07-13-201702:57 PM - last edited on 12-07-201710:55 AM by Brooke_C
Hey Community!
We’re happy to announce that we’ve added 3G data options to our offerings in order to give you more choice. Our vision has always been to do wireless differently and that translates into our commitment to always offer you the most choice and flexibility in your plans.
You’ll now be able to build plans with either 3G or 4G LTE data speeds on Canada’s largest mobile network.
Along with launching new 3G data options, we're offering you bonus 3G data for a limited time when you activate on a 90-day plan. During this promotional period, we're featuring three amazing plans:
Length
Talk
Text
Data at 3G Speed**
Price
90-Day Plan
Unlimited Province-Wide Talk
Unlimited Global Text
12GB + 6GB Bonus Data
= 6GB / 30 days
$150
= $50 / 30 days*
90-Day Plan
Unlimited Province-Wide Talk
Unlimited Global Text
6GB + 6GB Bonus Data
= 4GB / 30 days
$129
= $43 / 30 days*
90-Day Plan
Unlimited Province-Wide Talk
Unlimited Global Text
3GB + 3GB Bonus Data
= 2GB / 30 days
$120
= $40 / 30 days*
*Prices include $2 Reward per 30 days when you register with AutoPay on a 90-day plan.
There are plenty more plan options to explore, so feel free to play around with the new calculator to find a combination that’s right for you!
Interested? Here’s how to score one of these deals.
First, you’ll need a SIM card. You can order one here or visit a participating Walmart or WOW! mobile boutique to purchase. Once you have your SIM card in hand, follow these easy steps:
After you’ve entered your information and selected a phone number or ported over your number from another provider, you’ll be prompted to choose a plan. Select the following combination to score one of our limited time offers:
90-day pass
Unlimited Province-Wide Talk
Unlimited Global Text
Your desired data allotment:
○ 3 + 3GB BONUS at 3G Speed /90 days = 2GB / 30 days
○ 6 + 6GB BONUS at 3G Speed /90 days = 4GB / 30 days
○ 12 + 6GB BONUS at 3G Speed /90 days = 6GB / 30 days
Select your payment method (don’t forget to sign up for AutoPay to receive the $2 Reward / 30 days) and finalize the rest of the activation process.
Things to know
This promotional bonus data offer is only for a limited time.
Once an end date is communicated, it is the last day you can activate on our promotional plans. The promotion will not be honoured after the communicated end date for any SIM cards that have not been activated by the deadline. This includes SIM cards that have been purchased online and have not yet arrived or been activated.
What’s the difference between 3G and 4G LTE?** Good question.
3G is a great option if you mostly use data to check Facebook, respond to emails or browse the web, but you may experience a slight reduction in picture quality and some buffering when viewing videos. 4G LTE is our fastest data option. If you’re looking to do all the above, plus stream HD videos and consume dynamic content, like Snapchat or Instagram stories, without compromising on image quality or a seamless video experience, 4G LTE is our recommended data speed for you!
Check out this video below to better visualize the difference:
**Plans with 4G LTE data can access maximum LTE download speeds (manufacturer rated at up to 750 Mbps; expected average speeds 12-200 Mbps). Plans with 3G data may reach download speeds of up to 3 Mbps, with the coverage and reliability of the LTE network. Speed and signal strength may vary with your device, configuration, Internet traffic, environmental conditions, applicable network management and other factors. For a description of Public Mobile’s network management practices, please see https://www.publicmobile.ca/pdfs/Wireless_Video_Experience_Optimization.pdf. Compatible device required.
Are you a current Public Mobile customer?
If you’re already a customer (joined prior to the 3G launch), this change will not affect your current plan. Looking to change your current plan? No problem - use the Self Serve portal to make plan changes for your next renewal date, but keep in mind: once changes have been made, you will not be able to switch back to your current plan at a later date if it’s no longer available. View our Service Terms for more details.
You’ll also notice that we have removed and grandfathered the 10-day plan. We did this in order to refocus our resources and stay focused on what our customers want.
@Janterry wrote: Just so I'm clear...as an existing member, if I change my plan to one of these new plans with the bonus data, I will keep that bonus data for good as long as I don't change my plan?
@Janterry that is correct. Between now and midnight (eastern time zone) July 31st, you would need to go into self-serve portal and schedule a plan change for your next renewal. It's okay that if the renewal is after July 31st, you just have to have it scheduled by then. If you do that, you will get the bonus data until you either leave or change your plan to something else.
I don't know what plan you are on today but do note that given all the plans were changed last week, you will NOT be able to get back on that plan should you change your mind down the road. You would have to choose from the currently offered plans at that time, including the revised pricing.
EDIT: @NDesai you beat me by moments! Guess we were typing at the same time 🙂
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@Janterry wrote: Just so I'm clear...as an existing member, if I change my plan to one of these new plans with the bonus data, I will keep that bonus data for good as long as I don't change my plan?
Yup, you're good as long as you don't change your plan.
Note: The bonus data promo will expire on July 31st.
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Just so I'm clear...as an existing member, if I change my plan to one of these new plans with the bonus data, I will keep that bonus data for good as long as I don't change my plan?
Who really wants 3G now a days. I cringe when my phone shows 3G up in Muskoka. Similar to the old commercials where the guy is tapping is fingers waiting for his dial up to transmit...............same thing with 3G. This is 2017 not 2007
@tigge811 this was my initial reaction as well. It's still not something I would want personally, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be based on my testing. [if you haven't been following, the community oracles were each given a temporary test line to try out the new "3G" plans.] PM seem confident that there is a fairly significant market of folks out there that are interested in plans like this. I think they base that off the number of folks on Chatr, and pre-LTE or non-LTE Freedom (they're only LTE in some markets, and on an obscure band that not many phones support yet, and in fact even some unlocked not-bought-from-Freedom phones that have band 66 support don't work becuase of how they've configured their network). Plus I think there is a value-driven segment of the market that may not even have a data plan yet today that might be lured in to try data based on these "lower" priced "3G" plans. I'm not entirely convinced myself, but I think that's the thought at PM. Time will tell!
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@Kamenrider wrote: Wow. That is worse than chatr because I just switched from there over a month ago Bc I thought they were slow for similar money at the time but got LTE speed here. Chatr was averaging 1 Mbps and took a few mins to upload a pic of decent size. Making chatr look like good value now. I can live with the download. 3G on my Telus prepaid was getting 1.5 upload which is actually useable and reasonable to send photos to get back a response from the other person.
@Kamenrider yes, I can only categorize the upload cap, currently, on the "3G" data plans as "painful" or "very painful". Do NOT get on one of these plans (currently--I'm still hopeful PM will bump up the upload speed but I have no insider info there, just hope) if you do tasks that require prompt upload speed. cc: @Jeremy_M I hope you guys are giving this real consideration!
@Michael77 wrote: Sorry to hear about your situation. There are a number of people in the same boat as you. I hope PM comes out with some good promotions in the future. Take care.
@Michael77 indeed. I am quite confident we have not seen the last of promotions. I don't know what future ones will look like or if they will be as attractively priced as the previous Freedom-targetting promo and the 2016 Fall Promo (that was open to all, including existing PM customers), but I'm hopeful.
I believe the new community concensus [or at least among the community oracles] is that unless one of the current regular plans is a better fit for you than what you're on already at your current provider, you're now better off to wait for a promo that applies to you before moving over.
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Wow. That is worse than chatr because I just switched from there over a month ago Bc I thought they were slow for similar money at the time but got LTE speed here. Chatr was averaging 1 Mbps and took a few mins to upload a pic of decent size. Making chatr look like good value now. I can live with the download. 3G on my Telus prepaid was getting 1.5 upload which is actually useable and reasonable to send photos to get back a response from the other person.
If you want a business / corporate plan: the way to go is with Telus. Telus business plans are reliable and reasonably prices. I wanted to change for PM, but now stay with Telus and changed my plan for the 6GB USA/Canada plan. Cost 100 / month. This includes a smartphone on a 2 year plan! Without smartphone it's the same price but then not on a 2 year term. So always go with a new smartphone. Prices stays the same. So, in fact the plan is then not 100 per month but 70 - 80 per month, dependent on the smartphone you use. That makes it even cheaper than PM because Telus has included roaming in USA for free!!! So when I go to the USA, there are no extra charges and I can use my 6 GB LTE per month also there without extra costs. I agree Rogers coverage is not very reliable (at least in our area) and Freedom Mobile is on Rogers in away zones. Since we live in an away zone, that doesn't help either.
If you want a business / corporate plan: the way to go is with Telus.
Telus business plans are reliable and reasonably prices. I wanted to change for PM, but now stay with Telus and changed my plan for the 6GB USA/Canada plan. Cost 100 / month. This includes a smartphone on a 2 year plan! Without smartphone it's the same price but then not on a 2 year term. So always go with a new smartphone. Prices stays the same. So, in fact the plan is then not 100 per month but 70 - 80 per month, dependent on the smartphone you use. That makes it even cheaper than PM because Telus has included roaming in USA for free!!! So when I go to the USA, there are no extra charges and I can use my 6 GB LTE per month also there without extra costs. I agree Rogers coverage is not very reliable (at least in our area) and Freedom Mobile is on Rogers in away zones. Since we live in an away zone, that doesn't help either.
Sorry to hear about your situation. There are a number of people in the same boat as you. I hope PM comes out with some good promotions in the future. Take care.
I feel the pain. I found out about the 4GB LTE $40 offer a bit too late. I was hoping for the same offer (aka Freedom Mobile offer) for other service provider as well.
Instead what does PM do, they offer 3G service while Freedom Mobile is offering 6GB LTE for $44.
When I called Rogers, they offered me 4GB on the LTE network for $50. The best PM can do is offer $75 for 4GB on a 90 day plan. You have to wonder who the lower price carrier is. For $77 I can get 5GB with a new phone on a corporate plan with Rogers. The only reason I don't is because I hate their coverage.
I to relay the best cell phone prices to colleagues. I have several people waiting for me to recommend a plan to them and I thought PM was the answer but apparently not. No way I can recommend PM to them with their tier 1 plan offerings
Who really wants 3G now a days. I cringe when my phone shows 3G up in Muskoka. Similar to the old commercials where the guy is tapping is fingers waiting for his dial up to transmit...............same thing with 3G. This is 2017 not 2007
The ability to play 1080p video properly is often a matter of the device itself and whether it can keep with the processing demands of displaying the images. This is because if a site buffers enough of the video ahead of time, the video will play fine, without any stuttering or pauses. It's up to the site providing the video to properly examine the abilities of your internet connnection and load enough of the video ahead of time so that the playback of that video can remain continuous. While 2.5Mbps isn't very fast, it's not some dial-up type speed. I would compare loading a video at 2.5Mbps comparable to the old days of loading a graphic intensive website back in the old days of dial-up. For a 1080p video, you'd probably have to wait a few minutes before playback starts, but that's only so that the video can remain smooth once it does start.
Once again, i just tested 1080p youtube videos on my PC (tethered from 3g line at 2.5mbps). I literally have to wait about 3-5 sec and videos starts playing fine until the end. You would have to wait a few second if you skip forward or backward. I can provide a video demonstrating this if you guys really want.
Yes, now that I think of it, I was exhagerating when I said "a few minutes". When I had a 5Mbps DSL connection, 1080p videos were a struggle to watch. They would work/play but the experience watching them wasn't good. Now that I have a 50Mbps home internet connection, 720p videos from Netflix still takes a couple seconds to load and buffer before playback starts. The amount of time that the video starts playing really does depend on the size of the file and how much of the video that the site tries to buffer before playback is allowed to begin.
@Bubba It's not actually the 3G network, rather capped speed running on the LTE network. It only runs on the 3G network if your phone only operates, or is set, there.
@Bubba this is correct, what @Luddite has said. It's confusing that they've named this new data option 3G. I've been calling it "3G" because, strictly speaking, it isn't. It's data that's been throttled down to similar speeds you might experience at other 3G providers like Chatr and pre-LTE or non-LTE Freedom Moible. We have sent feedback that we think the naming is confusing. Whether or not anything will change in that regard, I do not not.
But basically if you're picking a new plan (or activating a new line) today, you have three options for your data portin:
- a "4G" data bucket in various sizes: this is the same, non-throttled full-speed LTE with fallback to non-throttled HSPA/HSPA+ those of us on grandathered plans pre-2017/07/13 have.
- a "3G" data bucket in vairous sizes: this is throttled LTE with fallback to throttled HSPA/HSPA+
- no data
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The ability to play 1080p video properly is often a matter of the device itself and whether it can keep with the processing demands of displaying the images. This is because if a site buffers enough of the video ahead of time, the video will play fine, without any stuttering or pauses. It's up to the site providing the video to properly examine the abilities of your internet connnection and load enough of the video ahead of time so that the playback of that video can remain continuous. While 2.5Mbps isn't very fast, it's not some dial-up type speed. I would compare loading a video at 2.5Mbps comparable to the old days of loading a graphic intensive website back in the old days of dial-up. For a 1080p video, you'd probably have to wait a few minutes before playback starts, but that's only so that the video can remain smooth once it does start.
Once again, i just tested 1080p youtube videos on my PC (tethered from 3g line at 2.5mbps). I literally have to wait about 3-5 sec and videos starts playing fine until the end. You would have to wait a few second if you skip forward or backward. I can provide a video demonstrating this if you guys really want.
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The ability to play 1080p video properly is often a matter of the device itself and whether it can keep with the processing demands of displaying the images. This is because if a site buffers enough of the video ahead of time, the video will play fine, without any stuttering or pauses. It's up to the site providing the video to properly examine the abilities of your internet connnection and load enough of the video ahead of time so that the playback of that video can remain continuous. While 2.5Mbps isn't very fast, it's not some dial-up type speed. I would compare loading a video at 2.5Mbps comparable to the old days of loading a graphic intensive website back in the old days of dial-up. For a 1080p video, you'd probably have to wait a few minutes before playback starts, but that's only so that the video can remain smooth once it does start.
@Bubba It's not actually the 3G network, rather capped speed running on the LTE network. It only runs on the 3G network if your phone only operates, or is set, there.
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@srlawren wrote: The "3G" plans over HSPA/HSPA+ network will also soon be capped to the same 2.5Mbps downlink & 0.4Mbps uplink, just like the "3G" plans over the LTE network. @Jeremy_M confirmed this when asked in our private oracle community area.
I thought 3G was 3G. isnt HSPA/HSPA+ also 3G speed.
so there's all these specturuns/bands and depending on what your phone has the abilty to pick up thats what you get. Is that how it works
@WearySky amen! We were hoping for early access to kick the tires before it went public [pun intended], but unfortunately that wasn't possible. So we're "live" testing it along with any new customers that may have chosen a 3G data option since it launched.
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We don't know if this is intentional or an oversight, but it does appear to be consistent across multiple oracles and at different times.
I CANNOT say that it will remain this way so don't count on it being like this forever. It could be a gltich that will eventually be fixed. But in the meantime this is a possible workaround to the speed limits on the "3G" plans indeed.
UPDATE: Please note:
The "3G" plans over HSPA/HSPA+ network will also soon be capped to the same 2.5Mbps downlink & 0.4Mbps uplink, just like the "3G" plans over the LTE network. @Jeremy_M confirmed this when asked in our private oracle community area.
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" It works fine for streaming 1080p video and for browsing"
No, they actually pointed out and said that video streaming/ viewing will be buffering with the 3G. Just saying.
@srlawren has been actually using it for a few weeks now, so one would presume that he knows what he's talking about 🙂
@WearySky, @Bubba: one week. It's fine for 1080p YouTube. Takes a tiny bit longer when you jump around inside the video (like skip ahead or skip back) but regular playback is indistinguishable from the regular 4G data service from what I can tell. I believe my fellow oracles had a similar experience with streaming.
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