Using Digital PCS with Portage: A Disaster Story

Rogers (in BC) brought out a new digital network, so I decided to give it a try (although I kept my analog system for backup). They sold me a hybrid phone that was both analog/digital capable. I explained our travel requirements in detail, and they also sold me a digital data connection kit called 'Portage' for $150 that was supposedly going to give us a higher data rate on the digital roaming network across North America (and charged to the nearest second, instead of by the minute).

I set it up, and indeed, it worked quite well, with a much higher data rate, and I was pleased with it at first.

At that time, we stored our motorhome in Las Vegas during the winter, so we could fly down and use it when required. I remember using the new phone in the airport just before we boarded the plane in Vancouver, thinking how pleased I was that we would have a much better connection while traveling in our motorhome.

We got off the plane in Vegas and I sat down in the airport to check my mail. I hooked it up and discovered there was no service. I spent the next 4 days in expensive hotels (needed a land line to connect), running up big phone bills, talking to both Rogers and ATT (their roaming partner), getting nowhere (nobody seemed to have a clue what I was talking about). Our trip was knocked way off schedule and waay off budget.

About 5 days later, I finally found a tech in a little cellphone store in Henderson who really knew his stuff, thank God. He explained that there was no digital data available from ATT in the USA, only analog, so Portage would not work.

I had closed my other analog account and left the equipment at home, thinking I wouldn't need it. It took two days and $100 to get a special cable that would allow me to use the analog side of the hybrid PCS phone for data, but we finally got connected and headed off on our trip.

Of course, the new digital phones only ran at half power (compared to the older analog phones), so once I got it working, I was worse off than ever. I went back to using my old analog phone with Telus when I got home, as the power levels were much higher.

I never wrote an article about this as I was too annoyed at the time. As far as I'm concerned, Rogers still owes me several thousand dollars in compensation for this lunacy.

Moral: don't take for granted anything any cellphone reps tell you about data - they often invariably get it wrong.

During that trip, I started looking at using satellite internet - I'd had it with cellphone companies.