topic Re: Network Review in Get Support

Network Review

eruthc — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 15:32:03 GMT

How is the reception of this network? can I get any feedback on the service?

Re: Network Review

Staliger — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 19:48:26 GMT

One of the largest networks n Canada. Stable 3g internet. No discomfort regarding service.

Re: Network Review

gblackma — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 19:48:51 GMT

@eruthc may be helpful to sy which area you are from. So that PM community members can answer your question. I'm in Toronto and service is great. I'm using a Samsung j1 2016. Welcome to PM.

Re: Network Review

LovesToPM — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 20:37:42 GMT

PM uses the towers shared by both Telus and Bell.

To find out more about your area, check the coverage map: https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/bc/coverage

Personally I find the service works well. It's no frills with plan prices to match.

Calls are made on 3G network, there is no voLTE.
Mobile data works on either 3G or throttled LTE (download speed up 3 Mbps).

Re: Network Review

P-Ran — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 19:56:04 GMT

I have no issues since signing in December 2019.

Re: Network Review

wetcoaster — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 20:12:07 GMT

@Staliger

Just a reminder that 3G here is a misnomer, I still prefer the term LTE light. Where possible from the network side and allowed by the phone settings, data is delivered over LTE with the according latency / responsiveness. It's just the speed of the delivery is throttled to 3 Mbps.

This is totally adequate for most uses of the average user. VOIP, E-mail, social media, browsing, navigation, music streaming and the occasional YouTube work flawlessly. Only if you do regular huge file transfers, HD streaming or online gaming you might feel the limits (and you might not be with the right provider for that anyway when it comes to quantity.)

Re: Network Review

PAULRANG18 — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 20:12:48 GMT

Network reception is fine and no real difference is noticed with 3G. Great to save a lot of money as well.

Re: Network Review

CannonFodder — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 20:17:35 GMT

Well, the coverage map only tells PART of the story, because where we live, although we're within the coverage map's boundaries, the signal is poor. If I'm out somewhere, it's fine, but just not at home, so the coverage map can't be completely relied upon. It also partially depends on your device, because with my PM SIM in my wife's phone, my reception at home is actually better than with my phone.

Re: Network Review

ddufour — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 20:20:01 GMT

I have noticed that my network will shut off even though I have it on Auto Connect. I have heard from a few people that they have tried to call me and do not get my voice mail and the phone rings and then disconnects. When I look at my phone, the network is off...then when I begin to use my phone...the network reestablishes connection....I do notice that the actual reception when talking on the phone seems clearer than what I had with Bell.

Re: Network Review

ShawnC13 — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 20:21:02 GMT

@CannonFodder and @eruthc here is a great site to check out the location of cell towers. CannonFodder you may find that your closest isn't to close.

https://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html

Re: Network Review

hairbag1 — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 20:22:56 GMT

I've had a PM account since Jan 2017 and am very happy with it. The actual network uses Telus backbone so if you've ever used Telus...PM is the same.

Some people require alot of "hand holding" when they run into the occasional glitch and they're used to a call center for help. Here, we use the richness of the Community Forum members for initial trouble shooting. Most times issues are handled in a matter of moments. Personally, I find the Forum to be preferrable to an off-shore call center. Anytime I had a question, it was met with an answer / suggestion / solution in very short order.

Any account related issues are directed at the PM Moderators for their intervention. They usually get back to you quickly but can take awhile if it gets busy. Sometimes you'd have to exercise patience.

As long as you have an unlocked phone....you'll probably have no problems coming to PM from somewhere else.

Give it a try....I'm glad I did.

Re: Network Review

Jackhyf63 — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 20:24:58 GMT

@eruthc I have no problems. I really haven't had any problems in Toronto anywhere. Very happy with my PM service.

Re: Network Review

popping — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 20:29:42 GMT

I was with Chatr 3G plan when Rogers took over Mobilicity. Chatr is 3G only and no LTE. Rogers is a ON company who pay for all of it cell towers in the east and in the west. I live in AB. Rogers provides the LTE to their paying customer. I do not get any 3G data in big box stores like home depot or RCSS.

PM has tower sharing with Bell. Bell concentrates its effort to build solid netwrok for eastern Canada. Telus is a western company and concentrates it effort to build solid newtork for the western Canada. PM offers 3G full speed as well as LTE capped as 3Mbps. I setup my phone auto connect to LTE and 3G signals which ever the strongest. Now, I have no issue to get data inside big box stores like Home Depot or RCSS.

PM should change the name to LTE lite instead of using 3G. It is confusing to the new PM subscribers.

Re: Network Review

CannonFodder — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 20:32:59 GMT

While I have no idea of what constitutes "not too close", when lookin' at that map, it shows there's not a whole lot of towers in our little area. OTOH, it shows a Telus and a Rogers tower at the exact, same location on the map, to the north of us, and a Telus and a Rogers tower at almost the same location(the Rogers one is slightly closer), to the south of us, and reception around here on the Telus network is poor, but quite good on the Rogers network. 🤔

Re: Network Review

LovesToPM — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 20:40:40 GMT

It looks like you already answered any question you had.

Re: Network Review

Obice — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 20:43:45 GMT

The reception is pretty much the same as any carrier.

In my experience I have had dropped calls from time to time if they go ~30 minutes or more and I have since contacted the mods about this and it hasn't been an issue although I haven't been on the phone for ~30 minutes after contacting them either.

Texts can take about 1-5 seconds to send sometimes, usually under 2 seconds. I mention this because when I had any second or first tier provider the texts were instant 99% of the time.

As far as data goes, it's 3G capped at 3MB up and down. I don't care for it but good in emergencies.

Re: Network Review

CannonFodder — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 20:49:34 GMT

Well..... MAYBE..... I JUST had a 2nd look at that map, and when I 1st looked at it, I thought the set of towers to the north were about as close as the set to the south, but upon closer examination, the ones to the south actually are closer, which would, in fact, make the Rogers tower closer to us..... and if the distance scale on that map is semi-accurate, that would make the Rogers tower closer by..... oh.... about 300ft. 😄

Re: Network Review

LP1986 — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 22:05:54 GMT

Overall, this service is reliable and dependable. Online is easy to navigate

Re: Network Review

CannonFodder — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 04:50:34 GMT

@LovesToPM & @ShawnC13 , check this out..... after my last post here, mentioning how I figured the Rogers tower would probably be ABOUT 300 ft. closer to us than the Telus tower, I did some looking, between that cell tower map, and doing Google Street view, and I came up with the picture below.

That'd likely be the Rogers tower, that I mentioned above, in the foreground of the pic, with the Telus tower in the background - looks like the scale on the cell tower map was fairly accurate!

FYI, this is a pic on the south side of the Fraser River, making that tower in the foreground ever so slightly closer to us, and making a significant difference in the signal strength at home. 😲

Re: Network Review

ShawnC13 — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 04:57:12 GMT

@CannonFodder , jump the fence and pace it off see how close you were to your estimate of distance between them!!!!lol