cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

3G verses 4G

Jennalynn
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Hi All:)

I had a friend sign up yesterday, bought the SIM at Koodo mobile, and you guessed it, the guy attempted to get my friend to stay with Koodo..Can't blame them.  Anyways, his main argument was that PM only runs 3G and not 4G and he claims that 3G is "no longer maintained"..What??? He said that because of this, PM service will be unreliable.  I haven't had any issues, is he right?  Will 3G just be dropped and leave us all with no alternative but to return to other carriers?  Yikes.  I hope not...he scared me...

Thanks in advance for your input...

Jenna

45 REPLIES 45


@0PX9O4 wrote:

The primary blame is on our incompetent government regulator, the CRTC for working so hard to maintain the status quo, seemingly at every decision that they make.


Not at all incompetent. Just corrupt.

 

Canadian government instruments work very hard at protectionism, at locking (foreign) competitors out of Canadian markets. And they are extremely successful at it. Doesn't bother them one bit that they're basically embezzling Canadian consumers.

keepasa
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

Don't worry, since the 3G will be here til 2024-2025.  And by that time, the LTE netowkr will be more stronger.  On my phone, for now, I always prefer 3G connection since speed is a bit faster while not much difference on latency. A nice bonus difference is battery savings since LTE signals are always much weaker than 3G making your phone work harder to stay connected. 

0PX9O4
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

My friends in developing South and South East Asian countries were all making VoLTE calls FIVE years ago. I'm told they can't even find a device in their local markets anymore that won't support VoLTE.

 

As the large oligopolies that they are, I put less of the blame on any of the Big3 Canadian telcos for providing bad service and outdated technology for high prices.

 

The primary blame is on our incompetent government regulator, the CRTC for working so hard to maintain the status quo, seemingly at every decision that they make.

@0PX9O4 

Newfoundland probably has a higher incidence of this issue than other provinces due to its small population and geography. It also has no telus cell towers at all on the island only in labrador. It is mostly serviced by bell with a handful of Rogers towers and some independents (possibly eastlink?) Given the near monopoly bell has had on that province its no surprise as they expand coverage they are not installing soon to be outdated technology.

 

There is the fongo/call forwarding work around. This is also likely one of the region's that will have voLTE rolled out to first when it comes time.

0PX9O4
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

@jor123 wrote:

There are several LTE only areas in nl. No voice calls can be made as no 3G tower is close enough. Most are areas where a tower or small cells were just installed within the last few years so they are fully LTE but the lack of voice over LTE on pm means no voice calls at all. Point leamington and hearts content are two examples. 


Reading this just makes me that much more disappointed in both Telus (as parent company of PM), and in our dysfunctional/incompetent regulator, the CRTC.

jor123
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

There are several LTE only areas in nl. No voice calls can be made as no 3G tower is close enough. Most are areas where a tower or small cells were just installed within the last few years so they are fully LTE but the lack of voice over LTE on pm means no voice calls at all. Point leamington and hearts content are two examples. 

Anonymous
Not applicable

 @barndoor : There are some overlapping things going on. 1. Some areas of Manitoba have limited 3G for talk. 2. Other areas are going through some infrastructure changes where switching to 3G is a temporary workaround.

 

Homer1959
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

I might be wrong but my understanding is that our phone runs on 4G but the speed is reduce to 3G speed. As far as I know its all automatic and we have nothing to do for this to happen. But dont take my word ill wait like you for our top notch spécialist 🙂

barndoor
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

So what is the scoop here ...phone should be set to 3G or only if there seems to be an issue do you set it to 3G? 

I've read through most of this and still don't get ...is 3g available where ever there  is 4G coverage  or are they separate entities  and there are places with 4G and no 3G?

Anonymous
Not applicable

@darlicious wrote:

@Anonymous 

True but the decommissioning timeline is common knowledge. The 18 month to 2 year timeline is the educated guess by @sheytoon .


 @darlicious : Oh. That. Yes. Wikipedia says 2025. That's still a bit of a ways away.

@Anonymous 

True but the decommissioning timeline is common knowledge. The 18 month to 2 year timeline is the educated guess by @sheytoon .

Anonymous
Not applicable

I must be blind...I don't see any mention of timeframes in that post.

golfball
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@0PX9O4  As stated above, it was mentioned in this post: 

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Using-Your-Service/Text-From-PM-About-Changes-To-Mani...

 

Edit: Beaten by the edit. 🙂

@0PX9O4 

It came from the horses mouth.....it was posted by @Catherine_T in the thread about the possible loss of calling in the areas surrounding Brandon and Winnipeg from earlier this year. That because of this sudden change by bell that left telus hanging with little notice in Manitoba that the implementation of voLTE service for pm has been sped up from 5 years (or the scheduled shutdown at the end of 2025) to 18 months to 2 years from now. Possibly sooner for some areas already affected or that were never serviced by the 3G network to begin with.

 

Edit:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Using-Your-Service/Text-From-PM-About-Changes-To-Mani...

0PX9O4
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

@golfball wrote:

@Homer1959 Public Mobile doesn't currently support VoLTE. They have said they plan to in the future. 

LTE-only areas are not something I've ever even heard of. So I don't think it's a big concern at this time.


@golfball

I hadn't yet heard of PM declaring that they intend to provide VoLTE support in the future. Are you able to provide your source for this information?

Homer1959
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

I'm trusting this ....layperson guy LOL 

 

Thanks to respond so quickly to all my questions. I really appreciate the support here , its much better and responsive than the last one I,ve used in India in the past 🙂

golfball
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@Homer1959 Public Mobile doesn't currently support VoLTE. They have said they plan to in the future. 

LTE-only areas are not something I've ever even heard of. So I don't think it's a big concern at this time.

Anonymous
Not applicable

 @Homer1959 : Most phones sit idle on LTE. This place offers data and text on LTE along with talk, text and data on UMTS/WCDMA/HSPA/3G. The LTE data speed is throttled down to 3Mbps. The data speed on HSPA is unthrottled.

When a call comes in, the phone switches to UMTS.

Telus shares infrastructure with Bell. Telus "owns" the west. Bell the east. Bell might change things up in some areas. ie. areas in Manitoba somewhat recently with some historical context of the old Manitoba cell service. This caused a band of UMTS to be dropped. This made it harder for us to get a signal. Still somewhat possible...but harder.

VoLTE is the answer to that but Public Mobile doesn't offer that...yet.

 

Edit: at least that's how this layperson understands things.

Homer1959
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

Thanks for the quick reply however I have another question. There is some conflictual info here sometimes , its ok with me 🙂  but I need to know the limitation of PM versus the competition, even versus the major carrier .

 

Will I be left high and dry by PM in a LTE zone only despite the fact they advertise their service as the greatest of the greatest and avail. nationwide  🙂 

 

Whats up with VoLte ? Pm offers it or not ?  Thanks to all

 


@Homer1959 wrote:

Hummm... you make me wonder if I did the right thing by coming on PM. Tell me , what are the chance to be left with no phone services in Canada ? ( LTE only zone ) is this common ? PM brags about being on the greatest network supported by Telus ...so , its kind of confusing for a newbie like me I would say


 

An area only being served by LTE isn't common. From what I've read, this usually in remote areas that more recently started receiving cell phone service.

Homer1959
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

Hummm... you make me wonder if I did the right thing by coming on PM. Tell me , what are the chance to be left with no phone services in Canada ? ( LTE only zone ) is this common ? PM brags about being on the greatest network supported by Telus ...so , its kind of confusing for a newbie like me I would say


@gblackma wrote:

So @computergeek541 with bands 2 and 5 hspa. Would your phone be able to make and receive calls in areas with only 4g available, including  these 2 bands. Thanks. 



No. In areas with only LTE available, phone calls over the regular voice network are not possible. It doesn't matter that a phone has HSPA capability on bands 2/5 if the network at that location doesn't support it.

So @computergeek541 with bands 2 and 5 hspa. Would your phone be able to make and receive calls in areas with only 4g available, including  these 2 bands. Thanks. 


@gblackma wrote:

Thamks @cavemantoronto I asked because there was recent thread here where another PMer didn't have the required  3g connections, but had bands 2 and 5. And the phone could make and receive calls.


@gblackma 

 

Band 2 and band 5 are used by Telus for both the LTE and HSPA networks.  The HSPA network is required for voice. Having those bands for LTE only helps with cellular data and text mesaaging. If phone calls worked, the device had the necessary 3g bands.

Thamks @cavemantoronto I asked because there was recent thread here where another PMer didn't have the required  3g connections, but had bands 2 and 5. And the phone could make and receive calls.

@gblackma 

No because Public Mobile doesn't allow LTE calls. Band 2 and 5 LTE or any LTE doesn't work for phone calls.

@cavemantoronto would the ability to make calls in the 4g LTE areas also not depend on if your phone has bands 2 and 5? Thanks. 

@Korth 

They can exclude network technlogies. They can block connection to one network if they want. Fido and Chatr did for years. Public also blocks VoLTE.  And 3g doesn't only run on 4g.  Data is on both networks. Calls are all on 3g network. New network areas are only 4g LTE and have no 3g. Calls won't work in those places.

@bilibili 

How can you never switch to HSPA+? You never make calls?

andrewly
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

That's assuming you have a 5G phone.

Need Help? Let's chat.