# How was your Telus/Bell/Rogers LTE signup experience?



## st3fan (Oct 31, 2009)

I had hoped to simply move the micro SIM from my old iPad to my shiny new iPad but that obviously did not work.

So I went to a Telus store and picked up a "microsim starter kit" and was being told that I could do the setup completely online.

Not so much. When I setup my old iPad almost 2 years ago, I basically just inserted the SIM and then went to the Cellular Data section in the Settings where I could sign up for a specific Rogers plan. That option was not there now.

I called Telus. Yes, you need to sign up online first to activate your sim card.

So I went to Telus and started filling out a the registration form. Enter your Telus phone number or enter your account number. Hmm. I don't have either because they only sold me a micro sim starter kit.

Called Telus again. I am being told that the customer number should be on the invoice. Not so much. Turns out that I was not in a Telus store. Even though everything looked Telus, including the storefront, it was apparently a reseller. (This is on 461 Queen St West). So I don't have an account number. The lady tells me to enter the SIM number instead. Ok, I think this can make sense, so I hang up.

Not so much. The registration form of course does not accept the SIM number. Not sure what to do now I browse the web and find advice on twitter from @TELUSSupport. Someone in the same situation is adviced to go to a sim card registration page.

This looks good, I go there, enter my personal info, credit card, SIM number. Then it asks me to choose a phone number. Huh what? This is for an iPad, so I think that must be some poorly integrated telco system so I pick the Any Number choice and move forward in this setup form.

It also tells me I need to add some money to this prepaid account. Sure, I choose the 25 CAD transfer because I plan to get the $20 TELUS LTE Data plan. Sounds fair.

But then the next screen it tells me I am now ready to activate my micro sim with some phone number, voicemail and all kinds of services that make no sense for a data only plan. This is clearly not what i wanted so I cancel. Hope this does not show up on my credit card.

At this point I have already given up hope. But I decide to ask @TELUSSUpport on Twitter what to do next. They give me a phone number: "Call this number directly to activate your iPad"

Sounds great! I call and I am lost in a menu that says many things but nothing about an iPad. I choose something about Other Services and then get more confused and just hit 0 to get an operator. That is not an official option but it usually gets a real person right away.

So I talk to Ian who speaks english very well but also has a solid indian accent. I also hear a whole family yelling in the background. But he is friendly and I want to give this a try.

So I explain to him that I bought a new iPad today and I also went to a Telus store to pick up a Micro SIM for it and now I want to activate my data pan but don't know how.

So he asks me about my iTouch. And I tell him, no it is an iPad 3. Which is technicaly not correct but try to explain 'new iPad' to a support person.

He asks me for the same personal information that I already filled in earlier and also for my SIN number. I'm confused about that but he tells me they do a credit check. Which I find strange for a prepaid service.

He then asks me for my iTouch's SIM number, so I give him that. He then needs the device IMEI number, so I give that too. But he tells me that I am not giving the right number. It should be 13 digits but my iPad shows 15. So I must be wrong and we go over this number 5 times until he gives up and puts me on hold to talk to his manager.

I'm now being told that my SIM card is almost activated and that he put me on a fixed plan. Confused about that because first of all we did not talka bout plans at all at this point and second, I want to use the LTE Flex plan.

He says the iPad does not support LTE and I ask him if he has followed the news today about the release of the new iPad. I tell him that the Telus web site shows an overview of LTE Data Plans for tablets and the one I would like to use is the Flex plan.

He puts me on hold and has to talk to his manager.

After a few minutes I'm being told that the LTE Flex plan is not supported on the iPad 3.

I give up and decide to play with my new iPad instead. This is all too frustrating.



Aftermath. I think a couple of thing went wrong here:

1) I did not go to a real Telus store. Even though this stores was completely branded as telus, it was an Apex Wireless store. This is totally non-obvious. There is no sign of this anywhere. Everything looks Telus. Including the sotre layout, furniture, style and storefront. Do not trust these stores. They are resellers. You get different service and knowledge.

1.5) Even though I told the sales person that I needed a data plan for the new iPad, he very likely gave a me the wrong SIM card. This is not clear but I think there are actually two kinds of SIM cards. A normal one and then a iPad specific one. I *think* that the iPad SIM card will actually trigger something in the iPad that shows that account management option in the Cellular Data section. It is very possible that these cards are only given out in the Apple Store at this point. I'm not sure, but this could be the root of all this.

2) I now see indeed that on the Telus web site there is a tiny bit of text that says "The Flex plan is not available yet for the new iPad". Hey Telus, you might want to create a page that is actually more clear about this. Because the whole Internet is pointing to this page saying "Here are the Telus iPad LTE plans that you can use now!" Except you can't.

3) Telus phone support is pretty badly informed. Sure, this is the first day the the new iPad is on sale but you would expect that they would at leat prepare for that no?

I'm still very frustrated by all of this. This took a lot of time while it should have been a 5 minute transaction in the store and a 5 minute registration on my iPad.

What I am going to do is go to an Apple store and ask for a Bell SIM card and give that a try.


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## Stevanb (Mar 17, 2012)

I got mine at futureshop. They set the tells acct for me. As far as they told me, I am on flex plan with $5 per month minimum. The first 2 months are unlimited data for $5 each. I will have to check the paperwork when I get home.


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## Paul82 (Sep 19, 2007)

IIRC Rogers was the only Canadian carrier to support on device setup when the iPad 2 launched.

To use bell or telus you had the joy of dealing with customer service.


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## sedawk (Jun 26, 2007)

*Bell Store in Vancouver*

My iPad was delivered at noon to my office yesterday - SIM card did not arrive so I walked over to the Bell Store (Georgia and Burrard). 

I was in and out in less than 5 min with a SIM card and their flex data plan for the iPad. A very good deal - this month I will probably hit the $35 tier, but I am sure there will be months with little or no LTE usage - so I will only be charged $15 (or even $5).

No activation fee, sim card charge or contract. Also, I don't have a Bell phone - so this was a totally new account. Threw in the SIM card when I got home and the cellular data was working immediately.

I'm getting LTE speeds of 30 to 50 Mbps down and 10 to 20 Mbps up (Vancouver's West End). Tested tethering and it works fine: I was able to use the personal hotspot feature on the iPad to connect my MacBook Air.

And no - I don't work for Bell  In fact I had a bad MiFi experience with them a few years back, so was a little hesitant. However, this experience was fast and easy. My LTE data speeds are faster than most of my friends' home networks!


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## Sword Fish (Mar 12, 2012)

I had a great experience at Rogers. Spent about 5 mintues and I had my SIM and was out of the store. I doubt I will ever use 10G in a single month but it is nice to know that I have to option to do some things with this iPad that I might not have done because of worrying about how much data I was using.

Your Telus story doesn't really surprise me. I have had similar experiences with them in the past and will not use another Telus anything.


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## okcomputer (Jul 18, 2005)

st3fan said:


> 1) I did not go to a real Telus store. Even though this stores was completely branded as telus, it was an Apex Wireless store. This is totally non-obvious. There is no sign of this anywhere. Everything looks Telus. Including the sotre layout, furniture, style and storefront. Do not trust these stores. They are resellers. You get different service and knowledge.


Actually a lot, if not most of, the TELUS stores are authorized dealers, not official TELUS stores. This varies in each province and area, but here in NS there are only two or three corporate TELUS stores. The rest (upwards of 20+) are dealers. It's the same with Rogers and Bell, too. 

In my experience, the dealers are just as knowledgable as the corporate stores and I'm not so sure visiting a corporate store would have provided a different outcome for you. 

Hopefully you get it all cleared up and TELUS fixes the whole LTE flex plan for iPad issue.


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## iphoneottawa (Apr 21, 2010)

I got a SIM at rogers and put it in iPad but nothing happened. I tried the account in setting but no luck.


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## mixedup (Jul 4, 2004)

Anyone know if the Rogers "flex rate" plan requires a contract???


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## iphoneottawa (Apr 21, 2010)

No. It says clearly you can sign up for $5, which gives u unlimited for 2 months and then cancel. (Link in next M)
I saw it after the tables on the page.


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## iphoneottawa (Apr 21, 2010)

Sorry it was Red Board:
http://redboard.rogers.com/2012/can...etwork-is-now-available-on-the-newest-tablet/


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## mixedup (Jul 4, 2004)

Thanks.

Anyone try signing up for this? Wondering if I can just call and get it activated, or if I need to physically go into a store?


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## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

I'm on Bell and still not actually getting LTE service, despite several calls to tech support. Initially, I had simply activated a tablet share plan, which the guy at the Bell Store where I picked up my LTE micro-SIM indicated should work, and suggested that maybe I simply wasn't in an LTE coverage area (I'm at Yonge & the 401). A call to tech support confirmed that I was in coverage, but the guy at the time suggested that the 18-20mbps speeds I'm getting are "too fast for HSPA+" so I must therefore be on LTE and the iPad is simply not showing the LTE indicator.

A call this morning resulted in the tech support guy advising me that the $10 tablet share plans are not eligible for LTE coverage, and switching me over to the $5/$15/$35 tablet flex plan and triple-checking to ensure everything was provisioned for LTE on their end. Still only seeing a "3G" indicator despite having rebooted the iPad, reset network settings and now having just restored it completely back to factory settings. 

Curious to know what kind of luck others are having, but thus far while I'm getting great HSPA+ speeds on any micro-SIM I throw into my iPad (even the non-LTE ones), I'm not seeing the "LTE" indicator show up at all.


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## sedawk (Jun 26, 2007)

jhollington said:


> Curious to know what kind of luck others are having, but thus far while I'm getting great HSPA+ speeds on any micro-SIM I throw into my iPad (even the non-LTE ones), I'm not seeing the "LTE" indicator show up at all.


See this previous post.

http://http://www.ehmac.ca/all-ios-iphone-ipad-ipod-touch-apple-tv-itunes/99713-youve-got-new-ipad-ipad-3-give-us-your-review-impressions-2.html#post1179211

5/15/35 plan with Bell. LTE indicator. Super Speed.


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## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

Thanks. Somehow missed that the first time through that other thread  

I'll have to call Bell tech support again tomorrow, I suppose. At least I still have an open ticket with them on this one.


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## Rounder (Aug 9, 2008)

For those of us that have a 6GB Data plan with Rogers for the iPhone, are we able to pay the 11 dollars or whatever for data share and obtain an LTE SIM card for the iPad to use the 6GB data plan?


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## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

Rounder said:


> For those of us that have a 6GB Data plan with Rogers for the iPhone, are we able to pay the 11 dollars or whatever for data share and obtain an LTE SIM card for the iPad to use the 6GB data plan?


I'm sort of curious as to whether Rogers' policies have changed on this one as well.. I've since switched to Bell, but when Rogers first introduced their data share plans for the iPad, customers on the $30/6GB plan had to pay *$30* to get data sharing on the iPad.

When I contacted Rogers PR, the response was that they had priced it in such a way as to be "fair" to those who weren't fortunate enough to be on the promotional plan -- the idea being that those with a normal 6GB plan would pay the same for shared data (e.g. $50/month + $10/month) as those on the promotional 6GB plan (e.g. $30/month + $30/month). Stupid, but that was their actual answer -- penalizing people for having been fortunate enough to get on the promotional plan.

I really do hope they've wised up and rethought that particular policy.


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## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

On another note further to my earlier post, I did manage to get LTE to light up last night. Seems that my coverage in my actual apartment is extremely weak -- one bar -- although I do still manage to get 15-20mbps-ish speeds even with that weak signal (of course, I also get the same speeds on HSPA+ with five bars, so it's a subtle difference).

Took a walk outside, however, and got three bars of coverage and considerably better speeds -- 45mbps down, 30mbps up. I have to assume that Bell's LTE coverage specifically is simply weak in my particular area (Yonge & York Mills), as I get rock-solid 5-bar HSPA+ coverage here, even indoors.


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## mixedup (Jul 4, 2004)

Took about 10 minutes for me to get setup on the Rogers flex plan by calling customer service (SIM was delivered same day as the iPad, so no need to go into a store). Worked perfectly after rebooting and it's incredibly fast. Good stuff.....


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## iphoneottawa (Apr 21, 2010)

Called *611 and set it up. $5 unlimited for 2 months! 
No LTE at my place but 3G at 10mbps/1mbps.


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## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

LTE is still somewhat wonky in my neighbourhood -- I have to fiddle with the carrier settings to get my iPad to even pick up an LTE connection at all... It seems to otherwise prefer 3G no matter what I do, possibly because the 3G signal here is overwhelmingly stronger than the LTE signal.

I decided I'd try Rogers just to see if that would make any difference. Unfortunately, the on-device activation doesn't seem to be an option any more on the new iPad or the LTE micro-SIM cards and I wasn't going to pay a $35 activation fee just to try it out.


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## Babo (Mar 18, 2012)

I'm having the same issues with my iPad and the bell lte connection. It worked briefly today but mainly sticks with 3G. The tech department told me they are having outages in Toronto and are working on it. I'm at queen and carlaw by the way.


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## Mrsam (Jan 14, 2006)

Rounder said:


> For those of us that have a 6GB Data plan with Rogers for the iPhone, are we able to pay the 11 dollars or whatever for data share and obtain an LTE SIM card for the iPad to use the 6GB data plan?


Yes, that's exactly what I've done and I'm getting LTE.


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## iphoneottawa (Apr 21, 2010)

Called *611 and they said there is Rogers LTE in my area so I should get it. They will call me asa they figure out why I'm on 3G. 
Also I activated today ($5/month unlimited for 2 months) and there was no activation fee.


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## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

As far as I can tell, the iPad seems to decide whether to connect to 3G or LTE based on the stronger signal. I'm sure there must be a grey zone where the signals are "close enough" but it seems that if you have a weak LTE signal and a very strong 3G signal the device will almost always prefer the latter.

The only way I've been able to reliably get my iPad to switch over to LTE in my neighbourhood has been to be to go into the Carrier settings, switch to manual carrier selection, and then toggle to another carrier's network and then back to Bell. This usually lights up LTE with around 1-2 bars when indoors or 3 bars outside. Even then, the device will often switch back to 3G eventually -- sometimes after a few minutes, sometimes after a half-hour or so.


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## Babo (Mar 18, 2012)

Jhollington, I'm up in Markham today and Bell's LTE has been stellar 4 bars and download speed of about 30Mbps. That being said it looks like Bell's signal downtown is rubbish compared to the surrounding areas. Going to have to consider switching to Rogers.


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## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

Yeah, I"ve been seeing that myself and am having similar thoughts. I've heard that Rogers has more LTE-enabled towers in Toronto, so you have a better chance of getting a strong signal. 

Then again, at home I'm on decent Wi-Fi and I also get pretty crazy HSPA+ speeds (easily 15-20mbps downstream), so I probably don't really _need_ LTE on my IPad


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## Rounder (Aug 9, 2008)

Mrsam said:


> Yes, that's exactly what I've done and I'm getting LTE.


Excellent, I'm still not sure if that's what I'll do.. but now that I know it works like that, I'll definitely think about it.

Currently in the States for the week so I may pick one up


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## Zer0tails (Oct 21, 2007)

For those on Telus, is "Personal Hotspot" included in your flex plans?

Thanks!

Also, would anyone recommend virgin mobile for LTE? I understand they use Bell towers but I wonder if Bell gives priority to their own subscribers or treats everyone the same.


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## applecrumble (Jun 29, 2009)

jhollington said:


> I'm on Bell and still not actually getting LTE service, despite several calls to tech support. Initially, I had simply activated a tablet share plan, which the guy at the Bell Store where I picked up my LTE micro-SIM indicated should work, and suggested that maybe I simply wasn't in an LTE coverage area (I'm at Yonge & the 401). A call to tech support confirmed that I was in coverage, but the guy at the time suggested that the 18-20mbps speeds I'm getting are "too fast for HSPA+" so I must therefore be on LTE and the iPad is simply not showing the LTE indicator.
> 
> A call this morning resulted in the tech support guy advising me that the $10 tablet share plans are not eligible for LTE coverage, and switching me over to the $5/$15/$35 tablet flex plan and triple-checking to ensure everything was provisioned for LTE on their end. Still only seeing a "3G" indicator despite having rebooted the iPad, reset network settings and now having just restored it completely back to factory settings.
> 
> Curious to know what kind of luck others are having, but thus far while I'm getting great HSPA+ speeds on any micro-SIM I throw into my iPad (even the non-LTE ones), I'm not seeing the "LTE" indicator show up at all.


I am having the same issue with Bell. Only seeing the "3G" indicator even though I am within Bell's 4G coverage area (my house doesn't have LTE coverage yet). Called Tech Support and they insisted because my area doesn't have LTE, I will only see "3G" on the iPad. I was told that because my sim is a 4G LTE sim, I will not see "4G" displayed because I need a HSPA+ specific sim before "4G" will be displayed on the iPad. What a bunch of crap. I told the Tech person I was speaking with that shouldn't be the case. If I get 4G coverage, it should display 4G. She said "I am reading this exactly as what it said on my tech support manual". I hung up on her!!! Cancelling my Bell plan and gonna try Rogers. Why Apple do you have to make this so difficult when the two previous versions work so seamlessly. XX)

BTW, the speed test I did is all over the place ranging from ~1.6 mbps download to 13 mbps download speed with Bell.


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## Zer0tails (Oct 21, 2007)

You guys should switch to Telus or Rogers. Activated Telus today and enjoying sweet LTE. Personal hotspot included.


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## applecrumble (Jun 29, 2009)

I think Telus and Bell share the same towers for LTE.


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## Babo (Mar 18, 2012)

I caved and switched from bell to Rogers. Loving the lte now. Consistently great speeds, and 4 bars of signal. Glad I changed but still hate Rogers....I'm conflicted. Lol


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## applecrumble (Jun 29, 2009)

Babo said:


> I caved and switched from bell to Rogers. Loving the lte now. Consistently great speeds, and 4 bars of signal. Glad I changed but still hate Rogers....I'm conflicted. Lol


Did you go into a store or phoned in? I'm afraid they will screw up the plan setup as I have read folks have to call multiple times to get setup properly on the LTE plan.

Thanks.


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## iphoneottawa (Apr 21, 2010)

Signed up with Rogers LTE 2 days ago and still getting only 3G! Talked to CS like 5 times and still nothing.


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## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

applecrumble said:


> I am having the same issue with Bell. Only seeing the "3G" indicator even though I am within Bell's 4G coverage area (my house doesn't have LTE coverage yet). Called Tech Support and they insisted because my area doesn't have LTE, I will only see "3G" on the iPad. I was told that because my sim is a 4G LTE sim, I will not see "4G" displayed because I need a HSPA+ specific sim before "4G" will be displayed on the iPad. What a bunch of crap. I told the Tech person I was speaking with that shouldn't be the case. If I get 4G coverage, it should display 4G. She said "I am reading this exactly as what it said on my tech support manual". I hung up on her!!! Cancelling my Bell plan and gonna try Rogers. Why Apple do you have to make this so difficult when the two previous versions work so seamlessly. XX)


Actually, Bell is a bit confused here as well. Unless you're on AT&T, an iPad or iPhone will *NOT* display 4G under _any_ circumstances. 3G _is_ HSPA+ -- I'm getting 15-20mbps down (off-peak) on a "3G" connection. There is no "HSPA+" specific SIM in this case... To get LTE, you need a "4G LTE" SIM, but otherwise any micro-SIM that Bell has available will provide you with the fastest possible HSPA+ speeds and a "3G" indicator.

Basically, if you have LTE coverage, your iOS device will display "LTE" otherwise it will only display "3G" for any other type of HSPA+ coverage on Bell, Rogers or Telus -- or any other international carrier. The "4G" designation was something Apple added to iOS 5.1 specifically at AT&T's request and will _only_ display for AT&T users. Incredibly stupid marketing BS, and very surprising that Apple caved to a single carrier like that, but there it is.


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## Babo (Mar 18, 2012)

applecrumble said:


> Did you go into a store or phoned in? I'm afraid they will screw up the plan setup as I have read folks have to call multiple times to get setup properly on the LTE plan.
> 
> Thanks.


I called in and although they correctly added the lte plan they decided to cancel my 6gb iPhone data which can now longer be added back. Grrrr it's always a mission calling Rogers. A quick call to retentions and they gave me unlimited data for 6 months until the 6gb promo returns.


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## applecrumble (Jun 29, 2009)

jhollington said:


> Actually, Bell is a bit confused here as well. Unless you're on AT&T, an iPad or iPhone will *NOT* display 4G under _any_ circumstances. 3G _is_ HSPA+ -- I'm getting 15-20mbps down (off-peak) on a "3G" connection. There is no "HSPA+" specific SIM in this case... To get LTE, you need a "4G LTE" SIM, but otherwise any micro-SIM that Bell has available will provide you with the fastest possible HSPA+ speeds and a "3G" indicator.
> 
> Basically, if you have LTE coverage, your iOS device will display "LTE" otherwise it will only display "3G" for any other type of HSPA+ coverage on Bell, Rogers or Telus -- or any other international carrier. The "4G" designation was something Apple added to iOS 5.1 specifically at AT&T's request and will _only_ display for AT&T users. Incredibly stupid marketing BS, and very surprising that Apple caved to a single carrier like that, but there it is.


Thanks for that info. It makes me feel a tad better knowing that but still wish they can somehow display "4G". Funny thing is the the iPad user guide mentions "4G" status indicator...that's what so confusing to me and made me think that my plan wasn't setup correctly.


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## applecrumble (Jun 29, 2009)

Sweet..unlimited data for 6 months. I am finally able to get LTE connection on the iPad when I'm downtown Toronto so gonna stick with Bell for now. Thanks for the feed back.


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## scharlton (Mar 3, 2005)

My telus activation experience...

- Went to telusmobility.com/activate ; it rejected my street address. My condo building and postal code is relatively new (18 months old maybe?), wish they'd update their address databases more often. Decided to go for the month-to-month postpaid plan as it's only $5/month, this requires a credit check and you to give them your SIN number.

- Called the activation number (1-888-552-3333), proceeded to give the same information by voice. 

- Was getting no service for a few minutes, the activation dude gave a tech a call who apparently kicked the LTE network in downtown Calgary. Not a good sign, but up popped my LTE signal! only 1-2 bars, but that's not unexpected given I'm just outside the core of downtown Calgary, by the Stampede.

Total time, about 35 minutes. Easy peasy.


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