 | Dec 31/01: Starting this week you can catch the author of this site on "The Shopping Bags", which airs on WTV. See their website to find out what time this program is on in your region. |
| Dec 29/01: Updates to SimPro opinion page. |
| Dec 23/01: Bell Mobility, south of Mayfair Mall, Victoria. |
| Dec 22/01: Bell Mobility starts to install sites in Victoria, including sites in North Saanich, Central Saanich, Saanich East, and Langford. |
| Dec 19/01: Starting to add Telus Mobility sites to Ottawa and Hull maps.. |
| Dec 18/01: Two new Mike sites, Burnaby North and Burnaby South. |
| Dec 18/01: Microcell Connexions sites and ID's added to remaining Ottawa maps. |
| Dec 12/01: GeckoBeach 2002 calendar now available for download. |
| Dec 12/01: Microcell Connexions sites and ID's added to Aylmer, Hull South, Gatineau West, and Gatineau East maps. |
| Dec 04/01: Updates to information on Rogers page regarding their GSM services. |
| Dec 04/01: Updates to plans offered by Telus Mobility. |
| Dec 02/01: Updates to Pre-paid plans page. |
| Dec 02/01: Removed Connectel opinion page as they are no longer offering GSM services in Canada. |
| Oct 31/01: Added 16 pages of new maps for the Ottawa and Hull regions. |
| Oct 31/01: Rogers GSM, Haliburton Rd and Pat Bat Hwy, Saanich East. |
| Oct 31/01: Rogers GSM confirmed in Nanaimo, BC. |
| Oct 25/01: Telus Mobility turns off the remaining Clearnet PCS towers across BC and Alberta -- you can verify this with your CDMA phone by dialing *22803 (you will get a called failed or fast busy signal with most models). |
| Oct 25/01: Rogers GSM, Quadra Street hydro tower (co-located with Clearnet PCS), Saanich East. |
| Oct 19/01: Telus Mobility introduces unlimited evenings and weekends for the Pay and Talk plan. See the pre-paid comparison page for more details. |
| Oct 19/01: Updates to Bell Mobility plans. |
| Oct 17/01: Telus Mobility has started the removal of Clearnet PCS towers in BC and Alberta. If you still own a old Clearnet PCS phone, you live in BC or Alberta, and have not had it upgraded/replaced, then make sure you do ASAP. |
| Oct 16/01: Added a few more answers to the FAQ's. |
| Oct 09/01: Added review of Motorola P280 phone |
| Oct 03/01: Interview with ForceFour Entertainment for 'The Shopping Bags'. Episode 14 will run eight times on WTN during the week of 31 Dec 2001 and will feature a 5 minute report on how to buy a cell phone. See their website for more info. |
| Sep 29/01: Rogers GSM on the CanWest Mall Environmental Hydropoles. |
| Sep 28/01: Various updates to PCS Plans Comparison page. |
| Sep 27/01: Added details on 'The Big Deal' from Telus. |
| Sep 18/01: Added Fredericton West and Fredericton East maps. |
| Sep 18/01: Added Ericsson Secrets page. |
| Sep 18/01: Added Motorola Secrets page. |
| Sep 10/01: Rogers GSM, Interurban Hydro Tower, Saanich West. |
| Sep 10/01: Telus Mike cells installed on Sandown Raceway tower, Sidney. |
| Aug 31/01: Added Rogers US, Mexican, and Caribbean roaming numbers. |
| Aug 30/01: Telus Mobility imposes an activation fee of $25 on all new activations. If you live in ON or PQ this fee will be waived until 30 Sept. 2001 or this fee will be waived if you activate online. |
| Aug 30/01: Cleanup of Links page. |
| Aug 29/01: Added Small Biz plans to Bell Mobility Opinion page. |
| Aug 21/01: Updates to the Mike opinion page. |
| Aug 19/01: Updates to the Fido opinion page, including the addition of two new packages that include unlimited evenings and weekends. |
| Aug 17/01: Telus Mobility/Clearnet PCS repeater, Duke Point ferry terminal Nanaimo South (49 07.97 x -123 52.01). |
| Aug 14/01: A new Telus Mike and PCS tower is under construction at the Sandown Raceway in Sidney. |
| Aug 01/01: Rogers coverage now confirmed for Tofino and Ucluelet, West Vancouver Island, SID 17051. |
| July 29/01: Telus roaming and star numbers are now starting to work with Clearnet PCS phones. |
| July 26/01: If you own a Nokia 6188 on the old Clearnet PCS network and haven't had the phone reflashed with the newest firmware yet, you can still update your PRL by calling *22803 and following the prompts (hit 1 then 2). Once completed your phone will use the Telus 800/1900 digital network (in BC and AB) and the Mobility analog network. Note that you will no longer receive caller ID in analog areas using the Mobility analog network. |
| July 19/01: Updates to Bell Mobility Opinion page. |
| July 19/01: Bell Mobility makes a stronger presence in BC and Alberta by selling their wireless products through retailers such as Wireless Wave and Future Shop plus opening additional 'Bell World' stores. No towers of their own in these provinces, so customers will still roam through Telus Mobility. |
| July 17/01: Newsletter Volume 1, Number 3 published. |
| July 12/01: Microcell Iona Island Repeater (49 13.12 x 123 12.17), Rogers Iona Island AMPS/TDMA/GSM (49 13.11 x 123 12.07), Telus northern airport (49 12.74 x 123 10.26), Microcell King Edward x Cambie NE (49 14.94 x 123 06.94). All shown on the Vancouver West map. |
| July 11/01: Are you a newsletter subscriber yet? If not then sign up for your free GeckoBeach newsletter. The next newsletter will be published later this week. |
| July 10/01: Emails from various users have indicated that Rogers will now delay the launch of their GSM network until September or October 2001. In a press release dated 9 July 2001, Rogers states they now have their GSM network operational in at least 25 major Canadian centres. |
| July 09/01: No word yet on the launch date of Rogers' GSM network across Canada - I've been told anywhere between a few weeks to sometime in 2002. If anyone knows any more information then please pass it on. |
| July 09/01: Telus Mobility plans to install a new 25.6 m camera tower at Sandown Raceway, North Saanich to replace the existing 22.6 m observation tower. The application states that both 1900 CMDA and 800 iDEN cells will be placed on this new structure to extend the original Clearnet PCS and Mike footprint of this site. |
| July 04/01: Rogers microcells: 41st x Knight SW (49 13.94 x 123 04.62), 49th x Knight SE (49 13.49 x 123 04.63), and 53rd x Main, East Vancouver. |
| July 04/01: Rogers AMPS/TDMA/GSM, Mt. St. Joesph's Hospital, Emergency Entrance (49 15.50 x 123 05.25), East Vancouver. |
| July 04/01: Telus, Main x Kent E (Behind Real Canadian Superstore; 49 12.36 x 123 06.15), East Vancouver. |
| July 04/01: Telus, Luckakuck Way, Cottonwood Mall E (49 08.50 x 121 57.53), Chilliwack. |
| July 04/01: A few more Rogers SID's: Prince George 16737; Cache Creek 16851; 100 Mile House 16865; Williams Lake 16801; Quesnel 16847; Hope 16489; Vanderhoof 16873. |
| July 04/01: Updates to the Prince Rupert map. |
| June 20/01: GeckoBeach is featured in the business section of the Victoria Times-Colonist. See the news article here. |
| June 20/01: Updates to the picocell walking tour map for Pacific Centre Mall, Vancouver. |
| June 14/01: After receiving many requests (especially from readers in South America), I have added translation links for French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese. |
| June 14/01: Updates to the Telus plans for Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia. |
| June 12/01: Changed Poll (#3) |
| June 07/01: Updates to Telus and Rogers sites in Kelowna, including site locations of Rogers' new GSM network. (Thanks Chad) |
| June 04/01: Added map of Prince Rupert CityTel AMPS and CDMA equipment locations. |
| May 28/01: Sunday's CBC Cross-country checkup asked the question "should cell phones be regulated while driving a car?". I tried to call in to give my two cents worth, but only got busy signals. Anyways, a very interesting show with lots of varied options of this question and the use of cell phones in general. |
| May 28/01: The mysterious Rogers SID: I posted this one a year ago and still haven't found the answer. Rogers uses different SID's across Canada, which among other things allow you to determine the boundaries of local calling. Their tower on Alert Bay (Northern Vancouver Island) uses SID 16427 -- the same SID as Victoria, however you cannot place local calls to Victoria numbers. My question is why is Rogers reusing a SID? |
| May 28/01: Deactivated BCTel/Telus and Clearnet PCS pages. Added new Telus opinion page. |
| May 28/01: Added new How to Interpret the Maps page. |
| May 15/01: After many requests I have added PDF support for printing both the digital PCS and pre-paid plan comparison pages. |
| May 11/01: Clearnet PCS, Mike, Rhombus Hotel, Chilliwack (49 10.12 x 121 57.19) |
| May 11/01: Telus Mobility, Rogers, Microcell, Patten and Mary, Chilliwack (49 10.15 x 121 57.59) |
| May 11/01: Rogers, Surrey Municipal Hall, Surrey (49 06.27 x 122 49.67) |
| May 11/01: Clearnet PCS repeater, King George and Hwy 10, Surrey (49 06.27 x 122 49.78) |
| May 11/01: Clearnet PCS repeater, Westbank (49 51.98 x 119 34.10) |
| May 11/01: Rogers tower relocated behind Mission Hill, Westbank (49 50.98 x 119 35.24) |
| May 11/01: Clearnet PCS, Microcell, Nicklaus North Golf Hydro Tower, Whistler (50 08.00 x 122 57.59) |
| May 11/01: Telus Mobility, Rogers, Alpine Meadows, Whistler |
| May 11/01: Telus Mobility, Clearnet, Microcell, Rogers, Whistler village (50 06.84 x 122 57.26) |
| May 11/01: Clearnet PCS, Mike, Microcell, Alta Lake Hydro Tower, Whistler (50 06.23 x 122 59.67) |
| May 11/01: Telus Mobility, Alta Lake Hydro Tower, Whistler (50 05.80 x 123 00.45) |
| May 04/01: New Microcell Connexions site, Cedar (SE of Nanaimo), next to the Crow and Gate Pub (49 05.41 x 123 50.26). |
| May 02/01: Changed poll. |
| Apr. 18/01: Some new pictures of Telus Mobility sites added. |
| Apr. 17/01: Updated both Vancouver East and West maps, including PN offsets for several of the Telus sites |
