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Public Poll - Who was your wireless provider before you joined Public Mobile?

David_J
Public Mobile
Public Mobile

Hey Community! We’re trying out a new feature called “Public Poll” as a way for us to get to know you better and what brought you to Public Mobile. You can find the poll on the right side of your web page, right under the announcements. Our question this week is “Who was your wireless provider before you joined Public Mobile?” Let us know!

69 REPLIES 69

Rockdaddy22
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité
I was going to say, I thought the 4S was capable. Maybe you could give 9.3 a try when it comes out in a month.

tysonyerex
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

@Rockdaddy22 haha yeah it's definitely about time to upgrade to a new phone. I'm pretty sure my 4s would actually give me the manual settings if I upgraded to the latest iOS, but I'm afraid of how slow my phone will be if I upgrade from iOS 7 to iOS 9.

Rockdaddy22
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité
@tysonyerex a Maybe it's time to get that new iPhone. My 6S works great with PM 🙂

I'm sure you can tell, the iPhone is the community favourite 🙂 lol

tysonyerex
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Thanks @IWIK. I did follow the guide, but unfortunately my iPhone doesn't give me the option to do the manual setup, so I'm forced to use the unlockit pregenerated APN that doesn't have the correct settings to make MMS picture messages work.

McLaren
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

I was on Wind when I switched (6 months free promo for porting from  Mobilicity and before that Rogers 

IWIK
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

@tysonyerex I see you were indeed there....

IWIK
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

@tysonyerex I'm really not familiar with iPhones but I assume you followed this guide?

tysonyerex
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Thanks for the suggestion @NDesai. I do have Whatsapp for talking to a few friends, but not everyone I know has Whatsapp so it's not quite a universal solution yet. 

@tysonyerex Whatsapp is widely used on different phones nowadays. Works great for sending pics and even small video clips.

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tysonyerex
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

I live in BC, so for years my cell plan was with Telus. They always had the best coverage.

 

When the iPhone 3g came out in Canada I switched to Rogers because they were the only company offering it. Rogers has terrible coverage outside of the major city centers in Western Canada, so I've been wanting to get back on the Telus network for quite a while.

 

I stayed with Rogers for years (upgraded to iPhone 4s) and was considering upgrading to iPhone 6 when I found out about Public Mobile.

 

The price, reward options, and being on the Telus network convinced me to switch to Public Mobile. I couldn't be happier!

 

The only quirk with my iPhone 4s is that the auto generated APN from http://www.unlockit.co.nz/ works for data but it doesn't have the correct settings for Text MMS picture messages.

 

Most of my contacts use iMessage anyways, so it's not a big deal. It just means that I can't picture message people with Android or Blackberry phones.

lexcyn
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

I was previously with Koodo. And while they were good, the prices/loyalty rewards at PM were better!

Rockdaddy22
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité
@rorielly Welcome to the PM family 🙂

terrilin
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

For my case, I was with Fido for a very long time. I switched to Rogers shortly for a phone upgrade, and that turned out to be an expensive dicision. So I switched back to Fido, mostly BYOD plans. I've compared their plans with other replicas of the big 3 (Virgin & Koodo), and found that most of the time they offer similar plans, at least for my budget and usage. 

 

At some point, I thought about switching to Wind/ Mobilicity. Yet I relocated a lot in the last couple of years, and some places don't have good reception. I finally feel the need to move on from Fido when they started with free Spotify for all plans. It's great, but Fido also dropped the free mini voicemail feature which I need. Bascially, there was no altervatives unless I pay for extra $5 voicemail feature, or go for a more costly plan. For sure, those plans offer way more mins, data, etc., but I was on a tight budget.

 

Than I found PM, and I noticed that it started offering SIM service. So here I am! 🙂

 

rorielly
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

I just joined up.  I left Fido.  My contract was finished (my wife's will be finished soon too!) and they were not willing to do enough to keep me...in fact, their plans had all increased in price!  I'm now getting 4gb data per month for $10 less than what I was paying on Fido for 2gb!

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@Duckman yes have become a fan of the non-contract, BYOP/BYOD philosophy lately.  I suspect a lot of people don't really bother to try to figure out what their free or discounted phone is really costing them over the span of their contract.  If you can afford the cost of the phone up front, in most cases you're getting a better deal.  Of course everyone's situtation is different, so YMMV.  🙂


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iamnopreacher
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

Virgin Mobile

Duckman
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

PM by the numbers

BYOP is not a solution for some people but here is one example of potential savings in today’s world of 24 month pricing.  Now before people jump down my throat, this was as of today and only one example.  

$135 - 90 day plan  

(unlimited Canada wide), 4 GB of data

$1032 = Cost of 24 month term for plan after $2 a month discount for auto payment

 

Telus

$85 -  Monthly Plan

(unlimited Canada wide), 1 GB of data pe month

$2040 = Cost pf 24 month term for plan

$515 = Phone subsidy given on Iphone 6s on 24 month term  ($915 phone price and 515 subsidy)

$1525 = Cost of 24 month term minus $515 phone subsidy

 

$493 = Savings over 24 months with PM given this example

Given this example it’s actually cheaper to have the plan above with PM and buy the entire phone outright on a 21.99 % interest credit card then it is to take the phone subsidy from Telus. This isn’t to say I endorse this method but it illustrates that phone subsidies are just extremely high interest loans. 

Duckman
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

I have the same $120 plan with PM. Other than email, I really don't have the high needs for data since wifi is widely available. The most data I use on a monthly basis is when I take the Go Train  to Toronto on a monthly basis for a meeting. I read somewhere that go transit was testing wifi on the trains but I've never checked to see if that was true or only rumor.

 

 

 

 

deltatux
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

I was with WIND since 2012 until 2015, during the first year, they did pop more towers in GTA. However for the next 2 years, they completely stopped their northern GTA expansion and only focused on the Peel Region. This became a huge issue as that caused major network jamming. The last straw that broke the deal was that it caused messages to not be sent between my significant other and I during our visit at Canada's Wonderland. Losing contact and unable to locate her made me realize that I can't put up with the jammed network anymore.

 

Later that week, I was like, I know Public Mobile has a better offer, sure it doesn't have 5 GB of data with Canada/US wide calling for $40, but at least the network works for a bit less. Now I have unlimited provincial-wide calling, 4 GB data and unlimited text on a 90-day plan for $120/month (before autopay discount & community rewards) and it's still a better deal than WIND.

Rockdaddy22
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité
I came from fido, had a pretty good BYOP plan. When I got a new job in Tottenham Ontario, I wasn't getting any service with Fido/Rogers and I knew Telus had great service in that area, so here I am. I now get 5 bars of LTE at work 🙂 and all for a great price.

Duckman
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Like many of you, I’ve had  a long  resume of service providers over the years.

Most Recent

Virgin –  6 months - $43 BYOP plan – 750 anytime cdn min, 750 MB data

Review: Plan price wasn’t bad, discount perks were nice providing I had actually used them, self service site simple, voice mail login voice was annoying British women trying to sound cool. Ran off of Bell/Telus towers so I got good service at my work.

Rogers – 5 years - $50 Corperate plan – 350 anytime min, unl wkd/eve, 1000 incoming min, 250 LD min, 5 GB data

Review: Plan was fantastic for Rogers, included phone on 3 year plan, I found the website annoying, calling someone was almost just as annoying as you never got the same answer twice, I couldn’t  get service inside my work so I finally gave it up.

Rogers  took $900  one month due to a billing error and I had to fight with them for hours. They refused to give the money back but instead wanted me to take a credit once it was sorted out. I was able to go to my bank and have them reverse the transaction and have never again paid another bill by automatic banking withdrawal that wasn’t for a set monthly amount. I now prepay or use my VISA.  

Wind – 3 years - $15 special plan – unlimited everything

Review: (Based on the time I had service) Wind home zone was only half of Hamilton and I hit roaming a lot, internet was slow, website was simple to use, phoning customer service was actually good the few times I called. I still have the plan and let my sister use it. Service has improved but it still wouldn’t get reliable service at my work.

Telus – 10 years - $35 plan – 350 anytime min; unlimit wkd/eve, text, no data

Review: I never really had any complaints with telus and only left due to being able to get cheaper plan. Once data started to get big it was not worth keeping an old grandfathered plan once you added data costs. I will say that back in the day they had the absolute worst penalties for breaking a 3 year contract. The way they calculated it you ended up paying a ridiculous amount compared to the subsidy of the phone.  It was the harshest penalty in the business for years.  Website wasn’t bad,  monthly perks were cool, phone service was average but at the time I had nothing really to compare it to.  

 

I came to PM for the price, being on Bell/Telus towers for service while at work, BYOP which I prefer with the high cost of 2 year plans that most providers now offer. I like the simplistic site and billing. The community is something I’ve sort have gotten into now but I would like to see some of the ideas from the lab section of the site implemented in order to show us that our opinions are making a difference.  I guess I should be happy that at least my contribution is helping me earn my $2 a month community reward : )

Martin
Legend
Legend
Hi,

Thank you for sharing your positive experience.

I'm certain that your friends, if they port to Public Mobile, will be equally happy.

Welcome to PM!

salondijon
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

I was with Virgin before moving to PM. I had a decent promo plan, which was $45/month and hand unltd Canada-wide calling, texting, and 1 gig. I barely call out of my province, but could use more data, so I switched to PM and have province-wide calling, Canada-wide texting, and 4 gigs over 90 days for $38/month. Better plan for my needs and I find I get better signal with PM than I did with Virgin on the Bell network (this is in central Halifax). So happy I switched and am spreading the word to friends that they don't have to pay $100/month for their phones.

IWIK
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

Bell for many, many years. They just couldn't match the price. They were close though, and with the U.S. travel addons pretty darn close.

ckl
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

@Dave_M If I remember correctly, I found out about PM through a comment posted by somebody on the Mobilesyrup website on an article about the Shaw takeover of Wind. That led me to the PM website.

 

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

I've said it on various threads here before but I was with Telus post-paid for about a dozen years or so before moving to PM.  Still Telus network, but I'm saving in the neighbourhood of about $25/month+tax and getting more in almost every service with the exception of slightly less data but still more than I need.  My mobile is an important service, and I don't mind paying for it, but if I can get the same quality and more quantity for less, they why would I want to pay more? 


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srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@NDesai yeah for many of us, this is fine.  Some folks might need an actual bill for various reasons:  they may get reimbursed for part or all of the cost by their employer, they may need to provide to a parent or someone else whom is paying their bill, they may even be able to write it off as an expense (independent contractor/consultants for example?--maybe, i'm just guessing here as they can write off car, part of their mortgage, meals....why not communications?), etc.


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Dave_M
Retraité / Retired
Retraité / Retired

@ckl how did you find out about Public Mobile?


@TroyDaBes wrote:

 

The only complaint I have with PM is the lack to generate a utility bill. It would be nice if PM will make one in the future.  


Honelstly, i always hated looking at the bills..with PM, everything is available to view on Self-serve. So, not having bills every cycle is whatever for me. 

 

But if they can generate one for those who would like to keep records would be great. They only need to show history and payment details...e-bill should be pretty straight forward to do. 

 

PM is upgrading something almost everyday, and i am sure generating bills is one of their planning...

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TroyDaBes
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

I was with Bell before I joined Public Mobile. I was paying $45 for a 400mb data with 200 minutes of Canada-Wide call when I renewed my contract 2 years ago. It was even more expensive before that. Paying $75 after taxes for 500mb data with 200 local minutes. Yes, it's definitely insane how much money I'm paying with them. I was actually planning to stay with Bell if they can offer me a good deal but nah. They didn't bother and jump on PM when my contract is done. I'm currently paying $43/month for a 2GB of data with unlimited province-wide call. I definitely saving a lot of money with this company. My savings will go when I reach my first year when I'm getting $1 off per month. 

 

The only complaint I have with PM is the lack to generate a utility bill. It would be nice if PM will make one in the future.  

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