Is Public Mobile's LTE throttled vs Telus/Koodo? Who here has the fastest Public Mobile speed?

[Eug]

I set my wife up on Public Mobile and it is working well for her. However, I've noticed that the max download speeds are more limited than I was expecting. They're decent and more than sufficient for her, but still, not quite what I might have expected for Telus or Koodo. (She was on Koodo before.)

Thinking it might just be luck of the draw for wireless conditions right at those times tested, I looked online, and it seems a few people have done comparative tests between Public Mobile and Koodo side by side, and Public Mobile is consistently slower. Well, at best Public Mobile is sometimes similar, but most of the time Public Mobile is slower. For example, one test had two Galaxy S6 phones testing Koodo against Public Mobile tested side by side. Koodo was over 100 Mbps, but Public Mobile was 20ish Mbps. Others have done maybe 5 tests in a row with the same phone models and again, Public Mobile usually was slower. Furthermore, I have never seen a Public Mobile speed test benchmark out there hit over 100 Mbps. In fact, over 60 Mbps seems to be rare.

Are Koodo and Telus given priority over Public Mobile in terms of download (and upload speeds), or is Public Mobile actively throttled (but still provided LTE speeds)? Or is Public Mobile using a more limited LTE feature set? Or is this all just by chance? To be fair to Public Mobile, I don't think I've ever seen truly scientific speed test comparisons between Public Mobile vs Telus/Koodo.

BTW, my iPhone 7 Plus on Fido is consistently slower than Public Mobile on my wife's iPhone 6s for upload speeds in my house, with my Fido consistently in the 1.5-2.5 Mbps range, and her Public Mobile in the 8-15 Mbps range. That's a pretty huge difference, and I'd rather have the faster uploads. This is her iPhone 6s on Public Mobile, to show the decent uploads.

[mated3]

Not sure if you can tell which band, but here's what "Network Cell Info Lite" shows

LTE: Public Mobile

TAC:55012, ECI:139046442 | PCI: 74

eNB-LCID:54150-42    NID: 24-2

I'm getting anywhere from -97 to -93 dBm - tower is about 50-100 m out the window across the QEW, but lots of computers around.

SpeedTest: 19 mS Ping, 46.13 Mbps Download and 32.81 Mbps Upload

          - on Telus (before switching in November) I was getting ~55 Mbps download and

<10 Mbps downloads. Same location and same phone, so I'm seeing an improvement over when I first started with Public Mobile.

[sheytoon]

@MK78

Band restriction is not possible when the RAN is partly owned by Bell.

[MK78]

No improvement here. Did a few tests today, still the same behaviour as before, it starts a bit above 40, then dwindles down to 32-33...

There's no doubt it's limited in some way.

I wonder if they're somehow restricting PM to slower LTE bands? My iPhone is no longer jailbroken i don't have the tool to see what LTE band Im connected to. Perhaps someone with an Android phone with such a tool could chime in and show what bands they're connecting on?

[sheytoon]

@edward203203
I don't have any updates from Telus, and my speeds have not improved so far.

[edward203203]

I wonder if @sheytoon has an update on the Telus investigation. Perhaps that will answer your question, @computergeek541 .

[computergeek541]

I'm not sure if this can be considered progress or not, but I've been a customer for 6 months and have never seen speeds like this until now.  I wonder if something has been changed on the network end, or if I just happened to try at the right time and place to run these tests. I've used about 1GB in the past 24 hours just running the speedtest.net app.  Because this app using so much data to run each test, I cannot afford to run it on a regular basis with each test eating up about 100MB.  I don't have the newest phone model, with it only supporting up to LTE 150Mbps peak, but there seems to be some improvement based on my unscientific observation.

[jpar]

My signal strength is the same as before on Telus as well. Lower data speeds shouldn't impact the actual signal quality in rural areas

[echf]

I think you will be fine. Telus and Bell network usually are the strongest up north. However, there might not have LTE coverage. The furthest place I have been since I switched is some small town in southern Ontario. No problem at all! I have the same signal strength as my friend using Koodo.

BTW According to the information posted, Public Mobile and Telus don't have intention to throttle anyone. I will wait and see if they will fix this technical problem. However, as shytoon said early, don't expect they will have the fix ready in few months.

[MK78]

I've been a PM member since getting the 4gb plan in early November last year. I have an iPhone 6s, and have done many speedtests, even in perfect signal conditions  where i have checked that the towers are in close proximity, i see the needle hit 40mbps, then slowly dwindle down to 28-32...

I've tested over 150mbps on Rogers in same places on the same phone where Rogers/Bell/Telus etc have their towers in the same place.

I don't really mind it, its plenty fast for what I need and the value is great, but it's a shame that it is throttled and PM staff are telling us it isn't.

What's really gonna be interesting when I go up north to my cottage, how the service will be. I've had family members there with Koodo and it was fine, but now I'm worried.

[jpar]

Ok, thanks.

[sheytoon]

Ping times are identical to Telus and Koodo. It's the same network elements routing the data packets.

[jpar]

Are ping times on PM any lower than telus/koodo? I'd think ping would more directly affect the user experience

[mjagadeesh]

yes there is throttling in effect. I tried speedtests in last 6 months, never crossed 70 Mbps DL, even i have very high signal strength and very close by to Bell/Telus Tower in and around Mississauga. 

[zhadj030]

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@david_l wrote:

I got 43.35 mbps down and 8.31 mbps up. Very fast IMO!

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No one said the network isnt fast, after all we are all still here  (and we are not really comlaining... yet XD). We are just curious to see and acknowledge that the speeds are throttled 

[david_l]

I got 43.35 mbps down and 8.31 mbps up. Very fast IMO!

[echf]

It is not strange, offer LTE to PM customer don't cost Telus much. It may also help to ease the congestion/pressure on the 3G network (Although sometime I feel LTE is even more congested than 3G lol). 

We all know network resources is limited. To prevent overloading, business usally overprice the service (so fewer people will use it, e.g. satellite phone on airplane) or throttling your service (make sure you will only use small amout network resources so they can put more people on the network). There is no conflict to offer LTE but throttle data speed at the same time. Some carrier provide LTE connection but limit your speed to 384 kbps. No benefit for Telus to distinguish PM user from Telus user by not offering LTE. 

[kav2001c]

@echf actually if true this is one of the few issues you can go to CRTC for

[edward203203]

It is truly strange that Telus allows LTE+ connections on Public Mobile, but restricts data speed transfers.

Regardless of whatever @sheytoon finds out from Telus on this investigation, moderators here did not do their job. I can not believe it took someone who has private contacts with Telus' technical team to actually start an investigation on this now proven issue. It is strange, how the moderators early on simply made a claim that there is no difference on this thread for months when there is. Now with all the technical proof provided by mostly @sheytoon and speed tests provided by others we are going to get either the problem fixed or verification from Telus that it is indeed throttled.

Regardless what the outcome is @sheytoon should be thanked by the community for providing most of the data that help detail that the speeds we were getting aren't unthrottle.

[echf]

Agree! Thank you so much for their time and effort. It is truly lucky to have talents in this community!

[edward203203]

It is truly strange that Telus allows LTE+ connections on Public Mobile, but restricts data speed transfers.

Regardless of whatever @sheytoon finds out from Telus on this investigation, moderators here did not do their job. I can not believe it took someone who has private contacts with Telus' technical team to actually start an investigation on this now proven issue. It is disappointing, how the moderators early on simply made a claim that there is no difference on this thread for months when there is. Now with all the technical proof provided by mostly @sheytoon and speed tests provided by others we are going to get either the problem fixed or verification from Telus that it is indeed throttled.

No thanks to the moderators, but big thanks to @sheytoon's contributions and explainations on LTE and LTE Advanced, whatever the outcome of the investigation by Telus.

[edward203203]

It is truly strange that Telus allows LTE+ connections on Public Mobile, but restricts data speed transfers.

Regardless of whatever @sheytoon finds out from Telus on this investigation, moderators here did not do their job. I can not believe it took someone who has private contacts with Telus' technical team to actually start an investigation on this now proven issue. It is disappointing, how the moderators early on simply made a claim that there is no difference on this thread for months when there is. Now with all the technical proof provided by mostly @sheytoon and speed tests provided by others we are going to get either the problem fixed or verification from Telus that it is indeed throttled.

No thanks to the moderators, but big thanks to @sheytoon's contributions and explainations on LTE and LTE Advanced, whatever the outcome of the investigation by Telus.

[Quest]

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@sheytoon wrote:

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@srlawren wrote:

@sheytoon would love to hear what you can find out--please keep us posted!

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@srlawren

Some good news. Telus is looking into it. Hope to have an update in the next few weeks.

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This forum is like a life survey done by PM.

We maybe heading for some changes in terms of Data Speed Eqality for all members of Telus Family thanks to many views and responses to this topic. I think it caught attention of Telus and thanks to @sheytoon and @srlawren and many others who have actively for many weeks and months tried to proof that there is indeed some glitch, speaking nicely, on Telus Network preventing PM users from getting highier speeds.

[sheytoon]

@edward203203, @srlawren:

I don't want to give away too much before I receive a final response, but for now it's looking promising 🙂

[srlawren]

@sheytoon would be awesome if they discovered it was something unintentional and modified it to give us full speed.  I won't hold my breath and honestly it's not make or break for my needs but would be good at least for the optics.

[edward203203]

@sheytoon
So did you figure out if it was a problem or by design?

[sheytoon]

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@srlawren wrote:

@sheytoon would love to hear what you can find out--please keep us posted!

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@srlawren

Some good news. Telus is looking into it. Hope to have an update in the next few weeks.

[sheytoon]

I wouldn't go that far. I think they're allowed to throttle if they want to, and nowhere in the terms of service is it stated that they don't throttle speeds. There are no grounds for a CCTS complaint.

[echf]

So is it possible to file a complain to The Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) let them to check is it really throttled. Or something like Consumer Council of Canada for misleading advertising.

I am a happy customer, just don't like the fact that I was being lied to. 

[edward203203]

From my speed tests it appears that Public Mobile does throttle back your data speed.

The speed tests tell us that:

• If you have a Koodo or Telus SIM (Virgin/Bell also works) you can get truly unthrottled speeds. At least 100mbps+, got it on one test
  
  
• If you Roam using Rogers/Fido onto either Bell or Telus your data speeds will vary, but there is no throttling. I still get 100mbps+, though only after connecting to several different speed test servers.
  
  • I am pretty sure that data speeds were inconsistent, due to Rogers/Fido users who Roam are forced to have their traffic rerouted causing many points of possible speed slow downs.

• If you are using Public Mobile and maybe PC Mobile you are getting throttled. Tests show you can never get 100mbps and I did a second list of tests on the same servers that allowed Fido-Ext to achieve 100mbps, but no success.
  • I suspect Telus placed a speed restriction on the APN "sp.mb.com", used by both PC Mobile and Public Mobile.

[sheytoon]

@kav2001c

I think 122 Mbps was with a Fido SIM connecting to the Telus EPC.