TORONTO – Thousands of Canadians got a glimpse of what life was like before cellphones Wednesday after cell service provided by telecom giant Rogers Communications went down for five hours across the country.
Reports of outages began pouring in from customers around the country starting around 6:30 pm ET as voice and text services were not working for many Rogers customers. Problems were also plaguing Rogers’ alternative brands Fido and Chatr.
The only service left unscathed was 3G data – leaving customers to share their frustrations over social media.
Read More: Cell service restored to Canadians, Rogers says
Though the company has not yet determined the cause of the service blackout, Rogers president and CEO Nadir Mohamed says the service breakdown was “unacceptable” and the company has offered customers a free day of service for the inconvenience.
But the outage left many cursing the telecom, expressing their frustrations with not being able to contact friends and family – not to mention the safety concerns over the inability to call emergency services.
So, in case of another national outage, Global News put together a list of backup tactics in order to use your cellphone when service goes down.
Take advantage of services like iMessage or BBM
Messaging services like Apple’s iMessage or BlackBerry’s BBM Messenger are fail-safes during cell service outages. These services run off of your phone’s data connection, which is different from the cellular connection.
Alternatively, you could use social networking apps like Facebook Messenger to connect with friends and family if needed.
If your phone is unlocked, consider buying a pre-paid SIM card from another carrier
Those who chose to buy their phone unlocked – by not signing a contract with a telecom company to buy the phone at a discounted price – there are more options in the event of a carrier blackout.
Because unlocked phones can be used on any network, these users would be able to go to another carrier and buy a pre-paid SIM card for their phone to regain cellular service.
Turn your phone into a satellite phone with accessories
This may be a bit of a stretch for the average cellphone user, but for anyone who loves accessories and gadgets this may be a techy way to use your phone during a service disruption.
Thuraya Telecommunications Company, which specializes in satellite services, created an iPhone case that transforms your iPhone into a satellite phone.
The case – dubbed the SatSleeve – allows the user to make phone calls, send SMS, check email and even access some apps using your phone from any of Thuraya’s satellites (which cover over 140 countries, or two-thirds of the planet).
Make sure it isn’t your phone’s network settings
Though Wednesday night’s outage was related to an issue with Rogers network across the country, sometimes users run into isolated issues with network connection on their smartphones. In this case there are steps you can take to try to reset your network settings and resolve the issue on your own.
If you are an iPhone user:
1. Tap Settings
2. Tap General
3. Tap Reset
4. Tap Reset Network Settings
5. The Apple symbol will appear and your phone will restart
If you are a Samsung Galaxy user:
1. Tap Menu
2. Tap Settings
3. Tap Wirless and Network
4. Tap Mobile Networks
5. Tap Access Point Names
6. Tap Menu
7. Tap Reset To Default
8. Tap Home to exit
Note: Resetting your network settings will erase all of your saved Wi-Fi passwords and forget your saved networks.
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