topic Re: LTE vs. 3G in Get Support

LTE vs. 3G

vlladdrakk — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 10:02:59 GMT

Hello everyone!

What experience do you have with the 3G and LTE speeds that PM offers. I am currently on a old plan with LTE, my wife is using one of the newer 3G plans. I am considering switching to the new promo plan with 4.5GB of data at 3G speeds, but I'm worried it might be too slow. I did a quick test to see by how much 3G was slower for just basic web browsing. I opened reddit and imgur on both our phones and couldn't see any difference in loading time for images at all. This may be a fluke though.

Has anyone switched from LTE to 3G found it slower for their usecase? what is your usecase? Any regrets?

PS. I already know the technical differences between the two speeds, I am just curious about user experience anecdotes.

Re: LTE vs. 3G

Luddite — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 14:37:30 GMT

Peruse this thread for info: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Getting-Started/3G-vs-LTE/m-p/248442#M43796

Basically, 3G is fine unless you stream HD movies or upload large files. I was on LTE and am fine with 3G.

When you have an LTE plan and set your network to 3G, your speed is actually faster than you will experience with a "3G" plan (3 Mbps). The "3G" plans run on both the LTE and 3G network but the speed is throttled.

Re: LTE vs. 3G

jp2 — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 14:38:57 GMT

3G works great for me for surfing the web and emails. If you are streming you will have issues.

Re: LTE vs. 3G

Luddite — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 14:50:48 GMT

@vlladdrakk Unless you have a grandfathered promo plan of some sort, why not just try it for a month? Switching plans is easy from within your account. Just do it each time on next expiry date so you don't waste any of your hard earned cash.

Re: LTE vs. 3G

Lanchbery — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 14:55:37 GMT

Quite right, I was concerned about going for 3G but have had for the last week in BC and it's absolutely fine for checking emails, social media etc. I've even streamed a few podcasts with no issues.

Re: LTE vs. 3G

vlladdrakk — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 15:08:06 GMT

@LudditeThanks for the info there, quite helpful. I am on a grandfathered (currently non-existent) LTE plan, but just 1GB for 90 days.

I don't plan to do any streaming, just web browsing, email, etc. So it sounds like I won't notice too much of a difference 🙂

Thanks @Lanchbery and @jp2 for the info as well!

Re: LTE vs. 3G

will13am — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 15:52:45 GMT

@Luddite wrote:
@vlladdrakk Unless you have a grandfathered promo plan of some sort, why not just try it for a month? Switching plans is easy from within your account. Just do it each time on next expiry date so you don't waste any of your hard earned cash.

+1. Additionally, the grandfathered plan has to be one that is worth saving. Not all grandfathered plans are built equally.

Re: LTE vs. 3G

bridonca — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 16:33:19 GMT

Just to put this in perspective, at 3.5 megabit/s, which is apparently the throttled limit, you can eat through your monthly quota of 4.5 gigabytes in under 3 hours. The throttle is not the problem. In fact, with such low quotas, a throttle is a feature!

Re: LTE vs. 3G

rsa — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 16:40:06 GMT

I honestly haven't noticed any difference in speeds when i switched from lte to 3g

Re: LTE vs. 3G

luke11992 — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 17:27:02 GMT

I've never used my data to watch videos or anything, as it'll use too much data for my plan, but for basics such as web browsing, some Instagram and FB, and any kind of online messaging (FB messenger, Whatsapp, etc), 3g has never been too slow for me. The only time I've had experience with it being slow is when I'm in areas with bad cell reception, so that's the limiting factor more than the 3g internet itself.

Re: LTE vs. 3G

Acekiller — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 18:18:04 GMT

4gb goes by quickly if you use for videos.

Re: LTE vs. 3G

raulg — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 19:48:56 GMT

I use my data plan for normal browsing, social networks and VoIP calls and is more than enough. I might have noticed some slow down at times, but nothing that would bother me. I would say that it's worth the switch if you use the mobile data for basic things.

Re: LTE vs. 3G

tw — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 21:29:38 GMT

well coming from mobilicity 3g it was fine, when chatr got them, the chatr 3g was like 1.5 speed for me. forget that. thank god public has the $40 deal switched up even if its 3g, cant be any worse than that 1.5 speed i was getting and dont have to worry about zone crap.

put to get full lte, you need latest phones too. If i need to stream 1080p HD, i would do it at home/wifi.

if ya need to play candy crush well, then. 3g is just fine. 🙂 even 720p is not bad.

Re: LTE vs. 3G

maryjane0298 — Fri, 06 Jul 2018 00:36:34 GMT

How do I change on my phone from 3g to lte? Or the other way around.

Re: LTE vs. 3G

jp2 — Fri, 06 Jul 2018 00:47:13 GMT

In android settings

more connections

mobile networks

preferred network type

Then select what u want

I just leave my phone in auto and it switches between the networks as required by the signal strength