topic Re: FAQ for New Users in Get Support

FAQ for New Users

NDesai — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 17:58:07 GMT

Updated: 12/2016

Hello PM users.

Just to make it easier for you, i gave another shot to make this simple post. If you have any suggestions or something i missed, comment in this post. I will try my best to keep this updated with latest info.

Staff members, please feel free to add additional details or edit if something is not correct. If this is helpful, please make this sticky so its easier for new users to find this post.

Top Frequently Asked Questions:

How do I set up data on my Public Mobile Android phone?
How can I make my payment online?
How do I register for online Self Serve?
Will my iPhone work?

General FAQ.

How do I contact Public Mobile?

If you became client after Jan 11, 2015 and you can't find answer in community forums, click on this link: Contact Us. If it's an emergency, your problem is related to your PM account, and you cannot afford to wait 1-2 days, make a post in the community in the appropriate section. Make sure to include all information detailing your exact problem. There are staff member who can help you with account related problems. You will also get response from other community users to help you resolve your problems.

You can also get in touch with Public Mobile mods. More info here: http://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Announcements/U-S-Roaming-has-arrived/td-p/94947

How is Public Mobile Coverage?

Public Mobiles runs on TELUS network/towers, so most likely where ever TELUS is available, PM should work. Click Here to see PM's coverage map.

Is Public Mobile Nation-wide?

Yes, if you select Canada-wide talk, all should work around Canada. Data is also Canada-wide. So if you travel across Canada, you should be able to use your plan normally as long as Talk is Canada-wide.

Is Public Mobile Pre-Paid or Post-Paid or Monthly?

PM is a Pre-Paid service for 10 Days, 30 Days or 90 Days where you make payment before you start using your service.

What is the different between Pre-Paid and Post-Paid?

Here is a great explanation with example: Click Here

What is the Major Differences between Monthly plan vs 30 Day Plan?

Monthly is where if your Billing date is the 4th, it stays the same all year, every year.

Whereas 30 Day, Billing Date will NOT stay the same all year.

Where can i text with Global/International texting in my plan?

You can text anywhere in the world 🙂

If i purchase a talk add-on, can i call anywhere in the world?

No, international calling is only allowed to 18 countries at the moment. Here is the list of countries you can call to: Calling an international phone number.

What is the different between Provincial-wide and Canada-wide calling?

Please refer to this post explaining what you can and can't do with Provincial Wide calling: What is Province wide calling?

With Canada wide calling, you can call anyone living in Canada.

With Canada-US wide calling will allow you make calls anyone living in Canada and US.

Is it possible to receive calls from outside my home province if i have only Province-wide calling?

Yes, you must purchase international talk add-on or change your plan to Canada-wide to receive calls from outside of your home province.

Is it really FREE to order a Tri sim card?

No, it used to be. Now, you will have to pay $5 and your sim will post with xpress shipping so expect to receive it within 2-3 business days.

How long does it take for my ordered sim to arrive?

It takes about 2 business days. If you do not get it after more than 10 business days, you may try to order again.

I just got my sim card, now what?

Click Here to start the activation process. Upon successful activation, your service is ready to use.

Can i have another line on the same account?

No, there is no way to open another line with your current account. You will have to activate another sim with another account. Don't forget to earn referral rewards 🙂

If I select 90 Days plan, the data selected is for 30 days or 90 days?

Data on 90 Days plan are for 90 days. So for example, if you selected 6GB, you will have 2GB per 30 days. You can use all 6GB within 60 Days but you will not have any data left for remaining 30 days.

Will my data be throttled?

No, PM doesn't throttle your data. You will have full LTE speed for your data plan. If you run out of data before renewal, simply you will have no data access. You can purchase 200MB or 1GB data add-on which never expires.

Why don't I have a choice to select my local area code number?

PM seems to be running out of local area numbers especially in Toronto (647) and Vancouver (604). Please try selecting cities near you and see if you get a choice.

They will definitely add more soon or give you a choice to select newly added numbers.

How to port in my number and how long does it take?

Under normal circumstances, a successful porting from a cellular carrier is completed within 1 to 4 hours, as long as your account with the carrier that you are leaving is in good standing and paid up to date.

During activation set-up you will be asked to either choose new number or port your number. Make sure to enter your account number from previous carrier. It will not go through without giving account number of the carrier you are porting from.

If you want to make sure how PM will run on your phone and how will it be in your area, you can activate your sim with new number. Once you are satisfied with the service, you can request to port in your number from old carrier.

If you are porting from Koodo or PC mobile, activate your SIM with new temporary number. Once everything is done, you will be able to make a request to port in your number.

Note: if you are porting your number from Koodo/Telus, Use alternate Email instead of Same Email used on those accounts so that they avoid the Technical Pitfalls associated with them, and that only Edit their emails to their preferred email AFTER porting is Completed Successfully and Service begins without issue.

What add-ons are offered?

Talk Add-ons: 200min US and Canada Long Distance for $8 and 400 mins international Long Distance (including US & Canada) for $15.

Data Add-ons: 200MB for $10 and 1GB for $30.

USA Roaming Add-Ons: http://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Announcements/U-S-Roaming-has-arrived/td-p/94947

Can I select talk add-on if I did not select talk on my plan?

Talk add-on will not work if you do not have talk on your plan.

Will my add-on expire?

No, add-ons do not have expiry date. For example, if you purchased 1GB add-on, you will have that add-on until you completely used 1GB. However, USA roaming add-on will expire in 10 days regaldless of mins/text/data remaining.

Is there an app for self-serve?

No, not atm.

Can I tether available data on my plan?

Yes, as long as your device supports tethering feature you can share your data with any other device.

Click Here for more details.

Can I make changes to my current plan?

You can make changes BUT, the days you have left on current plan will not be credited. Means you will not get refund for what you already paid. Any unused days in the "old" plan will not be carried forward into the "new" one.

And you will have to pay upfront for the new plan. So the best time to change your plan is near the renewal date.

If you just renewed your plan and want to take advantage of the new 6GB plan, refer to the announcement for more info. Link: Big News: We just launched even better rate plans!

How to earn rewards?

PM have great ways to earn rewards that can be used to purchase add-ons or use it to pay your bill. Go on this page for more details: Click Here

How my rewards are used?

On your self-serve you will see your all your rewards you earned. During your renewal, all your rewards will be subtracted first.

Can i have multiple accounts to earn more rewards?

If you have more than one account, Community rewards can only be applied on primary account, while Loyalty, Auto-Pay and Refer-a-Friend rewards covers all your accounts.

I have an idea on how PM can improve their service, where can i share my idea?

You can post your ideas here: Click Here

I did not find Qs here, what can i do?

Please post on this community explaining your problems with detail explanation and I am sure members will try their best to help you.

Troubleshooting FAQ:

I got an error while activating my SIM, what should i do?

Make sure of the following suggestions:

- Check if you got an email from PM stating your have successfully signed up.

- Find out if you got charged or not.

- Try activating that same sim again and see if it gives invalid error.

- Put the sim in your unlocked phone and see if everything is working.

If your service is still not up and running, make a post in the appropriate section of this community and state that you have verified you got an error, you got charged and service is not functional. In this case, PM staff member will get in touch with you and help you with completing the activation process.

I successfully activated my SIM, but i can't text, call or access data, what should i do?

Make sure your phone is unlocked and ready to use with PM network. Try removing the sim and rebooting your phone.

During activation process, if you ported in your number, please wait few hours and check if your service is running fine.

If your data is not working at all, make sure you have added the correct APN settings. Search in the community for topics about APN settings.

If you tried everything and still don't have service, Post in the appropriate section of this community and mention that you have activated the sim with new number, explain what exactly is wrong and what phone you are using.

Today is my renewal and my self serve account is marked Suspended/Plan Expired?

This is normal for everyone. If you're on AutoPay, you do not have to worry. Your plan will be renewed automatically and your account will be refreshed by the next morning. If the renewal doesn't go through, post in the appropriate section of this community and explain what exactly is wrong. You will get help from other users and PM staff member if necessary.

I hope this helps you for things you were wondering and to refer other users to get to know Public Mobile(PM).

Thank you for reading 🙂

Re: FAQ for New Users

Luddite — Sat, 06 Aug 2016 19:39:36 GMT

Hey @NDesai thanks for holding the fort last night. Activation and renewal procedures are generating many posst. Hope it's all new customers.

Good to see a few more contributors as well.

Re: FAQ for New Users

Scaredy — Sat, 06 Aug 2016 20:32:26 GMT

A couple more suggestions:

If my plan has data and I have a data add-on, which will be used first?

Why doesn't my AutoPay reward appear?

Might also want to add something about the quirk for those porting in from Koodo or PC Mobile where they have to contact PM. It tells you that in the activation procedure, but some may miss that.

I also have concerns about linking that particular iPhone thread, as it contains outdated information, specifically "Please note: Customers with a compatible iPhone can receive unlimited talk and text on our new network. For data usage they will need to access WiFi.". The APN info may also not be needed (it worked for me without it), but better to have that than not.

Re: FAQ for New Users

NDesai — Sat, 06 Aug 2016 21:30:40 GMT

@Scaredy Your data add-on will not be used if you have data remaining on your plan. When you hit 0MB left and have days remaining on your plan, then data add-on will be used.

Make sure AutoPay is enabled on your self-serve. If it is enabled, create a post so you can get help from staff member.

I will confirm those posting issues and add that to the main post.

Thank you for your suggestions.

Re: FAQ for New Users

Scaredy — Sat, 06 Aug 2016 21:34:07 GMT

Sorry, to be clear, I knew the answers to those questions. I just thought they should be included.

For AutoPay, it doesn't seem to show up as a reward immediately if you set up AutoPay when you activate. You can either manually disable and re-enable it and it will show up, or just wait and it apparently will show up eventually. This has been the subject of several posts on here, so good to have.

Re: FAQ for New Users

NDesai — Sat, 06 Aug 2016 21:38:23 GMT

No worries, i ll add those info later.

Thanks.

Re: FAQ for New Users

Phee — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 20:45:36 GMT

As a new user I wasn't sure how the phone would work outside of Canada. It would be helpful to mention that you won't be able to recieve calls from outside Canada. There is roaming offered for US, but no where else in the world currenly.

Re: FAQ for New Users

jeeva86 — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 21:30:31 GMT

Your phone won't also receive calls while away from your home province.

Re: FAQ for New Users

Mixam — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 11:02:39 GMT

@NDesai

I think you might want to update the bit about the sim being free, and the postal strike and all that...

Re: FAQ for New Users

NDesai — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 20:23:40 GMT

@Mixam @Mixam wrote:
@NDesai

I think you might want to update the bit about the sim being free, and the postal strike and all that...

Yup....lots of things have changed. Will try my best to update this.

Re: FAQ for New Users

sara06 — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 01:35:13 GMT

Regards the section with plan changes. My sister in law I signed her up she changed her credit card info and it charged her again. I see an adjustment of 155 in the payment/credit area and then a charge for another 90 days. I helped her sign up November 20 a d that change was Dec 19. Isn't that double billing. She's going to try emailing a mod in the morning. But changing credit card should not be doing that. Also when coming back from the US both her and her husband are not receiving incoming texts. His plan similar situation with changing credit cards.
They had issues with credit card change so they removed the old one first and then registered the new one.

Re: FAQ for New Users

sara06 — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 01:41:44 GMT