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The Brilliance of Telus

Lyuh1945
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

I say PUBLIC's community programme and referrals are excellent marketing strategies Telus has devised.   Very convenient for users and make them feel more appreciated as customers.

26 REPLIES 26

Well @jor123  coverage extended from Niagara to Quebec City officially

But there were hacks to work around that (eg activate an ON number then port an AB/BC number in over top)

They had a huge black market selling plans that way same as what later happened at Virgin and Koodo

Public was a pioneer in that way as well Cat LOL

 


@jor123 wrote:

Yeah the old PM CDMA network was only in a few cities wasn't it? Toronto/Montreal?


 

Act for the record, Telus DID buy the brand to destroy it

In earliest days worked very hard to that extent

It wasn't until years later (the BETA period) where Public started gaining traction and that marketing exec who decided to rebrand Public was a genius

 

@saeliux 


@saeliux wrote:

I never heard about PM until after it was already telus. I am pretty sure Telus helped spread the word.

 

Two things can happen after a acquisition: the parent company buys a company to destroy it or to expand their operation. 

 

If you think about it, PM uses telus towers, it still exists and it only improves. So it was a good move. 


 

@Lyuh1945 

He is referring to pricing obviously

Public had some super aggressive promos, esp during the end

 

The only other thing Public was ever better for was music services (with things like Spotify these days I bet would have died) financing (every carrier is offering credit these days) and roaming / international calling

 

All these features such as community, 90 day plans, rewards, activation promos, SIM cards, LTE etc are solely Telus marketing as none of them existed before

 


@Lyuh1945 wrote:

Really, it had been better before the acquisition?  

I thence assume that the community idea is not a Teleus invention.

 

Sad....  

 


 

oglat
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

@saeliux wrote:

I have a dual sim. One for bell, another for PM. 

 

At least for data, there was one time where Bell didnt work, but PM worked.

 

There is also a spot in a building I frequent where PM and Koodo does not work, but bell does.

 

Not sure how true is that statement about bell and telus towers are shared. Maybe some are but not all. 


Hi @saeliux 

They all are shared

Pm doesn't support volte and bell does, so it's possible in that area you only have lte signal and in that case you wouldn't be able to make any calls with public, but your bell service would totally be fine.

Also the position of your sim does matter. Try swapping them and choose 3g only for both, then lte only for both and see if there are any differences

jor123
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

@Korth wrote:

@terrybev Let's hope that the downward trend over the past couple years turns into an upward trend over the next couple years. I like seeing people join PM then become happy, I dislike seeing PM become unhappy then leave PM, I've seen it happen often enough to wonder when it's going to be my turn... now I'm happy enough but also apprehensive, uncertain, I feel it's prudent to keep appraised on what else is out there "just in case"... and broken trust is always the first sign of a doomed relationship, lol. 


Hopefully. 

@terrybev Let's hope that the downward trend over the past couple years turns into an upward trend over the next couple years. I like seeing people join PM then become happy, I dislike seeing PM become unhappy then leave PM, I've seen it happen often enough to wonder when it's going to be my turn... now I'm happy enough but also apprehensive, uncertain, I feel it's prudent to keep appraised on what else is out there "just in case"... and broken trust is always the first sign of a doomed relationship, lol. 

terrybev
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

@Korth wrote:

Public Mobile isn't as brilliant as it used to be just a few years ago.

 

On the downside:

Limited Talk/Text Plans, fixed Plans (no more Build Your Own Plan options), no more 10-day or 90-day Plans, endless parade of knee-jerk promos (catch 'em if you can, and hope the point-of-sale vendors have actually been informed, lol), conspicuous absence of PM Mods (they don't seem to stimulate or even read these forums anymore, except when making announcements or responding to bad public image). Endlessly malfunctioning websites - which is pretty bad when these are so critical for the PM business model. And convoluted consumer-confusing billing. Plus of course all the shameless (and botched) Koodo migration stuff. The public image of Public Mobile looks less like a value brand and more like a Telus department every year.

 

On the upside:

Rewards, they all add up but AutoPay and Referrals and Loyalty tend to go a long way towards cheap phone bills.  Unlimited Talk/Text is always awesome. Long-Distance Add-on minutes (which never expire) are a great deal if your country is on the list. US Roaming Add-ons are also a great deal if you can use them well. Telus (and shared Bell/Sasktel/etc) network is basically number one in Canada by almost every measure. With all the Telus freebies (HD voice, video streaming optimizations, E911, etc) built into it. Public Mobile still has the edge, overall, although competing value brands do seem to be closing the gap and gaining momentum. And while there are faults and problems with many PM vendors there are in fact quite of lot of PM vendors all around Canada, they've gone a long way towards being able to provide something almost equivalent to actual shops/kiosks with actual face-to-face face-to-face customer service.  And Simon... I'm still unconvinced that investing in friendly helpful automation instead of investing in friendly helpful staff is at all the smart thing to do in a service industry... But I'll give it a chance. 


I agree withg all the ups. I am a happy customer with PM, have been with them almost a year and not one problem

@sheytoon, with the link for the score!  Really happy to have a field worker who can speak to the naysayers, and provide accurate information.

@saeliux @dickwong absolutely 100% of sites for mobile usage outside of Manitoba are shared. There's one set of radios per site, and each radio transmits Bell and Telus network codes. The coverage is identical. Any perceived difference is because of phone capability or slightly different location.

 

Try swapping your SIMs between slots and see if there's a difference.

 

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Discussions/Network-sharing-explained/m-p/129092#M420...

saeliux
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

I have a dual sim. One for bell, another for PM. 

 

At least for data, there was one time where Bell didnt work, but PM worked.

 

There is also a spot in a building I frequent where PM and Koodo does not work, but bell does.

 

Not sure how true is that statement about bell and telus towers are shared. Maybe some are but not all. 

Wholecloud
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

PM did what it advertised at a decent price and that's what attracted me to jump ship.

Wholecloud
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Yes indeed, as long as you are registered successfully first time around. Apparently they are some that for whatever reason did not register successfully and they cannot sign in to contact the moderator for assistance.

I keep reading claims about Rogers having generally better coverage than Telus/Bell in rural areas.  But I can't find any specific examples to support the claim. Or any zones in the Canada cellphone tower map which appear to have exclusive Rogers coverage on any frequencies. My personal experience is quite the opposite, everyone I've met in my "rural" area agrees that local Rogers coverage sucks, and it was much the same thing when I lived/worked in other "rural" areas. Telus+Bell has all the same coverage and more, plus the combined feature set of two tech leaders, Rogers is simply suboptimal.

 

My claim is not less anecdotal than any other internet hearsay. 


@dickwong wrote:

@srlawren mind you, in ON I noticed at many locations reception is worse than those of Rogers and Bell.  Sometimes Telus even has no signal......


Bell serves Telus signals in Ontario, as the coast to coast network is fully shared between Telus and Rogers.

 

you get exactly the same service on a Bell tower, as you would on a Telus tower.

 

Rogers may have better service in some areas than Bell and Telus, but I haven’t found that for myself (yet).

That's interesting except for Toronto/gta everywhere I went last couple of years bell is always stronger or even present. Decade ago or before it looked very different though

dickwong
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

@srlawren mind you, in ON I noticed at many locations reception is worse than those of Rogers and Bell.  Sometimes Telus even has no signal......

Public Mobile isn't as brilliant as it used to be just a few years ago.

 

On the downside:

Limited Talk/Text Plans, fixed Plans (no more Build Your Own Plan options), no more 10-day or 90-day Plans, endless parade of knee-jerk promos (catch 'em if you can, and hope the point-of-sale vendors have actually been informed, lol), conspicuous absence of PM Mods (they don't seem to stimulate or even read these forums anymore, except when making announcements or responding to bad public image). Endlessly malfunctioning websites - which is pretty bad when these are so critical for the PM business model. And convoluted consumer-confusing billing. Plus of course all the shameless (and botched) Koodo migration stuff. The public image of Public Mobile looks less like a value brand and more like a Telus department every year.

 

On the upside:

Rewards, they all add up but AutoPay and Referrals and Loyalty tend to go a long way towards cheap phone bills.  Unlimited Talk/Text is always awesome. Long-Distance Add-on minutes (which never expire) are a great deal if your country is on the list. US Roaming Add-ons are also a great deal if you can use them well. Telus (and shared Bell/Sasktel/etc) network is basically number one in Canada by almost every measure. With all the Telus freebies (HD voice, video streaming optimizations, E911, etc) built into it. Public Mobile still has the edge, overall, although competing value brands do seem to be closing the gap and gaining momentum. And while there are faults and problems with many PM vendors there are in fact quite of lot of PM vendors all around Canada, they've gone a long way towards being able to provide something almost equivalent to actual shops/kiosks with actual face-to-face face-to-face customer service.  And Simon... I'm still unconvinced that investing in friendly helpful automation instead of investing in friendly helpful staff is at all the smart thing to do in a service industry... But I'll give it a chance. 

cavemantoronto
Mayor / Maire

@Lyuh1945 wrote:

I say PUBLIC's community programme and referrals are excellent marketing strategies Telus has devised.   Very convenient for users and make them feel more appreciated as customers.


That is about possibility of getting very low price. Some of it needs some.worj, but after some time, you can have some  nice discounts.

jor123
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

@srlawren wrote:

@dickwong wrote:

Used to be better until Telus bought Public.  Time will tell...


@dickwong plans might have been cheaper then, but it's pretty hard to argue with Telus's nationwide HSPA and LTE networks, vs. the old CDMA network that PM launced with pre-acquisition.


Yeah the old PM CDMA network was only in a few cities wasn't it? Toronto/Montreal?


@Lyuh1945 wrote:

Really, it had been better before the acquisition?  

I thence assume that the community idea is not a Teleus invention.

 

Sad....  

 


Community idea came much after aquisition. Public mobile used to cater to very different audience. Most of people didn't or even couldn't have credit cards. Public even provided finincing. When you would call 611 you would press 1 for credit card and 2 for mobile. Stores were full of people waiting in line to pay by cash, phones were very affordable and people who worked there were great friendly and helpful. Phones and real estate are expensive so the company wasn't making money. Customers loved them. But expending was too expensive too, so you would be very lucky to have it, those who did loved it. I tried all 3 wind, public and mobilucity and would pick any of them over bell or Rogers. 

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@dickwong wrote:

Used to be better until Telus bought Public.  Time will tell...


@dickwong plans might have been cheaper then, but it's pretty hard to argue with Telus's nationwide HSPA and LTE networks, vs. the old CDMA network that PM launced with pre-acquisition.


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saeliux
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

I never heard about PM until after it was already telus. I am pretty sure Telus helped spread the word.

 

Two things can happen after a acquisition: the parent company buys a company to destroy it or to expand their operation. 

 

If you think about it, PM uses telus towers, it still exists and it only improves. So it was a good move. 

Lyuh1945
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Really, it had been better before the acquisition?  

I thence assume that the community idea is not a Teleus invention.

 

Sad....  

 

dickwong
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

Used to be better until Telus bought Public.  Time will tell...

88cranston
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

This USA hotspot device used to be similar. https://yourkarma.com/wifi/pricing/

I was going to use with a wifi app but since have ceased crossing the border. They had a prepaid option to buy GB of data that never expired and no regular top ups...but looks like they have changed. There was some kind of credit when you allowed another user to use it at no cost. 

totalUser
Mayor / Maire

@Lyuh1945 wrote:

I say PUBLIC's community programme and referrals are excellent marketing strategies Telus has devised.   Very convenient for users and make them feel more appreciated as customers.


I love it.

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