Is Public Mobile's LTE throttled vs Telus/Koodo? Who here has the fastest Public Mobile speed?

[Eug]

I set my wife up on Public Mobile and it is working well for her. However, I've noticed that the max download speeds are more limited than I was expecting. They're decent and more than sufficient for her, but still, not quite what I might have expected for Telus or Koodo. (She was on Koodo before.)

Thinking it might just be luck of the draw for wireless conditions right at those times tested, I looked online, and it seems a few people have done comparative tests between Public Mobile and Koodo side by side, and Public Mobile is consistently slower. Well, at best Public Mobile is sometimes similar, but most of the time Public Mobile is slower. For example, one test had two Galaxy S6 phones testing Koodo against Public Mobile tested side by side. Koodo was over 100 Mbps, but Public Mobile was 20ish Mbps. Others have done maybe 5 tests in a row with the same phone models and again, Public Mobile usually was slower. Furthermore, I have never seen a Public Mobile speed test benchmark out there hit over 100 Mbps. In fact, over 60 Mbps seems to be rare.

Are Koodo and Telus given priority over Public Mobile in terms of download (and upload speeds), or is Public Mobile actively throttled (but still provided LTE speeds)? Or is Public Mobile using a more limited LTE feature set? Or is this all just by chance? To be fair to Public Mobile, I don't think I've ever seen truly scientific speed test comparisons between Public Mobile vs Telus/Koodo.

BTW, my iPhone 7 Plus on Fido is consistently slower than Public Mobile on my wife's iPhone 6s for upload speeds in my house, with my Fido consistently in the 1.5-2.5 Mbps range, and her Public Mobile in the 8-15 Mbps range. That's a pretty huge difference, and I'd rather have the faster uploads. This is her iPhone 6s on Public Mobile, to show the decent uploads.

[username]

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@echf wrote:

I stll trust PM don't throttle speed but they just has a low tower priority.

For example, Google Fi has a low tower priority since it is a MVNO under Sprint, T-Mobile, and U.S. Cellular. It is very reasonable for carrier (around the world) to server their customer first then other people later.

Public Mobile still has a great network. You can totally expect LTE quality, which is much better than 3G network. I just won't expect PM is as fast as Telus/Bell when it is peak hours.

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That's a good point, @echf. I'll try to run some tests at obscure hours of the night / early morning, and report back with my findings.

[echf]

I stll trust PM don't throttle speed but they just has a low tower priority.

For example, Google Fi has a low tower priority since it is a MVNO under Sprint, T-Mobile, and U.S. Cellular. It is very reasonable for carrier (around the world) to server their customer first then other people later.

Public Mobile still has a great network. You can totally expect LTE quality, which is much better than 3G network. I just won't expect PM is as fast as Telus/Bell when it is peak hours.

[username]

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@theoc198 wrote:

@username did you do those speedtests connecting to the same server and using the same device? Was the phone connected using the same LTE bands for the Public Mobile and Telus speedtest? My phone generally likes connecting and sticking to LTE band 2 which generally isn't the fastest available band. 

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The Rogers tests were all with a GS4. Public Mobile was mostly on my Nexus 6p and Telus on an iPhone 6; however, I did try swapping the Telus SIM into the 6p as well, and the results were the same. Some were with the server fixed on all three, some with auto-select. Didn't seem to affect the overall trend. I actually did a lot more than just those 5 tests, but those were the only ones performed at the same time. (I used way too much data, haha.) As for the specific LTE bands, I am not sure.

[theoc198]

@username did you do those speedtests connecting to the same server and using the same device? Was the phone connected using the same LTE bands for the Public Mobile and Telus speedtest? My phone generally likes connecting and sticking to LTE band 2 which generally isn't the fastest available band. 

I'm in Toronto and this is the only speedtest I've done on Public Mobile so far. 

Phone: Nexus 6

LTE Band: 2

That speedtest alone used 89 mb so I haven't been able to do too many speedtests. 

[username]

Well put, @bryanbreguet

Coming from a 3G-only carrier, this is a definite step up.

I was hoping to get the same performance as Telus, so I can't say I'm not a bit disappointed... But I'm also not paying Telus prices, so there's that.

[bryanbreguet]

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@username wrote:

I did some quick tests myself. Tests were run at the same time on all three networks, over the course of a few hours.

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Nobody will make me believe that we aren't throttled at least a little bit. I don't care what one mod will say here, the evidence is here. I'm perfeclty fine with the speed for the price, but let's not kid ourselves.

The other evidence is that some people on Telus can sometimes get really crazy high speed, like close to 90-100 mbps, but we have yet to see anyone remotely close on PM.

As I said, I'm okay with that (and thanks for the tests!) but they should at least be honest. It's systematic, give me a break with the "results can vary based on blablabla".

[username]

I did some quick tests myself. Tests were run at the same time on all three networks, over the course of a few hours.

[YoshiF]

@McLaren Couldn't have said it better myself.  I've done many speedtests side-by-side and I only ended up wasting my data.

[Hmm]

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@sheytoon wrote:
This is really off topic, but Netflix's speed index is showing average speeds for ISP's offering fiber (FTTH) and copper. Teksavvy currently doesn't have access to FTTH.

If you compare Bell or Telus DSL with Teksavvy, is similar.

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Yeah off topic....but did you look at the historical data which includes Shaw before they had fibre? And why doesn't have Teksavvy have access to FTTH if they are using Shaw lines, at least in BC?

[sheytoon]

This is really off topic, but Netflix's speed index is showing average speeds for ISP's offering fiber (FTTH) and copper. Teksavvy currently doesn't have access to FTTH.

If you compare Bell or Telus DSL with Teksavvy, it's similar.

[Hmm]

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@theoc198 wrote:

@Hmm That's incorrect. Teksavvy by law has the same speeds as Shaw/Bell/Rogers. 

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If that was true then why do independent speed tests, say from Netflix show speeds from Teksavvy lower and significantly low in ranking compared with Shaw Cable* (which is the backbone that TekSavyy cable users must use)? And this was looooong before Shaw high speed 150. 

https://ispspeedindex.netflix.com/country/canada/ and http://imgur.com/a/0RDMe 

*The Netflix ISP Speed Index lists the average prime time bitrate for Netflix content streamed to Netflix members during a particular month. For ‘Prime Time’, we calculate the average bitrate of Netflix content in megabits per second (Mbps) streamed by Netflix members per ISP. We measure the speed via all available end user devices. For a small number of devices, we cannot calculate the exact bitrates and streaming via cellular networks is exempted from our measurements. The speed indicated in the Netflix ISP Speed Index is not a measure of the maximum throughput or the maximum capacity of an ISP.

Bottom line: I do believe PM has lower 3G and LTE speeds then Telus. 

[theoc198]

@Hmm That's incorrect. Teksavvy by law has the same speeds as Shaw/Bell/Rogers. 

[Hmm]

I am not surprised that speeds are throttled. You get what you pay for. I believe this is also true for home internet like Shaw came Tek Savvy.

[ckl]

@raxen Those are great speeds. I must admit when you get above 30Mbps, what really matters is the ping/latency times esp. when you are surfing the web because websites nowadays get information from various sources (ie. facebook, google+, analytics, advertising, etc.) which can add to the delay. Having come from Wind where the ping/latency was average 100+ms, having a sub-20ms ping time makes a real difference. It's less of a difference having 30Mbps vs. 50Mbps unless you are downloading a large file. Actually, my home internet is slower than PM's LTE and that is where I do most of my Internet related stuff and it seems really responsive mainly because the ping times are in the sub-10ms levels.

[mated3]

   My wife loves speed up from Wind, but I ported from Telus and Speed Test is showing a distinct slowdown (<20 Mbps).  In the screen capture the top two are Public Mobile showing 5 bars and LTE+ (I'm across the Highway from the tower). Next one is same but showing 4G (when I first activated - took a few minutes for LTE to show in the status bar). Next two (>50 Mbps) were last week on Telus.

    All tests were from the same location with the same device (Note 5). Last three were on home WiFi - there was a rogers problem which got corrected.

                                                ...MaTed

[zoomzoom87]

You are correct, wind was always cheap service...so so. I finally gave in to PM. I'm paying few bucks less, LTE everywhere and losing 1gb.. How could I say no? Not to mention Wind has been getting worse and worse over the years. A real shame. 

[raxen]

I joined PM yesterday and I've been trying to get to the bottom of whether PM speeds are throttled back. With near certainty, there is a measurable difference.

Tonight I tested using the exact same hardware, same location, and same test server using a PM SIM and a Telus SIM. Tests are roughly 3 minutes apart because it took time to remove the SIM Cards and connect to the network. Hardware is an iPhone 6 with iOS 10.1.1. I would love to do N=3 but I don't want to burn through my data in one day...

Here are the results:

PM Test #1

Telus Test

PM Test #2

[sheytoon]

For sure, I'll share my results, but I'm really busy for the next few weeks. I'll update this post when I have some free time.

[srlawren]

@sheytoon I'd love to hear the results of your testing.  PM Community Manager @Jeremy_M has assured us for the record that PM traffic is neither throttled nor deprioritized vs. Koodo or Telus traffic on the network.  He stated:

"Answer: No, PM traffic is not throttled", and then listed a number of factors that can influence speed test results.

I am hoping there is another explanation to your experience thus far.  

[sheytoon]

I agree speeds are throttled on PM.

I used the same phone in the same location just now with Bell and PM. I can get 200 Mbps DL with Bell (and probably Telus/Koodo), but no more than 65 Mbps with PM.

I suspect Telus has restricted the AMBR for PM's subscribers using the corresponding APNs.

In my speed test, I can clearly see the DL speed ramp up quickly beyond 100 Mbps, and then quickly taper off.

I've tried multiple severs as well. Next time I get my hands on QXDM, I will capture the NAS messages and share the AMBR values to confirm my suspicions.

[mikuck23]

not sure if they are throttling but i came from fido and download speeds were 75mb vs what i get now at PM 38mb

not that 38Mb is bad but it is slower than LTE standards

[Lukedurward]

I just tested my samsung S3 on Koodo.
Results we 29.95 DL and 11.8 UL.

[Chicklets]

It also depends which host you are using. I'm from brantford ontario and I tried 3 different hosts, 3 times. The following are the average results of each host within a 30 minute period:

Hamilton - Source Cable - 22 down and 20 up

Mississauga - Rogers - 35.9 down and 16.7 up

Toronto - TekSavvy - 37 down and 16 up

So its not just your location or type of phone but also the host that you use to test.

[bryanbreguet]

Well no. Some have replied that they were still happy with the speed. One mod said we weren.t being throttled. I'm fine with his answer. Notice that I didn't ask him to clarify, nor did I challenge the statement. You, on the other hand, have not provided a single useful and truthful reply.

Not sure where you take that I don't want to accept what I'm being told. Maybe your delusion is spreading faster than I thought? I guess this is the side effect of being a shill. Or maybe I should just call you a fanboy, so that you will stop being stucked up on the definition (even though it perfectly applies to you as you do have a vested interest in this).

You should really stay at school, you clearly need some logic and reading comprehension classes.

[kav2001c]

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@bryanbreguet wrote:

What we wanted to know is if they were indeed doing that. But hey, I gave up on you following a logical conversation, so I guess your comment here makes sense.

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Many people (everyone from myself to the mods) have responded to you in this matter @bryanbreguet

For some odd reason you just do not want to accept what is being told to you

[kav2001c]

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@bryanbreguet wrote:

No, there are many shills out there who somehow defend brands (or other things) without being paid.

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Loving the arguments aren't you @bryanbreguet

The very definition of the word shill is someone who is being compensated (usually financially but it could be other ways such as personal perks)

So I repeat (again) the question:

How is anyone "shilling" in this matter?

Posting facts you disagree with is not a shill

Throwing words around without any clue as to meaning of such is going to get you some heat here

[canucks4life]

No throttling here

[bryanbreguet]

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@kav2001c wrote:

@bryanbreguet and just for the record, you do understand Public CAN throttle your data (so can Koodo and Telus for that matter)

They are not but they could

First bullet point on page 2

https://www.publicmobile.ca/pdfs/Public_Mobile_Terms_of_Service.pdf

https://www.publicmobile.ca/pdfs/Wireless_Video_Experience_Optimization.pdf

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Yes we all get that. We have never argued about it, not me, not anybody else here.

What we wanted to know is if they were indeed doing that. But hey, I gave up on you following a logical conversation, so I guess your comment here makes sense.

[srlawren]

Thank you, @Jeremy_M, for putting the issue to rest.

@Eug, would you mind marking Jeremy's response as the solution to your question?