Wabigoon, OK, I'll take a swing at it;
HSPA- (there is also a HSPA+) is a roughly 7-8 year old software system to break down your voice, data, and text(s) into what's called "packets" so they go out in pieces that can be reassembled at the other end into what you intended them to be. 4G just means that it uses a relatively newer software & hardware to move digital signals including voice, texts, and data.
Best analogy I can come up with is a stream of machine gun bullets, each one having the "from" and "to" address on them, so that when they hit the target, you and the target know who's been shot and by whom and they don't get mixed up with
my stream of bullets intended for someone else.
The reason your Verizon phones quit working is that Bell Canada, and Tbaytel, are GSM based LTE phone systems which do not work with Verizon CDMA-based LTE systems or devices.
The two frequencies you gave, 800MHz and 1900MHz, are the two that will carry all of those digital signals. Remember when I mentioned that texts usually go out over a lower frequency? That would be the 800MHz band.
Best advice I can give you is to buy a Wilson amplifier. They are made for the system you have. The
bad news is, it will be obsolete in about 3-4 years.
Nothing anyone can do about that but, since they cost anywhere from $100-$600US depending on vehicle mount, residential mount, number of phones being used at once, etc, you might think about the fact that you could amortize that over the next 3-4 years and how much security and safety will be affected by having it.
If you, or anyone else reading this gets a mobile unit, I would strongly suggest registering it with your carrier, that way, when it shows up on the system, grabbing cell towers, they won't shut you down.
In researching your carriers, I discovered that they are not very friendly, nor generous about their system. Tbaytel will cut off your cell access if your "roaming" fees are more than your "local" fees for any given month unless you notify them that you will be traveling and pay extra. "Customers with roaming usage consistently greater than Tbaytel home usage will have their roaming service blocked." This is found here -
LINK.
Does that help, or make your head hurt like it did mine when I was trying to learn this stuff? I didn't have the luxury of having a training class or a mentor to lean on.
I walked into the office one morning and was told by my supervisor that I was the new "tech guy" for the department. I told him "NO, Sergeant, when I stick a key into an electrical outlet it hurts. That's all I know about them electron things and all I want to know.". He informed me that it was not a question nor a request...
So, out of absolute necessity, I learned and am still learning.
It also helps to have friends in high and low places. A former Verizon VP is now a senior Sprint VP and he has been extremely helpful over the years.
Ed
