Problem with cell coverage / carrier in Northern Ontario

Last year, when riding between Wawa and Dryden, I had a strange occurrence with my phone. I was able to send out text messages, but not receive them. I wasn't able to make or receive voice calls. Signal strength was good.

When I tried to make voice calls, I would receive a pre-recorded from T Bay cellular, or something with a similar name (I cant recall at the moment) saying my account is temporarily disabled and to contact my cell company.

When I try to call my cell company, I had the same pre-recorded message.

I'm using Virgin Mobile as my carrier and according to their website, I should have had coverage.

I have an old phone with the slide out keyboard, not a smart phone.

I'm hoping someone here can shed some info on this. I'll eventually contact Virgin, but I'll end up talking to someone in a call centre in Asia.

I'm planning another cross country trip this year and I don't want to experience the same issue

If your phone is old enough it might not support the frequency bands that virgin has in those areas.

The only cell towers in that area are from TBay Tel http://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/...-84.860107&zoom=8&type=roadmap&layers=a&pid=0 and they are all 850 MHz.

Maybe your phone doesn't work on that frequency? Post the model number and we can find out more.

The phone model is LG 260.

http://www.lg.com/ca_en/cell-phones/lg-LG260

The LG website says CDMA -1x 800MHz, 1900MHz

Yeah that's a very limited range of bands available for the phone, and clearly no 850MHz. Time for an upgrade.

Alrighty, problem solved. THanks for your help