Cell Phones on campus

Difficulty sending/receiving texts and phone calls

At RRU, as in many other places, there are "dead zones" where cell reception is poor and as a result, you might find that you're having difficulties sending/receiving texts or phone calls.  This is a result of tower placement and/or building construction (ie. cement walls) that prevent access to signal.  We cannot offer a technical solution to this problem as it is out of our control. 

If you are experiencing difficulties in a particular building, we suggest you position yourself near a window inside the building or else, in an open area outside.

Often, people believe that problems with texting and calling are a result of poor ‘RRU Wireless’ performance (which is actually ‘WiFi’ short-range wireless) but this is not the case.  Symptoms of poor WiFi include the inability to access various webpages such as Google, Netflix etc. and not receiving email; but problems with phoning or texting are not symptoms of poor WiFi.

A special note about roaming

In some buildings (Castle, Boathouse and Blue Heron House at a minimum), it is possible for your phone to pick up signal from US towers across the water.  As a result, you may be billed for roaming charges. 

• When connected to your usual service provider, you will see the company name in the top left or top right of your cellphone screen. 
• When connected to a US carrier, the name will be displayed in the same area, however you will noticed now that the company name is now a US based carrier. 
• In some cases you may also get a text message from your cellphone provider welcoming you to the US. 
• In all cases, when this occurs, you will be charged roaming fees until you see you are connected again to your local service provider.

To prevent data roaming, we suggest you turn off data roaming on your cell if you are in a location where this is likely to happen.