Big News: We just launched even better rate plans!

[Brooke_C]

Hey Community,

We’ve got great news!  We listened to your feedback on our pricing and plan options and are excited to announce that we are launching new plan options today!

We encourage you to check out the new plan options here or at publicmobile.ca/selfserve to understand which plan best meets your needs and so you receive the biggest bang for your buck. Below is a summary of some of the major changes.

We are saying hello to:

• 2GB on a 30 day plan - We know this has been something all of you have been pushing for!
• 3GB on a 90 day plan - We wanted to simplify the data options so we have removed the 1 GB and 4GB options and added a 3GB option for 90 days.

We are saying goodbye to:

• Canada Wide Text - Global text will be the only text option going forward.
• 1GB and 4GB on a 90 day plan
• 6GB on a 30 day plan - Very few customers were taking advantage of this plan.

With this pricing change, we want to leverage the new pricing of the 6GB, unlimited province-wide talk and unlimited global text (now $120), to showcase this awesome plan:

We think that this plan will be a home-run, worthy of a Bautista bat flip!

Most plans are either cheaper or have more for the same price, but a few plans will be more expensive. If you like what you see, you can go ahead and make changes to your current plan.  But don’t worry – if you want to keep your current plan as-is, you will be able to do so.  No problem.

Below we have a list of FAQs. Please let us know if you have any other questions.

A huge thanks to all of you who took the time to give us your feedback. We are constantly incorporating your ideas to make Public Mobile better for everyone.

Public Mobile Community team 

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What happens if I sign up for a more expensive plan right before the rate plan options change? Am I able to change my plan without a penalty?

Customers who are on a 90 day plan and have used less than 45 days of service will be able to have their plan changed or credited. The chart below outlines a couple of scenarios and how Public Mobile will assist you so that you receive the best value for your money.

Scenario	Action
You are on a 90-day plan and would like to change your plan or receive a credit for the difference	If you have used less than 45 days of service, we can either: (1) credit you the difference between your existing rate and the new rate for a plan with the same options or (2) update your existing plan to the new suite of plans. If you take advantage of the credit, it will be one time only. After then, you are expected to update your plan options to the one that best meets your needs. Be sure to take action quickly if you want to take advantage of the new plan options.
	If you have used more than 45 days of service, we won’t be able to credit or change the rate plan for you since you have used more than half of your existing plan. That being said, you are able to future date your plan for the next billing cycle.
You are on a 30 day plan and would like to change your plan or receive a credit for the difference	Sorry, since you are on a short term plan we won’t be able to credit or change your rate plan. You are able to future date your plan for the next billing cycle.
You are on a 10 day plan and would like to change your plan or receive a credit for the difference	As with the 30 day plan, we won’t be able to credit or change the rate plan for you since you are on a short term plan. You can future date your plan for the next billing cycle.
You update your plan options, but then realize you would like to go back to your old plan	You won’t be able to switch back to your old plan after moving to the new suite of plan options. Be sure that you want to switch before you do!

2. Am I able to keep my current plan if I am happy with it?

Yes! You will be able to keep your existing plan. If you later decide you would like to take advantage of the new rate plan options, then just log in to publicmobile.ca/selfserve. However, you won’t be able to switch back to your old plan after renewing with the new rate plan options.

3. Why has the Canada-wide text option been removed?

The option has been removed in order to simplify the plan experience for customers. We also want to provide customers with the peace of mind that, while you are in Canada, you will be able to receive and send text messages from all over the world. @srlawren recently shared an improvement idea on our Public Lab saying that we should allow iMessaging confirmation texts to go through regardless of your text plan. This idea stemmed from the fact that some Canada-wide text plan customers weren’t receiving text messages from companies like Apple, who send messages from various locations around the world, notifying you to turn on your iMessage. With a global text option, you will no longer have to worry about this problem!

4. Why isn’t there a plan for heavy data users?

We think our sweet spot is medium data users, which is why the largest data plan is 12GB for 90 day customers and 4GB for 30 day customers. This is something that we will continue to re-evaluate based on your feedback.

Feel free to post any of your questions here, and we will be sure to get back to you. 

[kav2001c]

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@srlawren wrote:

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Actually, you bring up a good point.  So, people are upset that the 90 day plans including 1GB of data plan are gone.  

Let's coompare plans with unlimited Canada-wide talk, unlimited global texting, and 1GB of data per month.  These are all BYOB plans like PM, with no tab or payment plan or phone subsidy.

Koodo - $55/month (4th plan down this page:  https://www.koodomobile.com/rate-plans?INTCMP=KMNew_NavMenu_Shop_Plans).  This is $12.41 more per month than PM, or $148.92 per year.

Chatr - $35 "UNLIMITED CANADA-WIDE TALK & INTERNATIONAL TEXT" plus $15 for 1GB data = $50/month.  This is $7.41 more per month than PM, or $88.92 per year.

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@srlawren well remember Chatr (Rogers) has some HEAVY promos happening this month on Chatr (for the next week or so at least) the secret plans are not listed on website officially but they do offer $35 for the 2GB plan with Canadian calling (personally I think the 6GB is a far better deal)

Koodo is well aware of people abusing their systems (many threads on it over there) and yet seems not too interested in closing the loopholes

In both scenarios Public is better because they are normal plans anyone can get without any sort of tricks

On the other hand the $90 plan was very popular IMO because there are many people who are not interested in data

Most of them would happily sign up for a $25 talk & txt plan

But Public had a nice bump by offering minimum data for emergency type use when they really need it

I personally would never use a $90 plan  but I can tell you 3 of my referals do 

[srlawren]

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@hearty_meal wrote:

I think it's a mistake to remove the low end choices. From my point of view they were

the drawing point for PM. I don't have the figures to back that up  but I think you have given the competitors (other carriers) the advantage.

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Actually, you bring up a good point.  So, people are upset that the 90 day plans including 1GB of data plan are gone.  

Let's coompare plans with unlimited Canada-wide talk, unlimited global texting, and 1GB of data per month.  These are all BYOB plans like PM, with no tab or payment plan or phone subsidy.

At Public Mobile, that would be the 90 day, Canda-wide, Global text, 3GB plan (approx 1GB/month), at $126/90 days (before any taxes or earned rewards--base price only).  Annualized, that would be $126 / 90 * 365 = $511/year, and then divide by 12 = $42.59 per calendar month.  This is what we would use to compare to other carrier's montly rates.

So, can we find an offering with unlimtied Canada-wide talk, unlimited global texting, and 1GB of data for less than $42.59 per month?  

Koodo - $55/month (4th plan down this page:  https://www.koodomobile.com/rate-plans?INTCMP=KMNew_NavMenu_Shop_Plans).  This is $12.41 more per month than PM, or $148.92 per year.

Chatr - $35 "UNLIMITED CANADA-WIDE TALK & INTERNATIONAL TEXT" plus $15 for 1GB data = $50/month.  This is $7.41 more per month than PM, or $88.92 per year.

Fido - $55/month.  This is a Pulse plan which includes a spotify subscription, so if that's important to you, you should factor that value in.  But plan amount is $12.41 more per month than PM, or $148.92 per year.

Virgin - $55/month BYOB plan.  Same cost as Koodo and Fido.

Rogers - $80/month for BYOB share everything plan with unlimtied Canada wide plus text and 1GB.  That's $37.41 more per month than Public, or $448.92 per year.

Telus - $75/month for BYOB "Your choice" plan with the same options.  That's $32.41 more per month than Public, or $388.92 per year.

Bell - same price as Rogers on a Share plan.

These plans from PM really can offer a lot of value!!!

For another practical example, look at the cost over 2 years of buying a Samsung S7 outright and using PM vs. a 2-year subsidized purchase at the competition! http://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Discussions/Practical-example-of-how-PM-saves-you-big-....  This can be some big bucks!

EDIT: forgot to mention, the reason I'm comparing the 3GB/90 PM plan is because that's the next available option now with PM, now that you can't get the 1GB/90 days anymore.  I was thinking: what if you wanted to look for the equivalent at another carrier.  How much would that cost?

[hearty_meal]

I think it's a mistake to remove the low end choices. From my point of view they were

the drawing point for PM. I don't have the figures to back that up  but I think you have given the competitors (other carriers) the advantage.

[srlawren]

@deljo_agtor not at all!  Express yourself freely.  I'm just letting you know that at the moment, the decision appears to be final.  

Full disclaimer:  I am a customer just like yourself.  I am just going based on what has been posted on this thread in the public labs:  http://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Public-Lab/Bring-back-old-1GB-Plan/idi-p/60656

Specifically, @Brooke_C's comments:

Spoiler

by Brooke_C

Status changed to: Not For Us

Hey @dhanadhan,

Thanks for sharing your idea. We understand that the 90 day/ 1GB was an awesome plan and we kept that in mind when we made the decision to allow members to keep their existing plan. This decision was made for you!

We realize that removing this plan has created a disappointment for those who were referring friends and family to that plan. We are sorry to hear about this. The main reason why we are maintaining our decision to remove the plan is so that we can continue to offer the lower rates for our new plans. Members are saving up to $26 on a 90 day plan as a result of the new rate plans we launched! One of the trade-offs we had to make in order to deliver this was removing the 90 day/ 1GB plan. We hope that you understand.

Public Mobile Community team

[srlawren]

Hey @dhanadhan,

Thanks for sharing your idea. We understand that the 90 day/ 1GB was an awesome plan and we kept that in mind when we made the decision to allow members to keep their existing plan. This decision was made for you!

We realize that removing this plan has created a disappointment for those who were referring friends and family to that plan. We are sorry to hear about this. The main reason why we are maintaining our decision to remove the plan is so that we can continue to offer the lower rates for our new plans. Members are saving up to $26 on a 90 day plan as a result of the new rate plans we launched! One of the trade-offs we had to make in order to deliver this was removing the 90 day/ 1GB plan. We hope that you understand.

Public Mobile Community team

[deljo_agtor]

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@srlawren wrote:

Hi @laulawrence, welcome to the public mobile community!

The idea to keep the 1GB/90 day plans has definitely been suggested, but the official word from Public Mobile after their consideration is that they plan to keep the plans as they are now for the foreseeable future.  For those that wanted the 1GB/90 plan and were lucky enough to have already be on that plan, they can keep it indefinitely, but everyone else is out of luck at this time.  Sorry for any inconvenience 😞

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What if the majority of PM uses make their opinions heard?  Is there anything wrong with that?

[srlawren]

Hi @laulawrence, welcome to the public mobile community!

The idea to keep the 1GB/90 day plans has definitely been suggested, but the official word from Public Mobile after their consideration is that they plan to keep the plans as they are now for the foreseeable future.  For those that wanted the 1GB/90 plan and were lucky enough to have already be on that plan, they can keep it indefinitely, but everyone else is out of luck at this time.  Sorry for any inconvenience 😞

[laulawrence]

I think we should keep the 90days/1GB option to attract more new customers. It's really sad to see this gone as I've recommend PM to a lot of my friends based on this.

[srlawren]

@neoceltic while I agree that some choice has been removed, I think overall for the vast majority of the plans, PM has worked hard to give us the same amount of stuff for less $, more functionality for the same amount of $, or in some cases both a cost savings AND delivering more for that money.  It's unfortunate that some choice was reduced as a result.  Overall, I still think that in most regions of the country (excluding some areas that have amazing competiive plans at the big carriers), that PM plans, pound-for-pound, offer a lot of value. It sounds like they plan to keep the new set of plans for the forseeable future.

[neoceltic]

In my view this is not good. The plan I have now adequately meets my requirements. One of the key selling points is the "make your own plan" so you can sign on with a minimal plan but they change whenever your neds change. What this change effectively does is diminish the freedom to change the plan to match a change in needs.

[makkahn28]

Hi. As long as you do NOT make ANY changes, you can keep your Plan.

If your plan goes into suspension, as long as you pay WITHIN 90 days from time plan expired, then you keep plan, UNLESS you fail to pay after the 90 days then all is forfeited as plan is permanently deleted from system, and your Tri-Sim is zapped to bed forever

[neoceltic]

I am on the a 1 g 90 plan so any new option will cost more. This plan works OK for me and I understand that I can keep it. However what happens if I make a change or want to suspend my account. If I visit the US for an extended period can I reactivate my account with the 'old' plan features?

[srlawren]

Great service, @Mary_M and @imm1304!  @okoikoi, I hope you enjoy your new rate plan!  🙂

[imm1304]

Thanks super @Mary_M!  😄

[Mary_M]

Hello @okoikoi

I have already responded to your private message 

Please reboot your phone and your new services will be functional !

@imm1304 already done 😉

[imm1304]

Hi @okoikoi!

Since your are less than 45 days into your current plan, you can send a request via private message to @Mary_M or @Shazia_K to have your plan changed immediately.  

If I understand it correctly, you will start a new 90-day cycle on the new plan and you will get pro-rated refund for the unused days in your current plan.   Hope this helps.  

[okoikoi]

I renewed the $120 90-day plan on July 02, and plan on switching to the new $120 90-day plan once it is time for my next autopay. Am I eligible to switch immediately and take advantage of the international texting and 6GB of data instead of 4GB? If so, who can I contact?

[Mary_M]

Yes it has been resolved @srlawren

Thank you for helping us out 🙂

[srlawren]

@Shazia_K or @Mary_M, could you please help @webeye with their requested plan change?  

@webeye I think our friendly community moderators Shazia and Mary may be dealing with some much higher than usual volume of requests, so please try to be patient.  Hopefully you hear back shortly.  🙂

EDIT:  Sorry, I just realized I was looking at a very old post from Saturday. This was probably already resolved.  My apologies.

[hearty_meal]

PM needs entry level pricing (that's what $90 for 90 days provided) = $30 per month.

You have other carriers with unlimited talk and text and unlimited data (full throttle to 2GB) for $35.

PM entry level price of $111.00 for 90 days is not going to bring new customers in and you may

see others leave. "Hope PM will revisit their pricing plan for the sake of PM". Not everyone are

 big data users.

[makkahn28]

1. Though I can fully understand the reasoning behind your situation, I still believe PM offers better terms, I will say, maybe PM can still do some Pricing tweaks here and there to sweeten the terms even better, PM is still growing and learning and evolving

[AntdC]

The sad thing is that I was about to switch both my parents to Public Mobile on the 90$ per 90 days plan with de 1GB of data, unlimited province talk and unlimited Canada text but now that plan doesn't exist and you can't go lower than 111$/90days if you want data. For my part the rate change is fine as I will get 2 GB more per 90 days and global text, but for them it's just not worth it anymore so that's 2 customers who would have gone with Public Mobile and now they won't. It's quite sad considering they had received their PM sim card just recently ...

[ZK]

thanks for replies guys what a helpful community! bravos allaround

[hearty_meal]

Bring back the 1GB for 90 days option!

[JaK]

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@timothyfriesen wrote:

I am very happy to be able to receive 6 GB per 90 days for the same price as the 4 GB that I was paying for before.

However, I am concerned about the price of the 12 GB per 90 day option.

Here are some calculations:

Per 90 Days:

Unlimited Canada Wide Talk

Unlimited Global Text

3 GB of Data

$126

Per 90 Days:

Unlimited Canada Wide Talk

Unlimited Global Text

6 GB of Data

$135

3 GB of additional data costs $9

Per 90 Days:

Unlimited Canada Wide Talk

Unlimited Global Text

12 GB of Data

$201

9 GB of additional data costs $75 (compared to 3 GB in my initial example)

6 GB of additional data costs $66 (compared to 6 GB in my second example)

Why does it cost $66 to go from 6 GB to 12 GB when it only costs $9 to go from 3 GB to 6 GB?

It would make much more sense if it cost $18.

Can someone from Public Mobile please comment on this price discrepancy?

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@timothyfriesen

There is a flaw in your logic, yes it only costs $9 to go from 3GB to 6GB, but by extension 12GB would be $27 more, not $18 ($9 to get to 6GB, another to get to 9GB, another to get to 12GB).

However, even that isn't right, you need to instead look at the cost per GB from the plans page. For the 90 day plan 3GB costs $50 ($16.67 per), 6GB $59 (just under $10 per) and 12GB $125 (just under $10.50 per). So yes it doesn't make sense that the cost per is more for 12GB than 6GB, but it is only slightly more, it probably should have been $115 (or less) instead of $125 to be aligned with the 6GB pricing. The real kicker is the 3GB pricing, it is the one that is way out of alignment, but unfortunately since they took away the 1GB the low data user really doesn't have any option (with PM).

(There have been a number of calls to bring back the 1GB option, and while I would back that, I would also be happy if they just priced the 3GB a little more reasonably, at say $40 instead of $50, which would still keep the 6B as attactive but provide a better entry level option.)

[Shazia_K]

Hello @ZK, 

I'll be glad to make the changes for you, kindly send me a private message with your Public Mobile phone number. 

Thanks,

Shazia

[TroyDaBes]

@ZK You will need a help from PM staff. They will be the only one who can do the change to your account. 

[McLaren]

@zk send a private message to @ZK send a private message to @Shazia_K or @Mary_M they will be able to make the changes for you 

[ZK]

Hi,

I would like to switch from a lower priced plan ($1 gb per 90 days) to these newer rates albeit at a higher price (6 gb per 90 days).

Would I be eligible the swap now if I paid a top-up of some sort? My plan had just refreshed a month ago. I require more data.

Thanks!

[NDesai]

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@ds123 wrote:

Thanks! Changing browsers did the trick. I always use Firefox but it won't allow me to change my plan on two computers. I had success with IE - the browser I love to hate but resort to on rare occasions such as this.

PROBLEM SOLVED

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Nice 🙂 

Sometimes due to errors with your browser's caches and cookies, some functions just don't want to end...but if you try in incognito mode or private browser where caches are empty, it usualy helps.

[ds123]

@NDesai - Thanks! Changing browsers did the trick. I always use Firefox but it won't allow me to change my plan on two computers. I had success with IE - the browser I love to hate but resort to on rare occasions such as this.

PROBLEM SOLVED