Poor LTE coverage - Vancouver Island

[wtfuzz]

So I’ve had my new Model 3 AWD since Sunday, and absolutely love it.

I took it from Nanaimo to Qualicum Beach yesterday and noticed I had no data coverage (no LTE or 3G) from around Parksville into most of QB.

My iPhone on Virgin had LTE coverage in these dead spots.

Does anyone know what network Tesla uses in Canada?

 

[tomot]

We drove Nanaimo,Parksville, Chathedral Grove,Victoria last week all with LTE,
iphone with Bell, also got charged for excess data usage mainly for using Waze, which was totally unnecessary... who knew!

 

[MexiCanuck]

I drive in that area regularly and have never had connection problems with my Koodo signal. I believe Koodo uses Telus signal.

 

[wtfuzz]

I drive in that area regularly and have never had connection problems with my Koodo signal. I believe Koodo uses Telus signal.

Yeah, my phone has no problem. It’s just the M3s built in cellular connection for maps and streaming music.

When you get your M3, see if your LTE works in Parksville/QB.

On the maps I could see just major roads and none of the street names were labelled on the display while there was no cell service. Obviously the streaming music stops as well until the signal comes back.

 

[bijan]

Does anyone know what network Tesla uses in Canada?

I think it's AT&T roaming on Rogers. At least that's what it is out East. Not sure about BC.

 

[MexiCanuck]

Yeah, my phone has no problem. It’s just the M3s built in cellular connection for maps and streaming music.

There is a stretch between Qualicum and Parksville in which I lose Sirius radio reception. I also lost reception in the same location when I had an XM receiver.

The Sirius signal comes from three constantly moving satellites to the east and the XM signal comes from two geosynchronous satellites to the southeast and southwest. I figured that indicated some strong local signal interference. I wonder whether that affects the Tesla signal as well.

There is another SiriusXM dead zone driving past Nanoose Bay. I figured that has to do with the naval base at Nanoose.

 

[TomLee]

I'm wondering how the map works without the LTE signal? Say I travel through VI and drive into a dead spot, will the map continue to lead me out or am I just stuck?

 

[MexiCanuck]

I drove this section yesterday.

I noted that in the SiriusXM “dead zones” my cell phone signal dropped down to one bar.

This happened between Crocker Creek and exit 60. It happened again near the commercial vehicle weigh station. (I think that is exit 42.)

 

[Doug_G]

Does anyone know what network Tesla uses in Canada?

Reception is pretty horrible in Ottawa, never mind in remote areas. I swear I have to park directly under a cell phone tower to get three bars.

Tesla has always been using AT&T. Yes all Canadian cars are roaming.

I've been told that they're trying to change that now. We'll see.

 

[bijan]

I'm wondering how the map works without the LTE signal? Say I travel through VI and drive into a dead spot, will the map continue to lead me out or am I just stuck?

From my experience base maps are stored on the car so it can route you (and will even say routing without traffic data or something like that), but satellite view and details will not load.

 

[TomLee]

From my experience base maps are stored on the car so it can route you (and will even say routing without traffic data or something like that), but satellite view and details will not load.

I don’t get the sat view as a SR+ owner. The only complains that I have is the navigation part. I found the instructions were hard to follow compares to my iGo on the old Windows CE based head unit.

 

[wtfuzz]

Reception is pretty horrible in Ottawa, never mind in remote areas. I swear I have to park directly under a cell phone tower to get three bars.

Tesla has always been using AT&T. Yes all Canadian cars are roaming.

I've been told that they're trying to change that now. We'll see.

It would be great if they switched to a native Canadian carrier. Unfortunately there probably isn’t a singular choice like ATT in the US that would provide the best coverage across the country.

It would be ideal if we could have a choice of which carrier to use, but that’s probably highly unlikely.

 

[Can37]

An AT&T SIM roaming in Canada likely gets better coverage than a Canadian SIM as they can roam on more networks. Canadian IoT SIMs have quite limited coverage as they don't roam to other Canadian networks.

 

[wtfuzz]

An AT&T SIM roaming in Canada likely gets better coverage than a Canadian SIM as they can roam on more networks. Canadian IoT SIMs have quite limited coverage as they don't roam to other Canadian networks.

I get better coverage on my iPhone with a Virgin SIM (Bell Network) than the Tesla does. So either AT&T doesn’t have a roaming agreement with Bell, or the RF hardware is worse than an iPhone.

 

[wtfuzz]

I wonder if it’s cheaper for Tesla to roam with the US AT&T SIM, since Canadian cellular providers for data are some of the most expensive in the world.

 

[Can37]

I wonder if it’s cheaper for Tesla to roam with the US AT&T SIM, since Canadian cellular providers for data are some of the most expensive in the world.

I live in Canada and I have a US Google Fi SIM that is much cheaper for Canadian data than my Koodo account. I only have Koodo so I have a local phone number.

 

[Cripps]

Victoria - Duncan (67km ish) which I drive regularly will mean going from LTE to 3G and sometimes no signal. Signal strength varies.

No worries about the base map but you may not have all the satellite imagery if you scroll around. Navigation let’s you know that it can’t reroute based on traffic, which doesn’t matter on this stretch as there is only one route over the Malahat unless you fancy the Mill Bay ferry.

 

[Hugh Mannity]

Odd, drove this route last month and didn’t notice any miss in map drawing or Slacker outages.

 

[wtfuzz]

Today in Nanaimo I was at Canadian Tire picking up a bunch of new stuff to detail Celeste and noticed I had no signal again when I got back in the car.

I normally get strong LTE signal in this area, but I was getting no service at all. I drove up to longwood brewpub, stopped and did a hard reset in the parking lot. Still no service. Drove north from there to supercharge and connectivity finally came back around Woodgrove.

 

[EnterpriseT]

I think it's AT&T roaming on Rogers. At least that's what it is out East. Not sure about BC.

I've wondered this. That explains why the BC service is weaker.