This past weekend was May Long across Canada, as we celebrated Victoria Day and the official (well, at least to us) start of cabin season. Highways across the country were backed up with traffic as Canadians headed up to their cabins for the weekend for their first trip of the season.
On busy weekends like this, the peace and quiet can be, well, somewhat less peaceful and quiet. But what really suffers during busy weekends is the cellular network - it becomes congested with far more people than normal and data speeds can slow to a halt. Most lakes are in rural regions where the baseline demand is minimal, and during long weekends this can spike by orders of magnitude!
You've probably noticed your cellular data slow to a crawl, with perhaps even problems getting anything to load at all. Fortunately, there's a tried and true tip you can try that almost always does the trick.
Basically, force your phone to use 3G instead of LTE or 5G - the idea is that everyone's phone is trying to use 5G or LTE, and while it's usually faster than 3G, that's not the case with extreme congestion. Very few people are using 3G, or LTE when there's 5G available, so the network's very snappy.
We've had great luck with this trick over the years - just don't tell too many people about it or the congestion will spread to 3G!
This trick also works to switch from 5G to LTE.
Here's what to try:
- Open Settings
- Go to Cellular or Cellular Data settings
- Select your SIM
- Hit "Voice & Data"
- Choose 3G (or LTE)
- Enjoy faster speeds!
Usually you'll get noticeably faster speeds with this trick. Just be sure to switch back to LTE or 5G when you head back to the city as, at baseline, 3G is much slower.
Happy Cabin Living!
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