As we know, Mobilicity launched their 3.5G network in Ottawa, Edmonton and Vancouver this week, and with it some crazy deals, including $35 for unlimited talk/text/data if you’re a lucky grand-opening patron.

But I’ve been using Mobilicity on and off for the better part of a month now, all over Toronto, its original location, and if the service quality over the GTA is anything to go by, the aformentioned three cities are in for some growing pains.

First off, I rarely, if ever, see 5 bars. This isn’t some iPhone 4.0.1 trickery, this is just reality. The fact of the matter is that from my house in Markham, there is one cell tower every 3 or 4 square kilometre. Compare that to 5-10 towers every couple square miles for Rogers, Telus and Bell, it’s embarrassing. Even WIND has double the number of towers north of the city (compare for yourself).

When you do have signal, it’s not all bad: you get a consistent 1.2-1.8Mbps downstream and 0.6-1.2Mbps upstream, which is often better than Rogers. The AWS band (1700/2100Mhz) is inherently poorer than the 850/1900Mhz frequencies that Rogers/Bell/Telus uses at receiving signal indoors, so you can’t blame the company for that. But reception is reception, and I don’t have it more often than I do.

This wouldn’t bother me as much if I didn’t have a WIND line to compare it to, which uses the same AWS bands but usually has double the signal than in the same spot on a Mobilicity device.

Even with one bar, phone calls don’t drop, but data is infuriatingly slow. I haven’t had to rely on WiFi this much since the days of EDGE. The worst part, however, about Mobilicity service is something a bit more technical, but absolutely excrutiating.

Anyone who knows about smartphones probably understands the need for an APN when attempting to use data over a cellphone network. Basically, TCP traffic for your particular carrier needs to be identified and funneled through a WAP, or Wireless Application Protocol. This allows the phone to authenticate with the service provider and route HTTP or other IP-based traffic over the air.

Well, I often lose access to Mobilicity’s APN, and it doesn’t re-connect until I turn off the radio and it rediscovers the voice connection again. I’ve only experienced this on Android but it’s been on two devices: the Nexus One and the HTC G2. I have spoken to Mobilicity’s customer support, but they have no idea what the problem is. It doesn’t matter if I’m in the middle of the city with four bars of service, or up in the ‘burbs with one bar, I will randomly lose data connectivity until I reboot the radio. Which is insane, as I often rely on push email and have to keep checking the phone in my pocket to see if it’s still connected.

So, Mobilicity, I wish you all the best on your endeavours in Ottawa, Vancouver and Edmonton, I really do. In fact, I think Mobilicity has done a lot right when it comes to phone selection, marketing and general market penetration. But don’t forget that you sell cellphone service and you’re not delivering — not even close.

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