Just came back from a trip that was through the Nationwide LTE coverage area and found even though the phone was connected, there was no meaningful service available. The applications on the phone that require an internet connection would not work. For example, Google Maps and Apple Maps both were completely rendered useless. Usually, when traveling these are typical apps one would use but the service coverage was so poor, they were not useful.
There was a bit of data that did flow to the phone, such as email, but only the subject and from were provided as the body of the email was missing.
We had no option but to visit more Starbucks than we wanted to.
Did you have data roaming on? It just be on to connect to Nationwide.
Yes, data roaming was on. The proof was the partially received emails. The baud rate was so slow that apps could not function.
@Techjunkie -- Did you have data roaming on? It just be on to connect to Nationwide.
I disagree. At one location in my city, my iPhone connected to "Nationwide", and it connected just fine (voice/text), even though I have no "data" plan with Shaw Mobile. Of course, if you want to use Internet-accessing apps, such as a web-browser, you need to enable "data", and also to have a "data" plan with Shaw Mobile. But, "data" is not necessary when using voice/text while connected to Nationwide.
I'm experiencing terrible functionality with Shaw mobile and Google Maps. The GPS won't even function because there is no data. Not impressed when I live in a busy city and GPS is necessary.
@cwallacephoto I find that the switch to nationwide is not smooth, there is a few minutes of no service before it finally kicks in. After I am on nationwide everything functions normally.
I tried to switch networks manually, and most of them are failed to be connected. One of them was connected but no data network for web browsing. Can you use the data network using nationwide?
You can use data while on nationwide, depending on your plan you would get up to 2 gigs. I don’t think that you are able to manually switch to the nationwide network.
@rstra— Not sure about other makes but on my iPhone I can go into settings and turn off automatic cellular connection. Then I can select either nationwide or Shaw. I was also able to do this with my grandfather’s flip phone (he’s on the By The Gig talk and text plan) as his house actually got a better connection through nationwide versus Shaw.