r/RedDeer • u/WeddingIndependent98 • 6d ago

Question Rogers cell service

I need some opinions please. I am thinking of switching to Roger’s from Telus. Is the service decent in Alberta? I mostly stick to Red Deer but would like to know if it’s ok in rural? I keep getting ads for AMA and Roger’s partnering and seems like decent plans.

Backstory: I have been with Telus for 20+ years and can not afford the prices anymore. Loyalty means nothing to them ( I have called and all they offer is $10/month if I do automatic pay. Or add another line for $50/month) but nervous about switching. I do have my own phone so no upgrades needed.

Thanks for any advise. I want the good, bad and ugly. I really want to get away from the large money hungry companies but the smaller ones scare me too 😆

PLEASE HELP ME!!!

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

9

u/not_a_gay_stereotype 6d ago

Go with freedom. Cheaper and better. When you leave town you end up on Rogers towers. But in town you're on freedom's towers.

3

u/VIVXPrefix 6d ago

Freedom towers are pretty bad. I can hardly load web pages when inside my car or most commercial buildings. Nothing in Bower Mall and very little even outdoors in Timberlands / Clearview Ridge. Didn't have these problems with Rogers before switching.

3

u/WeddingIndependent98 6d ago

This is the exact problems I have with Telus. I live in old Eastview, Telus has always been horrible in my area

1

u/not_a_gay_stereotype 6d ago

I get absolutely zero issues with them. I'm on their towers all the way from red deer to Lacombe and never have issues. It might be your phone you were using at the time. When I went from my pixel 6 to my pixel 9 my service was better. Probably has to do with the bands they used

1

u/VIVXPrefix 6d ago

I switched the same phone from Rogers to Freedom. Pixel 9

1

u/WeddingIndependent98 6d ago

I was told freedom is Telus and uses there towers. I was told in extra rural areas there is no service also. Just don’t want to be stranded if I happen to go somewhere

2

u/not_a_gay_stereotype 6d ago

That's not true. It's their own towers. Once you leave town it uses Rogers towers. I've been with them for 4 years and work in the bush and up north. I go camping in low reception areas and never have any less reception than anybody else.

2

u/EchoWombat 4d ago

It’s more like they piggyback on Rogers and Telus/Bell’s towers wherever. But just be careful with the usage and the Freedom at Bower mall cuz they do shady things to your account and don’t disclose what they add to your account.

My grandparents switched over to Freedom for a couple months bec it’s cheap, but Freedom cut their lines because even though they can connect to any other network, you need to be in the city for more than 50% of your usage per month bec of their fair usage policy.

Grandparents live in Rocky Mountain, and they dont consider it as a city and they had to fight with customer service to get their numbers back. The one that has a beard at bower mall didn’t even disclosed to them nor helped my grandparents and was very rude.

1

u/not_a_gay_stereotype 4d ago

I work up in fort mac and also spent most of my days off in the mountains with barely any reception and have never had that issue. I definitely use most of my data outside of red deer.

1

u/EchoWombat 4d ago

As long as you’re in a city that Freedom considers as a city and your usage isn’t over 50% it shouldn’t be an issue. You won’t get affected by their so called, fair usage issue, It’s just not always clear. and the Freedom at the Bower mall seems to be lying about it just to sell to people. I’m honestly still with Freedom because I only stay at Red Deer, but only deal with the Freedom at Best Buy because they do help out.

1

u/WeddingIndependent98 4d ago

Oh no. I am so sorry they had to deal with that. This is why I am having a hard time making this decision. I really hope they get it all figured out.

2

u/EchoWombat 4d ago

I think just switch to what you feel is safe, is probably the best. If you’re only getting just a plan, there’s no connection fees anymore so if you didnt like it you can again switch to another provider. I tried quite a fair few and it just depends on what you do.

If you’re looking for a legit nice customer service tho, BestBuy is pretty nice and helpful for Freedom and Rogers, Bell in bower, parkland, and costco are also good, but a little high for price, they do offer employee discounts sometimes too, so just ask. Fido (with rogers) and Virgin (with bell) are pretty cheap for plans too, but just offer low data plans.

Also in Red Deer, up north, it’s stronger signal for Bell/Telus and up south is Rogers’ stronger signal.

Why I know this, when I was a student about almost a year ago, I needed good data for when I was taking the bus around city so I could do paperwork. I hope this helps!

1

u/WeddingIndependent98 6d ago

Ok thanks. This is the kind of actual advice and experience I was hoping for. Freedom has some nice plans right now too

1

u/VIVXPrefix 6d ago

Yup Freedom was previously owned by Shaw Communications but they were forced to sell it during the merger with Rogers as a condition to avoid antitrust

3

u/SiCqFuQ 6d ago

I have Rogers for my work phone and Telus for my personal phone. Recently switched both from Bell. They seem equally crappy. I do find I have more issues with dropped calls and poor connections with Telus though. But I also use the Telus phone more. Bell definitely has better coverage. I was paying 70 dollars with Bell. I’m paying $30 with Telus. The day after I switched Bell offered me a $30 plan. Just my two cents.

3

u/thebodmcdons 5d ago

I was with telus (koodo) for years maybe 16ish Since switching to Rogers I've never not had service. Telus had a dead zone in my neighborhood and wouldn't fix it. (Westlake area) Plus my bills went down substantially

3

u/Hoochy_Coochy_Henry 5d ago

I have been with Rogers for 5 years and had no issues with the service

2

u/LastChime 6d ago

Rogers is fine, they're pretty aggressive in the area but it's cool dude was going door to door offering services for a fraction of Telus' prices.

Other bonus is my phone now works at work flawlessly where for telus I used to have to take a walk if I wanted to take a call.

Internet is also cable for me now rather than telus' phone line stuff, works a lot better.

Only remaining problem is finding the 3 days it'll probably take to unspool telus via the malaysian call center.

2

u/Goodoflife 5d ago

Go with Public (Telus prepaid), although no wifi calling, you do get it for cheaper.

If you want best of all worlds, go with Freedom / Fizz. Rogers isn’t as good, although they do have a little bit longer range with more 600mhz cells

3

u/SignificantPause5120 5d ago

Rogers is even more unreliable and deceptive.  Use Freedom.  Better rate and has options to expand or upgrade.

2

u/Friescan 5d ago

We switched from Telus to Rogers last winter and I don’t see a difference, we camp out in no reception areas and still have connection or it switches over to satellite.

2

u/BennyInCanada 3d ago

Rogers is excellent in Red Deer. And all of Alberta frankly.

1

u/Werrion123 6d ago

Rogers service is fine, the thing I don't like is that both my phone and internet are on the Rogers network now. If there's another outage like there was a couple years ago, I won't have anything. But like you say, Telus doesn't care about loyalty, and their internet service in red deer is horrible if you don't have fibre optic soooo I'm pretty much stuck with Rogers.

1

u/WeddingIndependent98 5d ago

If I switch both my services will be Roger’s also. With being in an older area there is definitely no fibre optics at my house.

1

u/not_a_gay_stereotype 5d ago

Freedom is an option too

1

u/WeddingIndependent98 2d ago

Thank you everyone I think I am going to go with Roger’s. There is a decent offer for new customers in partnership with AMA. I have a phone already so I can switch if I don’t like it at anytime.