I thought it was my phone. I was getting ready to reset my phone, and the next step would be returning it.

Tonight I joked on Facebook, “it’s sad that I get better call quality from web Google Chat to landline then over Fido/Rogers Mobile network.”

Within minutes I had a half dozen responses from other friends here in Victoria that they have had the exact same experience including:

• No reception inside
• Even with 5 of 5 bars calls cutting out
• Phones affected including iPhone 4, iPhone 4s, my Android phone, and Blackberry Torch.

Other friends also said they were about to return their phones!

The common thread is that we’re all on the Fido / Rogers Wireless Network and on 3G.

The workaround seems to be to disable 3G, ie switch the phone to 2G.

This severe mobile service degradation doesn’t seem to be an isolated incident. I haven’t yet found any information on this issue on either Fido’s or Rogers’ sites, or on CFAX or Times Columnist Victoria news sites.

Anyone have more information on this issue? And when it will be resolved?

2011-12-12 Update:

The problem has gotten much worse. My wife’s phone has been completely nonfunctional since yesterday. On the iPhone 4s you can’t disable 3G, so unlike with my Android phone, there is no relief available. We neither have the old phone nor the old SIM card.
Here is what Fido Support wrote in  ”livechat” with me just now:

Thank you for your patience! Apple has installed software that prevents going onto the Edge (2G) network. And this, there are presently intermittent reception issues with 3G in certain regions of Canada at the moment

The 3G towers are owned by Rogers, and they have not released an ETA at the moment. It is a high priority issue, but again, it is intermittent (and in more than one location)

I’m sorry, but we don’t make this information public. We (at customer service) have had only one update (as of this morning) which is the one advising us to suggest trying the Edge network periodically during the day.

This is not in the slightest bit intentional, and we do apologize about the inability to turn off 3G on an IPhone (again, Apple has theirreasons for this). I can only suggest your wife put her old SIM in her old phone for the time being, until the 3G is clear again.

It will also be illegal for any citizen, journalist or not, to tweet or blog or post something on a Facebook wall about the election results, until all the polls are shut.

Ordinary citizens aren’t immune. In 2000, Elections Canada brought charges against a Vancouver blogger and software designer named Paul Bryan after he dared to publish election results from Atlantic Canada on his small-audience blog. Bryan was fined $1,000. He fought the case all the way to the Supreme Court on constitutional grounds, with major media outlets from across the country joining his battle. It did no good. In 2007, by a vote of 5-4, the court upheld Bryan’s conviction, and Section 329.

The four minority judges were passionate in their dissent.

By Paula Simons in “Ban on Twitter, Facebook election-night posts draconian“, April 20, 2011

This election will be tweeted. I’m hopeful that Elections Canada will act appropriately, by not acting. Then the newly elected government can fix these laws.

As to be expected, it looked like the Victoria public schools that did the best in 2010, and consistently over the last 5 years are in the “best” neighborhoods.

I’m encouraged that it looked to be fairly equal English and French immersion schools, as we don’t intend to go French immersion. We have heard that if enrolling English consider a full English school.

It’s kind of sad, but expected that our severely underfunded education system would be most successful were supplemented by parents, and where parents put more value on school excellence, and have the energy to be more active in their children’s educations.

I was disappointed, but not surprised that the closest school to our house, Cloverdale Traditional School did not do well. Although, surrounded by some nice neighborhoods, there are also commercial areas close by and (relatively) less expensive homes. I was hopefully that the focus on tradition of the school would give it a significant boost. The reported 49.4% ESL surprised me.

I’m looking forward to reviewing the 2011 reports for elementary and secondary that will come out next month. Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) will be doing a report for the Western Provinces for the first time this year, but only for secondary schools.

The best part was Sunday night in the front yard playing with an inflated ball with family: toddler son, pregnant wife, and in-laws.

“Another interesting element of [Solicitor General Kash Heed audit] report discusses use of force after the killing of Robert Dziekanski by four RCMP members. The audit indicates that Taser use by the Victoria police service declined 85% after policy changes in the aftermath of the YVR death. Interestingly, records show no increase in reports of officer injury. We had known about usage creep in recent years as more stun guns came into service but a drop of this magnitude indicates that previous use was excessive and, given officer injury stats, unnecessary.”

That is really unsettling, and incredibly sad that a person had to die to get sensible protocols.

Gels Saby Demoing at DemoCamp Victoria

While at An Event Apart SF, I went to look up something on the Victoria Better Web Posse’s site, and was saddened to find that it’s offline, “Address Not Found”. I’ve emailed Gels Saby hoping to find out the status, but haven’t heard back from her yet.

Joan McIlmoyl Cleghorn on the Victoria Linux User Group (VLUG) wrote

As I understand it from someone who was a member of Web Posse, it has folded. OTOH, WEAV amalgamated with Big Blue & Cousins about a year and a half ago. Currently, a former WEAV member is running a Web Tools Special Interest Group monthly.

If this is the case, this is a big bummer. I found the Better Web Posse to have a refreshing design focus lacking from WEAV before it and Big Blue & Cousins still today. The Better Web Posse brought together many talented designers, developers and other workers of the web.

It seemed like Gels and a few other people did a lot of work to bring the posse together. Thank you!