You might have all read my Mobilicity Review for Vancouver which was over a year ago now. With all the comments on that post I figured it was time to try a cheap network again. I have been with Bell since my terrible experience with Mobilicity but some of you have been telling me how much better they have become. I couldn't face them again but the latest advertising campaign from Wind Mobile in Vancouver made me think that my expensive plan with Bell could be beaten by a $30 plan from Wind and that they were a more robust network. May I start this by saying my attitude was positive and I wanted the best from this experience. I support any efforts by any network to challenge the big 3, and I outline at the end how these networks, Wind and Mobilicity, might work for you.

So, the connection. The experience was good. Although I went into the Willowbrook Mall location in Langley and the first agent was quite rude to another customer as I waited which was disappointing. However, the guy I spoke to was brilliant. Friendly, helpful and he knew his way around my Samsung Galaxy (Vibrant) incredibly well. A good start, I was confident and expectant.

I don't like writing sad posts about Companies. I like writing about success not failure but yesterday I switched to Bell. I didn't necessarily want to switch but I had had no phone coverage for almost a week on Mobilicity and couldn't take it any more. The prices Mobilicity are offering are great but as my previous posts mention there are a lot of kinks that need to be ironed out before it works well. They have spent the last week or so separating themselves from the Rogers (CDN Roaming) network so that the two are definitely separate. In the process it seems that the fine tuning has not gone so well. In splitting themselves it has made it impossible to identify if issue are related to the phone you own or the network.

So it`s day three and the Mobilicity network nearly made it back last night. I was on hold to customer service for another hour last night and while on hold my phone miraculously showed as being connected to mobilcity. But on the way to work as soon as I got closer to the office (which is still well within the coverage area) it dissapeared and went to `CDN Roaming` again which means for me, no phone or texts.

The new surprise is that not all phones will work on the network (mine does but that doesn't seem to help me) even if they are unlocked. Obviously the frequencies Moblicity bought are cheaper therefore you need certain phones. Any phone purchased from them will be fine. We have 4 phones in our house. A cheap Fido Nokia which has the right frequencies but doesn't have an unlock code. A Samsung slider phone unlocked but wont work. A Blackberry Curve 8310 unlocked which wont work. And a Samsung Vibrant from the USA (T-Mobile) which works. So one out of three ain't bad. So don't assume you can buy an unlocked phone and jump on the network. It must be able to handle the right frequencies: 3G and 1700 / 2100 range.

The problem with being an early adopter is working through the issue that come with new things. My initial review of the Mobilicity network was fair, however they just dropped the ball big time - the network is down, no phone, no data, no nothing. It has been over 36 hours and still I sit here with no mobile connectivity. The connection I did have which was using Rogers towers has stopped so nothing is working. I occaisionaly get data connection but over all the Mobilicity phone network is down. Spent over 1 hour on the phone waiting to talk to Mobilicity Support last night only to be told we are fine tuning the network and know there is a problem...right...

So if you are thinking of switching to mobilicity then you might want to wait until they get their shizz sorted. Plenty of cheap mobile phone companies will also take your money. They might get mine soon.