topic Re: Is data 3g or 4g? in Get Support

Is data 3g or 4g?

devraj5698 — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 21:03:01 GMT

Hi, I am new to Public Mobile. When I was testing the data, I noticed on my phone (OnePlus 6) it said 4g even though the plans are all 3g.

Is this just my phone acting weird or is that the case with everyone using Public Mobile service?

Re: Is data 3g or 4g?

popping — Sat, 07 Nov 2020 21:33:43 GMT

@devraj5698 wrote:
Hi, I am new to Public Mobile. When I was testing the data, I noticed on my phone (OnePlus 6) it said 4g even though the plans are all 3g.

Is this just my phone acting weird or is that the case with everyone using Public Mobile service?

PM data is LTE(4G) capped to 3Mbps. Therefore, you will see 4G on your phone.

Although you are on LTE, you are not getting full LTE speed except first few days after your activation.

PM uses 3G for voice calls. You should configure you OnePlus 6 to auto switching between 3G and 4G.

Re: Is data 3g or 4g?

Triguy — Sat, 07 Nov 2020 21:51:48 GMT

PM uses Bell and Telus towers which are 4G but throttles the speed to 3G. For most daily use, you won't notice any difference. Only if you stream 4K video or high quality music then you might experience buffering.

Re: Is data 3g or 4g?

AE_Collector — Sun, 08 Nov 2020 19:56:45 GMT

@devraj5698

Be careful if doing speed tests. You can go through all of your data very quickly doing this especially if a brand new account. This is because it takes a couple of days to activate the throttling of the LTE speed to “3G Like” speeds of 3Mb/second.

AE_Collector

Re: Is data 3g or 4g?

Korth — Sun, 08 Nov 2020 22:01:38 GMT

You can force data to connect across real 3G-based 3G instead of across LTE-based 3Mbps-capped "3G speed". It can sometimes be faster in terms of raw bandwidth.

I've found that doing this is usually "slower" in terms of latency. Websites take longer to load, there's a little more packet delay on two-way data traffic, stuff like that. Basically not worth it unless (somehow) you find yourself able to connect to 3G and unable to connect to 4G.