple’s web site, one of the changes is “decrease in call setup failures and dropped calls”. Hopefully this will address the problem.
The phones i have were on contract before, but the contract has ended and i’ve just been going on a month to month basis. Ya, rogers is a monopoly in canada, however in february 2 new companies will be entering the market, hopefully they will cause rogers to loose a lot of money
I have yet to hear back from Rogers regarding my latest 3G network errors. Looking through these comments it seems a lot of people in Canada are experiencing problems, and the consensus seems to be that it’s a lack of network infrastructure.
With Apple releasing v2.2 of the iPhone firmware today I was wondering if anyone has experienced any better 3G performance?
Yup, same thing over here. I’m in Ottawa and have been missing calls randomly the past 2 weeks, if not more. I called Rogers and spooke with the tech and rep. I’ve been told that they are experiencing 3g network problems and they are working hard to repair them. I complained, and they credited my account with a month of free service.
I will update my iphone today to 2.2, and report back after some testing. I doubt the update will help our situation though, as it is the Rogers 3G network that is causing the problems, and not Apples software.
Text message from Rogers just arrived, it reads:
“Please upgrade iPhone to OS 2.2 via iTunes. It will will improve your calls & data over the 3G network. Pending ticket closed. Should issue persist call 1-866-931-3282.”
Unbelievable. They take no ownership of the problem and their frontline CSRs, obviously, have no idea what the company is doing (if anything) to resolve this. I give up.
http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/11/21/new.att.3g.outages/
We have 2 iPhones at home and have been experiencing missing calls since day one, but has been getting worse lately to the point that about 80% of incoming calls go directly to voice-mail.
Doing anything that resets the 3G network – phone on/off, airplane mode on/off, hard reset, network settings reset – fixes it for only a few hours. Using EDGE is the only way to reliably receive calls.
Fido refuses to acknowledge that there’s a problem. I talked to tech support in Montreal yesterday and my impression was that they were really hopeful that 2.2 would do something to fix the problem.
I installed 2.2 as soon as it came out and nothing has improved, I’d go as far as say that it has made it worse.
At this point is not clear to me that this is a problem with the network. Are other devices having the same problems?
I have an appointment today at the Genius bar. I don’t have any expectations of them being able to fix anything, even if they replace my phone. But I don’t know that else to do.
The most important thing is to spread the word about this problem. The more it starts hurting their sales, the fastest they do something about it.
Yea right, Rogers telling people to update to 2.2 to solve it. Yea ooh that will fix it. I have met five other iPhone users in the area who are still without 3G service. No matter how many times a phone is replaced it would still have the same problem because it’s a network problem. Rogers, please, stop bullshitting people. Most people nowadays are savvy enough to detect your bullshit psueo-tech speak. It’s not gonna work anymore, do your job and fix your network.
Well, my 3G BB Bold has no issues, but my Iphone 3G upgraded to 2.02 still has the same missed call issue.
Replacing the Iphone at the Genius bar didn’t solve the problem
(Iphone =Fido, BB Bold= Rogers)
Upgrade to 2.2 did not fix anything.
I’ve been on the phone with rogers nearly every day in last 2 weeks. They promised discounts on my services, but it doesn’t really help me if I loose an important call from my customer or my pregnant wife, does it?
If anybody wants to start a class suit against Rogers, I am in. (I am not sure if something like that is workable out in Canada)
Although I’m huge fan of Apple, and love my iPhone, but right now I feel very bad about this purchase – and especially the 3 years of service lock in. I should’ve rather bought a touch and stay with my old crappy phone.
BTW – from discussion with Rogers I had feeling that I am the only one with problem of not receiving calls. So I was hopping that replacing the phone will fix it – and I have to go through hassle of trying my SIM card with other phone, other SIM card in my phone. I was testing and troubleshooting the issue for Rogers for last two weeks in my time – and they already knew about the issue – this is pissing me off.
Is it possible to get out from contract for free if they don’t provide service I’m paying for? Or how much would it cost me?
The only thing Rogers cares about is money, so to make them listen we have to hit them in their wallets. We need the mainstream media to pickup this story. With the Xmas shopping season coming I’m sure Rogers will be over this in full damage control mode.
Any ideas of who to call/email? Maybe do another online petition like the one asking for an unlimited data plan?
Whatever u guys think of i’m in. And btw, this issue has a strong link to which city you are using the phone, seems like ottawa, kitchener and montreal have it the worst. Also it’s NOT just iphones, half my friends who are heavy users of the blackberry bold also have the same issue, a little less so, but still have missed calls and late emails. Like i said before i will give them until the end of november (when they said they will send me a new phone), then if it still doesn’t work i will cancel my plan
oh and one other thing, rogers usually never accepts blame, the fact that they are admitting a 3G network problem probably means they are actually doing something to fix it.
Same here in Vancouver. Have spent lots of time on the phone with Rogers and went to Apple a couple of times. What makes me mad is that Rogers treats me like an idiot. I have explicitly asked them if it is a known issue and they said they have never heard anything like this. So I spent time and went to troubleshoot with Apple. Only during my last call Rogers admitted that they received numerous complaints about 3G. All they could suggest is to switch to Edge for now. Rogers said they would escalate the issue to network support, but they never contacted me. Instead on Friday I received a text message saying “Upgrade to 2.2. Your ticket is closed. If issue persists, contact us.” I was very hopeful that 2.2 would fix things, but I missed three calls today already.
What we need to do, is to send the link to this discussion to all media contacts…
Look in your weekend paper and see if there is a tech journalist, and email this discussion to them..
Further to my comments..
Why not send our concerns to the media
Go to this link and fill in the details with a link to this discussion .
http://www.cp24.com/contactUs/
Robert Cribb @ the Toronto Star may be a good one
http://www.thestar.com/SpecialSections/MobileTech/article/531899
His email address is at the end of his recent article
If we all do this, we’re sure to get some media exposure to our issues.
I sent a link of this site to tech sites engadget, macrumors and appleinsider, but i doubt they will post anything unless a lot of people msg them, also cuz they are american sites.
Maybe CBC?
I donno about the rest of you, but I’ve updates to 2.2 and am still missing calls. Maybe not as frequently but I’ve missed at least 5 calls since the upgrade.
Looks like the text they sent everyone asking to upgrade to 2.2 was just to close off some open tickets…. BULLSHIT.
I’ll be calling them again tomorrow. If this continues, I’m going over to Telus or Bell, Blackberry Storm here I come!
Ya same, i called customer service today, they gave me a credit for 50$, said they are trying to fix their network, told them i expect 50$ off each month until it is fixed.
Ok… today I called Rogers to complain again that I missed a call this early morning. The technician said that the problem is with the SIM card, compatibility issues. I changed and he activated the card over the phone.
I hope this solve my problems, otherwise I will start looking for a credit and something else that can be done.
I’ve already changed my SIM card, and this issue of missing calls still persists. Rogers is obviously using every excuse in the book.
They should be sued for breach of contract and damages. The problems with dropped/missed calls hasn’t been fixed and won’t be until they do a lot upgrades to their towers. It’s not a matter of days or weeks. Probably months if we’re lucky. There are many good lawyers who would be glad to take the case on if there was a will to take class action. Rogers doesn’t even have the decency to make a public statement about these issues in a press release, admit they have a problem, explain the extent of it, and when, if ever, it will be fixed. I’ve re-opened the ticket that was closed in my case. I hope others will re-open theirs if they still have the same issues like me.
I changed my sim too, it has nothing to do with the sim. The next time a tech tells u it is, tell the genius that if it was the sim, the reception bars would be nil, as an invalid sim causes u not to connect period to the network
Mr. Cribb,
Thanks for your column, I enjoy reading your work often. An ongoing issue has forced me to write in the hope that you could think of either making a difference as a side-effect of writing about this or from shining light directly on it with your popular column.
The success of the iPhone is ongoing and well-deserved. My wife and I both have iPhones and love the product. We’re also reluctant Rogers customers. The issue is that Rogers is aggressively selling Apple iPhones 3Gs and other 3G based phones and fully aware that their 3G network can not support the traffic. The problem is only getting worse.
Please visit: http://thisyear.ca/2008/11/01/rogers-iphone-3g-missed-and-dropped-calls/
As of about 4 weeks ago I began to experience regularly dropped and missed calls. I thought that perhaps my phone was at fault, then discovered that my wife and others I know with the same phone had some experiences. I called Rogers and was told that this was an unknown issue. I spent some time researching this issue online and discovered the forum above where I found people with exactly the same problem as me. People on the forum describe their experience with Rogers in hopes of resolving the issue of dropped and missing calls. The issue is so predictable and ongoing that over 50% of calls in some areas across the country either end prematurely, are not connected or are missed and go directly to voicemail. Rogers’ answer is to turn off 3G. Many people have been told by Rogers’ CSRs that they’ve never heard of the issue. Some are told that the issue is a manufacturer’s problem and iPhones are replaced regularly only to end up with the same result. The only remedy that actually solves the problem – consistently, is turning off the 3G network on the phone.
Not only are Canadians paying more than 95% of the rest of the world for voice and data plans on the iPhone through Rogers. Not only are Canadians forced to sign 3-year contracts for a higher subsidy price/cost that everyone else gets with only a two year contract. Not only are we expected to lock ourselves in to a contract that is one year longer than the contract Rogers has with Apple – implications unknown. But now, Rogers does not have the capacity to support their existing subscribers. They know the issue exists and continue to make matters worse for their existing customers by selling more phones with no warnings to the droves of people who unknowingly buy the phone on a daily basis. This issue is beyond the control of any customer and there is no clear remedy that we can take without expensive penalties or early contract cancellation fees.
Any advice or effort would be greatly appreciated and thank you in advance,
Carlos
The SIM card ‘fix’ stems from the early release if the iPhone, as they did have some SIM card problems, where the card was unable to find the 3G network properly. If you go to ‘Settings’ and ‘General’ then ‘about’ and look at the ICCID # (this is the SIM card number) and it has a 4000 in it, then you have the newer SIM card.
http://testmyiphone.com/
I’ve also reopened my ticket. After troubleshooting my phone (for hours) with the Rogers tit…. I mean “tech”, they decided that it was my phone and not their network; even though more than 50% of the test calls resulted in the “tech” getting my voicemail with the phone ringing at my end. hmmmmm, sounds like a network problem to me!
Anyway, when I get my new iPhone, I’ll post back with the results… I doubt it will solve the issue however.
Thanks carlos for writing the letter, i will send one also. Others please do the same, i’m afraid the huge flow of xmas shoppers will lead to even worse 3G problems.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like you all put your pens down and writing pads away because I’ve finally found the answer that we’ve all been looking for. You see earlier I called Rogers to reopen the service ticket that was closed when Apple introduced iPhone OS 2.2. Are you ready for this? Are you sitting down? This is from an intelligent (I am sure), polite, good listener and well-meaning iPhone tech support specialist at Rogers this afternoon. Ready?
“Take off your screen protector because static electricity is causing the missed calls”. There you have it. No need to return here – that’s the answer! Static.
Now, stop laughing, there’s nothing funnny about this. Let me remind you that we’ve all signed 3 year contracts, we’re are paying atleast $30 for a 3D data plan that we can’t use, we’re out of pocket more money than our iPhone cousins around the world who signed only 2 year contracts and purchased the iPhone 16Gig for $299 or less. My friends the sad thing is that poor Jeff, this latest iPhone techie, was serious and was honestly doing his best to be helpful. The pathetic thiing is that Rogers can not and has not come out with any communication that gives us any convidence.
Hopefully this issue will gain traction with the news outlets and a class-action will force Rogers to change its ways. Can you think of any reason other than fraud why Rogers and its retail stores can still sell iPhone 3G contracts without warning their customers – even now when they know that there is a problem with their 3G network capacity?
if you go into a electronics store and want to purchase a tv that is known for a defect, no one is going to offer that information. If you ask, they tell. its unfair to attack dealers and customer service reps for an issue that is a result of 2 companies. No other phone has a problem with 3g on the Rogers network. the iphone isnt the only phone runninng on 3g. I use both types of phones . So there is a problem with dropped calls. no one is denying that. it started recently. does everyone here really think rogers is sitting back and not doing anything? the largest communications company is going to give you the run around, then have you leave the company to go to another cell carrier and risk going down the drain? be realistic.
The wait times are high to get thru to customer service. when you get thru, you get connected with tech. another wait.
they tell you to try 10 different things to do until they are ready to give you a replacement phone.
has anyone considered that Apple has ensured that rogers follow certain procedures before they swap phones? has anyone considered phone defects? yes its possible. with any brand any phone.
but its the iphone. and only rogers and fido carries it. so lets bring rogers down? i dont think so.
as said i have both a non iphone 3g phone and a iphone. ive had the iphone for 31/2 mnths. im lucky, i havnt had dropped calls, or missed calls. my sibling actually expereinces it quite frequently. me, not at all. so wait patiently instead of being impolite because its the only type of company you all think you have a right to smack about
OMG – its amazing how they train these techie to make it look like you are the first to mention to them about such problem….wow….I did all the tests as well with them, and nothing worked, im on the EDGE network now and i noticed it is extremly slow when sending an email and when browsing the web, im calling today for my refund, this is actually the third time they will change my phone……not that lucky after all, but i love the toy….in addition to their BAD customer service they are not updaing their website regarding this, not notifying anyone about this problem as well, nothing….which is a shame, they would save a lot of phone calls and being screamed at if they would follow what apple does on their site….
I agree that harping on Rogers isn’t the solution, and that ‘they only care about money’ is a loaded statement. I think they are trying to fix this issue, but the problem is it’s a huge fix because it seems to be with the 3G network.
What frustrates me is that Rogers hasn’t put out any PR releases acknowledging the problem, and that tech support has such a varied response to the issue. I know they are a huge organization, but they must have policies in place for getting everyone on the same page. They advertise 3G speeds but a fair number of customers are not able to utilize this because of dropped/missed call issues. We’ve seen countless times in business where companies admit their mistakes and consumers appreciate it and INCREASE brand loyalty because now they feel like they are dealing with a company that can be truthful, and isn’t out to screw them.
All we can do is send the weekly email to Rogers so that they know we are still not happy. Yes, we could cancel our contracts and move to Bell or Telus, but lets face facts — most of us want the iPhone, so changing carriers isn’t an option. In my opinion there is no comparable phone currently for sale — especially for Mac computer users, as BlackBerry’s have horrible support.
Thanks for writing Unity.
Please don’t confuse my frustration and the venting in the posts above with blind rudeness or attacks. If you read these posts carefully, you’re see few if any, personal attacks – a wonderful commentary on the patience these people who have chosen to share their experiences with Rogers for the benefit of others – actually have. It is correct that Rogers may be doing something. The reality though, so far, is that Rogers, through their CSR and iPhone tech support channels have NOT communicated a consistent message. Unfortunately, the consistency has been to deny the problem; pretend that it’s the first time you’re hearing about it; offer advice you know will NOT solve the problem AND if you escalate the issue wash your hands of the issue by replacing the phone – knowing all along that a brand new, shiny iPhone will not resolve the issue.
Now, let’s back up a bit. I’ve had the iPhone 3G on the Rogers network with a data plan since early August. Between then and about 3-4 weeks ago the iPhone and network have behaved as advertised. It is completely unfair to point fingers at the handset because the only thing that has changed is the volume of data traffic on Rogers 3G network. I know that you might have another 3G device but does that device benefit from and use 3G as such an integral part of its applications? Does your non-iPhone take advantage of 3G as much as the iPhone? The iPhone has changed everything we previously knew about a portable connected device. I can only assume that Rogers drastically under estimated what this meant. Unbelievable because they had a full year to research other networks around the world who already had introduced the iPhone and ramp up.
We’ve all read about 3G network issues in the States with AT&T, right? Their problem is not confused with the stability of the 3G devices on their network – it’s the interupted national coverage that people are complaining about.
Apple issued a statement accompanying the recently 2.2 OS upgrade stating that this update addresses dropped calls, among other issues – manufacturers do this all the time. It’s a maintenance upgrade and not a network-specific “fix”. Rogers seems to have used this as an excuse to point the finger and not accept what is obvious to everyone except them – it’s their 3G network capacity! Again, there is no other jurisdiction that questions the hardware when there are consistent dropped and missed calls while on a 3G network.
I work in a office with 8 iphones. 6 have dropped calls and missed calls and 2 iphones were replaced. After hours and hours on the phone and dozens of calls with rogers i cant believe that this is new to them. all 8 iphones are running with 3G turned off and it has solved the problem. we did not buy the iphone 3G to be on the edge network. this bulletin board has been very helpful. the tv purchase analogy from unity is all wrong. you bought “Sony’s Digital tv” from rogers who promises a picture twice as clear as analog but you have to pay $30 per month for connecting your tv to the wall. The tv works exactly as you expected for months, then the digital signal becomes spotty. oprah disappears as she is about to introduce a shirtless matthew mcconaughey. rogers tells you to turn off the digital and watch your digital tv with the only analog signal. what??? its the same price suck it up. what??? you can see the picture can’t you? oh, one more thing you owe us a $6.95 non-government fee. what’s that for? for us to be able to be able to upgrade our network so that we don’t have a problem delivering your signal. ca’ching!!
8 iphones here, 6 have this problem, 2 of these were replaced with no fix and all 6 are on edge now.
I got a discount for this month (all data fees (30$), and 15$ for the voicemail package tax), i told the rep that i will ask for this discount again next on my next cycle if 3G still isn’t fixed, she said ok.
Anyone have any technical knowledge about how long it takes to upgrade towers to be able to support more people?
Ok, want to hear what a customer service manager for Rogers told me? She said that the problem is that it’s an iPod/data device first, cell phone last. That Blackberries have the same problem. That if you are browsing in Safari, or doing anything data related, calls won’t come through. I then pointed out to her one time I missed a call, I was sitting eating my lunch, not using Safari. Then she said that it’s a cell phone last, that’s why these problems happen.
Thoughts?
The worse thing, personally, for me is that Rogers has messed up by service/billing so many times that I have been credited the maximum amount available for one person, and can no longer get a credit to my bill FOR THE NEXT YEAR because of this. Isn’t that nice? I get horrible service (I can’t tell you how angry I was with Rogers this week, I honestly don’t know how they manage to stay in business with the way they run things!), and I can’t get compensated for it. Wonderful.
Glad I found this page, although I don’t have an iPhone I am unfortunately with Rogers on my Palm Treo 750, exactly the same problems you are all complaining about, dropped calls, phone not ringing, calls directly to voicemail. Rogers must not be willing to admit it is a problem with their network and not the phones. Have had the phone replaced with a refurbished model :( have replaced the sim card and still same problems. Their solution: pay $100 and get a blackberry ! Even though they have a message on the tech support line about long delays because of people experiencing problems, they continue to blame it on my phone.
Ya blackberry Bold has the same problem, 3 of my friends have the bold and they complain of the same thing, it’s purely rogers network
Holly, you should have told that incompetent manager the 3G technology DOES allow simultaneous Data and voice, that’s the whole idea of 3G. Edge on the other hand doesn’t
Ah, good to know Archilles! I didn’t know that…if only I had, argh. Regardless, they won’t give me anymore credits, since I’m maxed out (apparently!). I’m thinking that they had to set this limit, or they’d go out of business with the amount they have to compensate some people for the incompetence of the company.
I guess it all depends on who you end up speaking to in tech support. The person I spoke to today says my ticket can’t be re-opened until I perform these specified tests having installed the new firmware:
factory restore, set and reset network connections, and test and retest on 3G and Edge. The guy said there are several Rogers tech support people who have their own I-Phones and none of them are having these problems. In other words I must be crazy. I was crazy alright, crazy enough to get to two of them.
We’re all crazy if we let Rogers get away with this crap.
check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_OS_version_history
by the way, FIDO and ROGERS are the same, same network
same overly saturated 3g networks.
JUST thought I’d drop a line and let you people know that I got rid of my iPhone and a Crackberry Bold; I have not since experience ANY dropped calls, delayed emails, or failed calls.
Wish I would have switched earlier, lovin it.
Fingers still crossed but I think their network is fixed as of Nov 26. I switched back to 3g from edge and have had no problems as of yet. Before I kept getting missed calls. So I believe the network is now fixed
It seems to be working for me too.
Well my iPhone worked flawlessly until 2 days ago and now I have been unable to receive or send any 3G calls (all the while with full bar strength) so the network is not fixed here in Halifax. Maybe our problems are just starting…
I can say that Winnipeg is having 3G network problems. My phone was working fine for over 4 months straight…then all of a sudden I started having problems on Dec 2. Still have problems as of 2 minutes ago…I’m going to try the procedure in Update 2 on 11/06/08.
any update on the performance on your new phone?
I started having issues last night with my iphone. Weird part is that I can receive calls, I just can not make them. I get ‘Called Failed’ right away. I have spoken with Rogers who went through some trouble shooting steps. I tried my SIM in another phone and it worked with no issues. I have one more thing to try tonight, which I know will not work, then are to call them back to go over the next steps to resolving the issue. Think it will involve a new iphone.
I’ve had the new iPhone for two days now but have just built up the nerve to try the thing on 3G, as calls on the weekend are not critical. Will see how it performs and report back on Monday.
teah,
Also in winnipeg. Are you having problems with connecting to the internet and such, getting email etc?
It works only sporadically for me, but was flawless since September otherwise. So frustrating!
Any solutions you’ve found yet!?
Mike,
Connecting to internet & e-mail via 3G is working sporadically for me too. It was flawless for me since August, so yeah I know the frustration.
The ONLY workaround for me is to connect to internet & e-mail via EDGE. Rogers will help me only if I call from a landline between certain hours – unfortunately I haven’t had time to dedicate calling at lunch.
I stupidly upgraded the iPhone firmware to 2.2 on Nov 30 and I think the firmware may have something to do with it too. Found this thread on macrumors.com:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=606163
Also read of problems in SK on ehmac.ca.
Kyle: any news on your new iPhone? any problems?
Teah,
Any method of restoring the phone to the older style of software so at least it works properly? Also, how do you set it so it only works on Edge?
I was planning on calling rogers at some point this evening about it, but hopefully if restoring the firmware to an older version works id rather do that than stick on the phone with them for hours.
Seems like the new firmware is causing big time issues :(
I was on 3G all weekend and didn’t notice any problems, but none of my phone calls were longer then 3 minutes. I should have the opportunity to make a longer phone call tomorrow which should be a good indication of my problems situation.
I have recently experienced problems where mail says it can’t contact the smtp server for gmail, and I’ve had to turn on the Rogers default setting. I have also experienced a stalled ‘sending email’ bar, which results in a lot email as I have to exit mail and a draft does not seem to be saved. I have also experienced an inability to refresh my mailbox — I’ll hit refresh, the thing will spin, but the ‘last updated’ time will not change.
@Mike: you can disable 3G by going into ‘settings’ –> ‘general’ –> ‘network’ and sliding ‘enable 3G’ to ‘off’. Disabling 3G results in your phone only using EDGE.
Mike: yup, I do what Kyle suggested to get to EDGE. I read that once you upgrade to 2.2, you can’t restore back to 2.1. There was some techie explanation but my eyes glazed over reading it.
I read that 2.3 isn’t slated to come out until end of January. I’ll be pretty pi$$ed off if I have to live with very intermittent 3G until then. What’s the use of having an iPhone then? Might as well go back to my 7 year old cell phone (which I was using before iPhone days).
Teah,
Yea seems like the thing to do. I called rogers yesterday afternoon. They are getting calls like crazy from customers, and the technician assured me its on their end. Its been going on for some customers since mid november, mine only acted up about a week ago, so this makes me feel a bit better. They assured me they have their guys fixing it ASAP, so at least we know its not our phones its their 3G network.
Im thinking if it doesnt work all month we shouldnt be charged for our data plan seeing as we can barely use it?
The issue has nothing to do with the firmware, its the 3g network. I had this problem all through november (in ontario). I got a 50$ credit to my account, and as of a week ago it is fixed, 3G is better than ever all around Toronto. I think they are doing rolling upgrades throughout the provinces, i had heard that Nova Scotia was the first to get theirs up and running, so call them get a credit and just run it on edge until it is fixed (which it will be). I know its inconvenient, trust me i did my share of yelling, but with the credit at least u are basically getting data and some of your voice for free.
Achilles,
Which rogers dept should i talk to about this? Tech Support or billing? I figure if i talk to the right people, it should make the usual hour long phone call a bit shorter!
Mike & Achilles – thanks for the information. I suppose that I am lucky I’ve only had problems for a week or so. I bet they’re getting some e-mails too. I’ve been e-mailing them daily, but they STILL won’t admit it’s a problem on their end. I even asked them specifically when the upgrades will be done, and all I get is we can’t help you via e-mail, please call us between such-and-such a time on a land line.
I intend to ask for a credit too. I feel like since I’m paying for data usage on a 3G network but I’m not getting it, I should be getting a refund of the unusable data portion.
I just had a 27 minute phone conversation over 3G without the call dropping. Before I couldn’t get much pas 4 minutes without a drop. A good sign, but I’m still not sold on a complete fix.
Nope, it’s not fixed. Just had a dropped call on 3G and I was only 2 minutes into the call — and 3 menus into the automated system I was calling. Now I have to start from scratch.
Sorry to hear the bad news, Kyle.
Is the e-mail retrieving and Safari web browsing just as problematic?
I report that there’s still problems in Winnipeg, at least for me. Most of my calls are under 5 minutes and I had one dropped call on Monday about 3 minutes in. But there are still e-mail/web problems.
I don’t notice and web browsing problems. On occasion I have had email errors where it can’t reach the server to send messages, and other times I’ll hit ‘refresh’ but the ‘last updated’ time will not change — it might be from 45 minutes ago.
I can confirm that there is still huge trouble in Winnipeg. 3G works great for about 3 minutes after a reset, then web browsing, mail, etc. won’t connect. Switch to EDGE and it’s up and running. Also did a phone restore to see if it’d help, and it didn’t.
Winnipeggers: I found this thread on the Apple Discussion Board, quite a few ‘Peggers there with problems too.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1819052&tstart=0
No fix in Nova Scotia yet. I’ve received a credit for last and this month’s data plan charges, and I was shipped a new phone. Today, couldn’t make a call worth a sh*t on 3G, if one would even go through it would drop after a couple seconds. While speaking to my wife (both on iPhones), the call dropped, and neither of us could make calls after that. Her phone also asked for her SIM pin to be unlocked again all of a sudden, which I don’t understand. A Blackberry user was with her at the time and had no problem with the network.
This happened to me for the first time today; I’m in Halifax and use an iPhone. As it’s only been the one time, I haven’t contacted Rogers, but if it becomes a recurring issue, then I will.
In the meantime, as it seems Rogers is trying to blame this on the iPhone, how about everyone bombard Apple with the details of this problem, clearly indicating Rogers suggested “fix” (turn off 3G) as well as the fact that they are trying to pass it off as an iPhone issue rather than an infrastructure problem.
Apple are very protective of the “experience” of using their products, so perhaps if they hear from enough people they will be able to apply pressure against Rogers?
Lots of unhappy Winnipeggers on the Apple.com discussion thread that I posted a few comments up.
Their front-line (Tier 1?) tech support told me today that they are indeed aware of network problems in Winnipeg. It is NOT a firmware issue or a hardware issue. It is 100% Rogers.
I asked and received a data credit for December. If I get any dropped calls in the next while, I’m asking for a full credit.
I read an article that Rogers is rolling out the 3.5G network (that iPhone & most Blackberries can’t utilize). IMNSHO, I think Rogers would be better off FIXING their 3G network first.
I am now on my 5th iPhone. Too many problems to list. On my 2nd 3G. After switching to the 3g phone I noticed after 10 days my mic would not work. I’m here in las vegas NV. 30 min on phone with help desk they told me to go get phone replaced. Had to return phone and pay 20% restocking fee to get my money back before I could buy a new phone. Otherwise they were offering a referb phone even though it was 10 days old. Got new phone and ended up with the same problem. We trouble shot it ourselves and realized it was only not working with 3g. US help desk had no idea what to suggest. There should at least be a short cut icon if we can make calls with 3g on. It’s a pain to go thru settings each time to turn 3g on and off.
I’m from Winnipeg. I also experiencing the same problems with the 3G protocol, as describe here. The interesting point on my case, is that I do not have an iPhone, I have a Nokia N95, which happend to use 3G protocol. That means it’s not a hardware or phone software problem, it is basically a Rogers 3G network problem. I feel bad for those who need the 3G service. I’m just downgrading to a phone that use Edge or even 2G protocol. I think it is the best solution at least for me.
I switched to a Blackberry Bold (which uses the Rogers 3g netowrk, in Ottawa) about 2 – 3 weeks ago and have yet to miss a single call! When I had my iPhone 3G I missed at least 4 calls a day. So, I don’t beleive it is just a network issue; it’s most likely a problem with the performance of the iPhone on Rogers 3G network.
Spoke to a friend with iPhone 3g and he suggested that I try leaving my wifi search on all the time (leave 3g turned on) ie… allowing it to search for other wifi signals. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why this would make a difference. Well, so far it seems to be working. I haven’t had any problems since. It’s only been a couple of days so I’ll keep you posted. Anyone else wanna give of a shot to see if it’s just a fluke?
Hi there!
If anyone is experiencing iPhone/service issues and wishes to investigate pursuing a claim against Apple/Rogers Canada they can contact me at the following address:
iphoneinvestigation@hotmail.com
please detail your date of ownership, OS, location and brief description of the problems you’ve had.
thank you.
Another piece of information ….
I have two week old iPhones and if I call either one from a land line I get a message that the call didn’t go through. Hang up and try again. If I call either one from another cell phone on the Bell network both phones immeadiately ring busy but I get no notification of a missed call. If I call from one iPhone to the other it works fine.
I am using the 3G network with the latest 2.2 firmware and am in Kingston Ontario.
Addition information …..
I have tried reset network (from the settings screen)
Software reset
Hardware reset
Edge Network, 3G, WiFi
None of these works although I can still use the net, send and receive email, send and receive SMS messages, place outgoing calls (as well as call/and receive calls from another iPhone).
I have a ticket in with Rogers Network Support Group so we will see what happens ….
Larry, im having the same problem too, nothing is going through to my iPhone, altho I can call out and do everything else.
Gonna be going to see rogers tomorrow.. this is bullshit
Ye I had a LG vu and it was expierencing these problems and they offered me an upgrade to BOLD. I took the upgrade everything was good until your on the 3g network. I called rogers MANYYYYYY times and they all seem clueless except a few individuals which cant really do much.
They tried to tell me
– no one else is expierencing these problems.
– your sim is prob old *which its brand new*
– your location must have bad reception *i have full signal*
They need to train their employees better. At the end of all this I ended up getting a credit on my bill around 40-50$ and i will continue to call eveyr montht ill it is fixed.
The part that pisses me off is they continue to try to bullshit me and basically tell me im the one causing these problems. ONEEEEEE tech guy admitted its the company.
I myself also get dropped calls on 3G and I was wondering if those that are experiencing this problem were interested in answering a survey. Would you consider changing over to a different data plan where instead of 6 GB per month you were offered 2 GB per month at half the price to compensate you for this problem. I believe this would be a fair compromise both for Rogers and its customers rather than be burdened by a class action lawsuit that would nullify the three year contract for its customers. Rogers employees are just trying to make a living. Its the management team that needs a kick in the rear end. If Rogers is woken up that they could be the next Enron of Canada, board members may advise on a concession. Hint to the CEO of Rogers – shell games may be popular in some foreign countries but you bring that crap here and you will go down.
I won’t bore all of you with the same story, suffice it to say dropped calls ad-nosium. I finally got so upset with Rogers I called and threatened to cancel my service with them and take them to court if need be to not pay any cancellation fees since they were not delivering the goods as promised. Got a loyality person on the phone who waived the upgrade time and gave me a really great deal on the Blackberry 8900 (note NOT on the 3g network). A working phone is far more important to me than the “fastest (albeit not working) network.
Call, bitch, threaten you will be amazed the results you can get.
yep, same here. I recently purchased a new iPhone 3G from Rogers in the Vancouver area. I consistently get dropped calls and calls go straight to voicemail without ringing. Sometimes *most* of my calls are either dropped or go straight to voice mail!
At least now I know that I can try switching off Edge.
I will dig out the contract and wonder whether I can take them to court for breech of contract. It would seem to me that the implicit contract can be rendered null and void at this point.
Meanwhile, the best solution might be to bypass Rogers and use Skype Out with either Fring (requires jailbreaking the phone) or shapeservices.com. The advantage here is that this sticks it to Rogers by not giving them extra billing time for use of iPhone as a voice device. (To add insult to injury, I suspect that Rogers still charges me for the time spent on a call that gets dropped!)
I’ve found that shapeservices is very slow, however. You need to connect to their web site, login, then initiate the call, which involves a call back. And the quality is so/so. Fring may be a better solution.
oops, I meant switching “to edge” not “off edge”, obviously. I.e., turning off 3G.
Was on the phone with Rogers twice. They were helpful.
First conversation: suggested a number of things to help isolate the problem:
1. Restore the iPhone using iTunes
2. turn off 3G (as a test)
3. Periodically power down the iPhone (a few times a week).
4. remove the plastic monitor protector
5. when the iPhone is recharging, make sure it is not in a case, for that can cause it to overheat and not fully charge.
None of these solved the dropped calls problem
Second conversation:
She had me restore network settings:
Settings=>General=>reset network settings.
She said that she did some kind of a reset from their side.
That “worked”. I was then able to reliably receive 4 test phone calls, 3 from them one from some other source.
If the problem persists, there are three possibilities they forsee:
1. SIM card (I doubt it).
2. Phone (Who knows?)
3. Particular location where the drops happen.
I’ll keep you posted about further progress.
Just wanted to drop an update. I’ve been running with 3G on in the Toronto and Barrie area without a problem (that I know of). I can sit on hold for 15 minutes and not drop the call, and I have not heard from anyone that they tried to call me and didn’t get through. I guess Rogers improved the network?
So, here’s my latest. Rogers took a bit over 2 weeks to investigate my problem and concluded that the signal is weak near my residence due to the relative placement of their tower, despite the fact that I’m in a densely populated area (not high rises, but lots of houses). They have no plans to put in a tower to provide me (and others around here) with reliable service, and hence I’ve been told to deal with Customer Relations. A good % of my calls are dropped–straight to voice mail, or calls end (it even dropped during a phone call to their tier-2 tech support). It has nothing to do with iPhone: there’s another customer around here that I know of with a regular cell phone that has the same problem.
The information on the Bold being any better is false. Our company switched from bell to the biggest and the most reliable in December last year and every time I see that add I want to report it as false advertising. Our company was with bell for a about 8 years before going to Roger’s and I did not know that dropped calls still existed until I found myself taking to myself on the DVP, the first day I used the phone. I also get many failed calls. I work as an Environmental Contractor so I am almost never in the same place when the call is dropped or fails, so the so called weak area includes most of the GTA. When I called Rogers in December the response was they have had some problems out west but not in Ontario, (yeah right). Well all I want is for them to pull those adds that they are the most reliable as they seem to be falling way short of that claim
I called Rogers last week regarding multiple dropped calls. The tech suggested that I just turn my 3G off when I need to make or receive calls! Are you kidding me!?!?! What the hell am I paying for?
I just had two dropped calls in a row (a neighbour of mine said that last weekend was the worst he’s ever had for dropped calls). I’m on the phone with a Rogers iPhone tech at the moment (on hold). She just told me that it is “exclusively an iPhone 3G hardware issue” and that “they’ve been working hand-in-hand with Apple to resolve it.” Her solution, as with the one last week, was to only turn 3G on when I need to use the internet on the phone.
I am going to note every dropped call in the next 2 weeks. So far, I’ve estimated I’m hitting about 50%, but I’m going to note them, get an exact ratio, and then make a decision. If I’m over 25% for the next two weeks, I’m switching.
I recommend that everyone document this issue, and document every call you make to Rogers (who you spoke to, when, etc.).
I own a Palm 750 and for the past 4 weeks most of my calls during business hours are dropped, sometimes after seconds not minutes. I have not called Rogers yet since I thought it was my phone only but as of yesterday I am still dropping calls. I am going to try to turn off the 3G (if I can) and see what happens.
Thanks for all this info.
whats the update???? As of October 2009 how’s your iphone?
because I’m trying to fix mine as of right now
I have been experiencing this same problem for the last couple months, with the same schpeel from Rogers. Apparently it’s a problem in my area(greater Vancouver) but form the looks of it the problem is all of Canada. I have got 6 of my friends to switch to Rogers, which in hindsight was a bad idea. I think as soon as Telus and Bell launch the iPhone I’m gonna dump Rogers, I’m in a contract with them, but I’m pretty sure they have not lived up to their end of the contract leaving it null and void.
Well, this issue is back with a vengeance. Its October 30th, 2009 and I now no longer can receive any or place any calls in my home or outdoors. The problem for me stopped for about 6 months but suddenly its back. I love my iphone but I hate Rogers customer service – I will call in and then they will make me go through all the hoops and then, if I persist, it will be scaled up and then nothing will get done. Sigh…I look forward to the new Droid phone as I really am fed-up with them. I spend 300$ per month for this phone and I cannot afford to have calls dropped like this.
I haven’t had any problems since my last update. No dropped calls, no missed calls — heck, even tethering works without a hitch anywhere I use it. I wonder if it’s the location I’m using the phone. I don’t have to fight with many tall buildings that could cause calls to drop.
Yep my iPhone is dropping calls left right and center… It’s clearly an issue with Rogers. I have the latest software update from Apple 3.1.2 and that doesn’t even help!!! Rogers fix this!!!!
Ok whats the consensus here, is the problem:
- strictly Rogers 3G related
- Iphone 3G related
- or the combo of the two?
would switching to another phone be of any use??
I have had a few dropped calls, but only with one person and never with anyone else. No issues with any calls going to voicemail so far in the first year of service. I would not be so quick to jump to Telus or Bell with their new, untested, networks. They may be better or they might be the same.
I live in the greater vancouver area (langley) and i only seem to have dropped/missed calls AND texts when I’m in Langley. Anywhere else, it seems to be fine. Its more missed calls then anything. I rarely get dropped calls, but i shouldnt get any. Also, i will text “hello” to somebody, and over the course of the day it will send the same text to that person multiple times, up to 15!
I have, or rather had a Palm Treo 680 with the exact same dropped and missed call issues.Couldn not even dial out while in good reception. Roger’s even sent out a replacement Palm Treo 680 and this diddn’t even fix it, same problems. Countless resets to the phone, couldn’t live with a phone like this, so I went back to my crappy, but trusty nokia that works without fail. I miss my palm, it has hardly been used but totally useless because of it’s unreliable network.
just bought an iPhone 3G for my mom as a birthday present. she is very happy about her new iPhone.. :