New Long Distance Add-Ons

[Catherine_T]

Hi Community, 

We heard you about wanting more countries and we have some exciting news to announce today! Effective October 8, 2020, Public Mobile is launching a new add-on suite of Long Distance Minutes to better serve customers making calls internationally from Canada. 

What’s changing? 

We made some key changes based on your feedback, including:

• A simplified structure 
• Increased value for high demand countries  
• Increased the number of countries included in our suite of add-ons from 19 to 41 

What does this look like? 

Previous Long Distance Add-ons (pre October 8, 2020):

• 200 Minutes to the U.S. and Canada for $8
• 400 International Minutes for $15 

New Long Distance Add-ons (as of October 8, 2020):

• 1000 Minutes to the U.S. for $15;
• 1000 Minutes to the U.K. for $15; 
• 750 Minutes to India and Pakistan for $15;
• 500 Minutes to China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan for $15;
• 100 Minutes to the Philippines for $15 
• 300 International Minutes for $15 which now includes more calling locations 
• New countries added include: Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Romania, Sweden 
• 500 Canada-wide Minutes for $5  

How to get this offer:

1. Log-in to Self Serve
2. Ensure you have sufficient funds in your account. If not, make sure to top up. 
3. Go to “Plan and Add-Ons”
4. Select “My Add-Ons”
5. Select your preferred Long Distance Add-On under ‘Talk’
6. Click ‘Make a Payment’ and follow the instructions

What you need to know:

1. Unused long distance add-on minutes do not expire and will roll over to the next plan period 
2. Customers with existing long distance add-ons can continue to use their minutes until the minutes are depleted  
3. Customers purchasing the 300 International Long Distance Minutes Add-On can now call the following countries: Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Venezuela 
4. Our 500 Canada-wide minutes for $5 add-on is still available for purchase  

Thank you again for choosing Public Mobile! Let us know what you think 🙂

- The Public Mobile Team

[yanzhiqiang]

Thanks，love it！

[AE_Collector]

I would settle for being able to roam ANY country right now. Cruising withdrawl. Getting close to a year since we last disembarked a cruise ship.

AE_Collector

[Mcchen]

Now we just need more countries to roam.

The US roaming is fair enough.

[Korth]

@LurganIeUk 

The old PM add-ons with the old PM prices will be used first wherever there's overlap, so no loss there - customers already agreed to pay those prices at point of purchase, legacy add-ons are a done deal.

These new PM rates cost more in some specifics than the old PM rates, some people will have to pay more than they did before.

These new PM rates cost less in some specifics than the old PM rates, some people will save money.

These new PM rates are still cheaper per-minute than Lucky, Chatr, and Freedom.

(Aside from Freedom's $5/month Unlimited USA Talk option, which only comes out ahead if you actually use more than 333 minutes of USA Talk during the month.)

[LurganIeUk]

Just a quick comparison. And cost per minute comparisons. And thumbs up to PM. What a great selection of LD Add-Ons. 

Double click the pics. 

[LurganIeUk]

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@scardinal3 wrote:

thank you,

So as a confirmation... I do have the 15$ plan...with 100minutes (outgoing) included.. so, the 500 add-on I just purchased ADDs UP minutes to my plan and is only used WHENEVER my 100minutes dries out...correct?

Thanks, 

---

YES!! And the balance of 500 roll over month to month til exhausted. 

[Jb456]

@scardinal3 

Two steps 

1- add $5 to your account

2- Click purchase add-on and buy it.

In 30 days you have your 100 outgoing minutes. You will have 500 minutes in your add-on section. If you use all 100 minutes then the 500 minutes will kick in.

If you use 50 of those addon minutes then your plan renews. Now you will be back to your 100 plan minutes and 450 minutes siting in add-on until next time it needs to be used.

The add-on rolls over every 30 days until all used up.

[LurganIeUk]

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@LurganIeUk wrote:

Hi, looks great. Really good for folks in Canada to call friends and relatives in other countries!!

I am trying to understand the US roaming options to use while in the USA. The add-on description lead me to read footnote 6.

Website refers to footnote 6 for both Canada and US Add-ons. 

Should the add-on for USA roaming Add-ons refer to footnote 5????

In Canada Long Distance Add-Ons6 US Roaming6  - 10 day packages

Footnote 6. Talk, text and data services refer to services offered while connected to the Telus/Public Mobile network. For service when not connected to the Telus/Public Mobile network, a roaming package must be purchased. Calls must originate from Canada to the US.

Footnote 5. Data Add-Ons to supplement a Data Plan will be provisioned at the data speed selected in your plan. If you have a Talk and/or Text Plan only with no data, the Data Add-Ons available to you will be defaulted to 4G LTE speed. US Roaming speed and signal strength may vary with your device, configuration, Internet traffic, environmental conditions, our partner’s applicable network management, the base plan you have purchased and other factors.

================================================================

Also footnote 2 is NOT showing in ANY of the plans and can be read 2 ways. 

1. Every one that pays using auto-pay gets 500mb free of Data

2. Any plan that offers 500MB (all but $15 plan) must use AutoPay. 

Footnote 2. Customers must subscribe to AutoPay to receive the 500MB data bonus

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Just also to add. For anyone new or wanting to use add-ons and likes to do everything on their own and not bother any one. The USA BUNDLES need to be clarified on the Add-Ons at the bottom of the PLANS and in the ordering of a bundle in My Account. It should be made clear that the TALK AND TEXT piece is UNLIMITED  and obviously the GB or MB of Data is expires upon using it up. 

[scardinal3]

thank you,

So as a confirmation... I do have the 15$ plan...with 100minutes (outgoing) included.. so, the 500 add-on I just purchased ADDs UP minutes to my plan and is only used WHENEVER my 100minutes dries out...correct?

Thanks, 

[LurganIeUk]

---

@scardinal3 wrote:

Question...

Is the 500 min Canada-Wide Long Distance add-on only for long distance usage or it is also used as talking general minutes?

thanks,

---

Assuming your are on $15 plan. Your 100 minutes are LD and called Canada Wide. The 500 min.  add-on will kick in after your 100 are used up. LD = Long Distance Canada only OR Canada Wide calling. So you can call any where in Canada on the 100 or 500 minutes. But you have to dial with the +1 when needed. 

[Jb456]

@scardinal3 used in two ways.

Some.older plans are province plans so people would use it to call other provinces.

Some new plans have limited Canada wide minutes like the old $10 plan or the current $15 plan which has 100 outgoing Canada wide minutes for the $15 plan.

So 500 Canada wide minutes can be used anywhere you are in Canada to whoever you want to call in Canada that has a Canadian number.

[pm-smayer97]

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@scardinal3 wrote:

Question...

Is the 500 min Canada-Wide Long Distance add-on only for long distance usage or it is also used as talking general minutes?

thanks,

---

ANY calls within Canada beyond your base minutes use this add-on if you have it.

[scardinal3]

Question...

Is the 500 min Canada-Wide Long Distance add-on only for long distance usage or it is also used as talking general minutes?

thanks,

[AE_Collector]

Finally time to make a few comments myself. Overall it is good to see the increase in available countries and overall a decrease in cost per minute. But i have to agree that it has become much more complicated now instead of easier. We have to remember that with a Post Paid plan you simply call who you want and at the end of the month you get billed. Couldn’t be easier though yeah it may not turn out to be the best price overall. So it wont be as easy on PrePaid but will hopefully be a better deal.

The old system had some benefits in the way that the three categories including Canada, USA & International were all covered if you had just the International plan. And the International plan was actually very slightly less expensive per minute than the US only plan so it was reasonable to just have the International plan or you might add the Canada plan as well to ensure you weren’t consuming significantly more expensive US/International minutes on calls above your plan limits calling within Canada.

I would agree with trying to keep it as simple as possible within the knowledge that there is no way that access to all available countries can be at the same price per minute. So a single “Long Distance” add-on with variable rates of consumption of the units in the plan to the various countries would be great. There might be different size packages that make smaller packages a higher cost per minute but less outlay up front. 100, 500, 1000 units maybe and consumption could be 1 unit to Canada, 2 Units to US & UK, 3 or 4 or more units to other countries. Realistically there shouldn’t be any reason PM couldn’t allow access to every country in the world as Telus has the ability and the cost per minute would simply be “X” number of units per minute depending on the country.

If not the above then try to keep it as simple as possible by combining similar per minute countries such as USA and UK together and I would say to merge the old plans into the new somehow to clean up the mess of different add-ons in the list.

AE_Collector

[LurganIeUk]

Hi, looks great. Really good for folks in Canada to call friends and relatives in other countries!!

I am trying to understand the US roaming options to use while in the USA. The add-on description lead me to read footnote 6.

Website refers to footnote 6 for both Canada and US Add-ons. 

Should the add-on for USA roaming Add-ons refer to footnote 5????

In Canada Long Distance Add-Ons6 US Roaming6  - 10 day packages

Footnote 6. Talk, text and data services refer to services offered while connected to the Telus/Public Mobile network. For service when not connected to the Telus/Public Mobile network, a roaming package must be purchased. Calls must originate from Canada to the US.

Footnote 5. Data Add-Ons to supplement a Data Plan will be provisioned at the data speed selected in your plan. If you have a Talk and/or Text Plan only with no data, the Data Add-Ons available to you will be defaulted to 4G LTE speed. US Roaming speed and signal strength may vary with your device, configuration, Internet traffic, environmental conditions, our partner’s applicable network management, the base plan you have purchased and other factors.

================================================================

Also footnote 2 is NOT showing in ANY of the plans and can be read 2 ways. 

1. Every one that pays using auto-pay gets 500mb free of Data

2. Any plan that offers 500MB (all but $15 plan) must use AutoPay. 

Footnote 2. Customers must subscribe to AutoPay to receive the 500MB data bonus

[darlicious]

@dac13 

Good question seeing as brexit has skewed country loyalties but the previous international add ons considered Northern Ireland to be part of the UK and it should remain that way for the new add ons as well. You were able to call Northern Ireland with old add on but not the Republic of Ireland.

Edit: Whoops meant to tag you @srlawren !

[srlawren]

@Catherine_T @Bryan_N I'm curious about Northern Ireland.  Does the "Ireland" in the new 300 min international add-on cover the entire island of Ireland, or just the republic?  Northern Ireland is part of the UK, but how does it work for calling someone there?--do you use the international add-on (which includes "Ireland"), or the UK add-on?

[dac13]

Nice to see that Public Mobile listens and makes changes accordingly.  

[sa7375]

Point taken. The fact, nonetheless, is that no package/solution can satisfy the needs of 100% of the clients. However, a solution can be considered that could satisfy the needs of users needing fewer minutes.

One possible solution could be that all cheaper cost per-minute package be nested under a higher cost package. Example: The package of “500 Minutes to China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan for $15” automatically cover calls to countries with a cheaper package — like “1000 Minutes to the U.S. for $15”. This would imply that a person would thence pay 3 cents/min for calls to China as well as to the U.S., and will not need to subscribe to two separate packages. This seems to be a Win-Win for both — the PM and the User.

@computergeek541  @Catherine_T 

[sunflowershine]

Nice. But may need less minutes with lower cost that could attract more customers.

[Rosguru]

It is wonderful to see more countries added to the International List.  Way to go Public Mobile!

I would love to see Trinidad and Tobago added to the list also.  I have signed up 19 people through my own account and through others.  I am Trinidadian born and this would mean a lot to me.  It would also help me initiate more business for you.

[hyT]

I like @computergeek541 's suggestion best. Give me one long-distance add-on that rolls over. Allow me to call any country on your list with that same add-on but deduct different "credits" from that add-on depending on the country I am calling. Simple and flexible. Is it possible?

[darlicious]

@LF99LF 

As per @Anonymous suggestions whenever you are making any kind of changes in your account (adding funds, purchases, plan changes etc....) please use these methods to avoid error messages and glitches within the pm system:

1. Clear your browser and close all tabs.
2. Reboot your device.
3. Open one tab only using secret/incognito mode.
4. Firefox, chrome or safari work best.

Using these methods will almost always allow for a smooth, problem free experience.

[pm-smayer97]

@Catherine_T @Bryan_N 

Always nice to see an expansion of offerings. 😄

Not so nice when it comes at the expense of other offerings that are/were useful. 😞

Now how about seriously considering some texting add-ons?

Please see this thread : How about a Texting Add-On?

(Anyone wanting else, don't forget to show and voice your support)

[SomeFriend]

Aside from Long Distance addons (which I call on the occasion only anyway and, once I deplete my current addons..  when I do, I will swap to other options instead), can we get more roaming locations please?

Maybe reasonable Europe roaming addons please?

[Anonymous]

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@LF99LF wrote:

I HAVE MONEY IN MY ACCOUNT I WANT TO BUY A LOND DISTANCE ADD ON AND WHEN I PRESS THE BUTTON THEY SAYSORRY SOMETHING WENT WRONG. I DID IT 10 TIMES NOW/.

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 @LF99LF 

Try a different browser or clear cache/site cookies or try incognito/privacy mode.

If you're wanting to buy one of the newly added add-ons I suppose there could be a glitch in the system.

[Anonymous]

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@Bryan_N wrote:

Hi @Anonymous 

Thanks for mentioning! We are looking into how we can address this to ensure customers have more options to purchase. 

Bryan 

---

 @Bryan_N 

Your Community system that runs on Khoros has a nice option to indicate which post is being replied to. This post of yours and the couple before have no context. Maybe you're referring to my feedback of the 611 service. If you turned on that option, the post that was replied to using the Reply button to the lower right of the post would be linked and we could all see the context of someone's reply. Very often new customers come on and reply to someone and they leave no clue as to who or what they're replying to.

It would be very useful to turn on that feature. It's already there. You just need to flip the switch.

As we've all been doing all these years, we quote the post or tag them (as you have on occasion but not always ). Although the quote function isn't available on a mobile browser for some unknown reason. Maybe you could fix that too. Or flip that switch and you won't need to fix that problem. Two birds!

Thank you for showing up on here and giving some official company replies.

[LF99LF]

I HAVE MONEY IN MY ACCOUNT I WANT TO BUY A LOND DISTANCE ADD ON AND WHEN I PRESS THE BUTTON THEY SAYSORRY SOMETHING WENT WRONG. I DID IT 10 TIMES NOW/.

[Korth]

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@Pound wrote:

I’m nonetheless glad to see the changes. I know the rates are based on agreements with local providers and vary by country.

---

The operator-to-operator or network-to-network rate agreements are part of it.

But the other part is whatever price the operator sets for their customers.

They can choose to charge less than their cost, though that's not good business unless it generates profits elsewhere.

They can choose to pass it along at their own cost, a profit-neutral feature which just pays for itself so customers stick around and generate profit in other ways.

They can choose to charge more than their cost, and it seems evident that they usually do.

I notice that PM charges lower long distance rates to some countries than Telus or Koodo. So maybe the negotiated rates differ for each operator, just as altruistic or greedy imperatives differ for each operator.

[Pound]

They were expensive. They are not cheap now (maybe except to the US and the UK). I’m sticking to my calling cards. 

I’m nonetheless glad to see the changes. I know the rates are based on agreements with local providers and vary by country.

Hope to see something like 2000 mins for $20, with roll-over of course. Believe you me, when people think it’s cheaper, they tend to talk longer.