Rogers-EXT network does not work

[mreffle]

I work at the Darlignton Nuclear Generating Station in the Engineering building here and there is now Rogers signal. Both Bell and Telus have signal in this building however Rogers/Roger-EXT does not work in this building.

When I scan manually and select either Rogers-EXT network a message pops up stating "Unable to connect. Try again later" and at no point does it work.
Phone is Samsung Galaxy S6 (this same thing happens on S4 and different iPhones as well).

We have the Share Everything Plan.

My whole family has Rogers and I would like to stay with Rogers however not having signal 8 hours a day at work is not working.

Thank you,

Matthew

***Edited Labels***

[RogersPrasana]

Hi @mreffle

Thanks for posting on the Community Forums!

That's frustrating to deal with. We can take a closer look in this issue for you, send us private message to @CommunityHelps next time you're online to further assist you.

RogersPrasana

[Gdkitty]

I myself have an iphone6 , and the wife a 6s.. and both of us have had EXT working and different times/places.. so i know the service as a whole does work.

Might be something specific to that area?

Now, question is, is the bell/telus signal there, due to it being bosted?  I know some places (stadiums, large buildings, etc) will install boosters, that will boost cell signal.  But generally only boost one provider that its set up for.
If that is the case, I wonder if EXT will not worth through them.  (has to connect direct to the tower, etc)

[Pauly]

So do you actually see "Rogers" as a choice of networks? or just Rogers EXT?  I was always uner the impression that if you are in an area where Rogers has coverage, then Rogers EXT will NOT work, but if you are in a part of the country where Rogers has no towers or coverage, then Rogers EXT WILL Work

[Gdkitty]

That is right Pauly.

You could have 1bar EDGE.. and it will still stay on Rogers 😞

[mreffle]

Pauly,

When I lose singal and I search manually I only see the TWO Rogers-EXT signals, not the Rogers signal.

I understand what you're saying about the last part, however I do not see the Rogers signal there, only the 2 Extended networks.

[mreffle]

Gdkitty - My thoughts exactly.. I know that I have used the EXT network before, it tends to come in automatically when you lose Rogers signal. This signal does not come in automatically it just cuts out and says I have no signal and the Extended networks will not work either.

I believe that yes, Bell/Telus have put a tower (or repeater) in some place on a roof (or so I'm told) to boost the signal because OPGs provider is Bell. So maybe I cannot connect to EXT because it's a booster and not the actual tower? I completely agree, I believe it is area specific, I just want to know what's being done about it, is there a work around.. and how I can actually get signal here (or when).

[toolcubed]

It shouldn't matter if it's a boosted signal (i.e. a repeater), or DAS (distributed antenna system), or anything else.  They're all connected back to the core network, and the core is what controls "accessibility" to the network.  Just because you see "Rogers EXT" as a selection option doesn't mean you can connect to it.  You will see "Rogers EXT" everywhere that Bell/Telus has signal.  Where you can access Rogers EXT depends on where Rogers has negotiated (with the other providers thru their core networks) access.  You're more than likely in a very very poor Rogers coverage area, and as Gdkitty said, even if Rogers is "supposed" to cover the area (regardless of how strong or weak their signal is), you will NOT connect to EXT.

[Crab9000]

EXT access is provisioned on a location area code basis, so whether you can connect or not can be somewhat arbitrary. In the case of Darlington, it is in the Durham region LAC, which isn't designated for connections on Rogers-EXT. However, in the case of somewhere like Belleville for example, you can connect to EXT because it is a big LAC with rural areas where Rogers may not have adaquate coverage.

It would be nice if Rogers removed this restriction, or even had an add on for using EXT in all LAC's because then we would have coverage anywhere both Rogers and Bell/Telus do, which would be great because coverage is most important to me.

AFAIK, there is no way or workaround to get your device to register on EXT when not in a compatible LAC. I would just try to put some pressure on Rogers to let devices use EXT everywhere.

[toolcubed]

Yes that would be nice, and it would theoretically make Rogers coverage better than their competitors, but there's one caveat to provisioning EXT accessibility everywhere. Due to hard-handoffs, there could potentially be more dropped calls as phones switch between native coverage and EXT. If they implement some additional safeguards to prevent that from happening, then it would give Rogers a unique competitive advantage.

[Pauly]

I agree with crab9000. Just because you are not getting signal does not mean ur automatically get access to rogers ext. I agree that its provisioned based on the LAC. Makes perfect sense why it would not work in darlington nuke plant

[mreffle]

That makes sense, thanks guys. It's very unfortunate that there is not signal, but at least I now know why I cannot connect to Rogers EXT here. I'll continue to call Rogers and voice my complaints, however I doubt I will get anywhere.

Thanks again.

[Superchunk77]

Hello there,

I just recently began to notice something odd during a couple road trips to the interior or BC. My phone was losing it's data connection in certain areas and flipping over to roaming (shows the "R" beside the network bars). When I checked my network, I saw that it was on the ROGERS-EXT network. Funny thing was that my wife's iPhone X didn't flip to roaming and she still had data on the same network. I've got a Samsung Galaxy S9+. She's on my Rogers account with an identical plan, so the only differences are our SIM cards and phones. 

I called Rogers support about it and the guy asked me to reset my network settings on my phone, which I did, and also to turn on Roaming Data. Roaming data does technically work, but I'm reluctant to accept that as a solution as I didn't used to have to turn this on a few months ago.

Not sure how to test it while I'm back in Vancouver though. Any ideas?

[RogersZia · Accepted solution]

Afternoon @Superchunk77,

My colleague in tech support was indeed right. Talk and text services will work once you enter an Extended Coverage area and your device connects to Extended Coverage. To use the internet for email, maps and more, just make sure data roaming is turned on in your device settings.

For more information please view the Extended Coverage Eligibility, Usage & More page 🙂.

RogersZia

[b-ry]

I'm in Kamloops, so it doesn't take me long to get into a Rogers-EXT zone 😁

Turning data roaming won't incur any charges, while on Rogers-EXT you will be able to access your data just the same as on the standard Rogers network.

In fact, on my Pixel 2, I just leave data roaming on all the time - then I rarely see any disconnect when going into EXT area.
And with RoamLikeHome having the simple, predictable rates, I don't worry about that either.

As for your wife's phone not connecting to roaming, must have been able to grab and hold onto a Rogers signal - I've had my Rogers coverage switch to EXT in strong coverage area, but again because I leave roaming on, I don't worry about it

[Mike1330]

I am also having issues at Darlington Generation station. I just switched from Telus, I can get full signal 5G with Telus even while inside the plant. My Rogers line says emergency calls only when on "automatic network", while doing a manual network search Rogers will not show up at all, only 2 Rogers ext lines which won't allow me to connect, yet I can connect and roam on AT&T which is on the complete opposite side of lake Ontario. Your coverage map shows there's coverage here, even though no matter where I go on this site I cannot connect to a Rogers tower. I will be leaving Rogers before my first month of service is over. It is unacceptable having no signal especially in such a area as this. If there was a emergency I'd have no communication.

[RogersCorey]

Greetings and good morning @Mike1330!

If you're unable to get a signal specifically at this location, I'll need to submit a ticket to have it investigated. Feel free to send a private message to @CommunityHelps so we can assist you further. For more information on how our Private Messaging system works, you can find out more here.  

Regards,

RogersCorey