Canada-wide calling not working

[devenne]

My phone number is in Vancouver, BC, and I recieved a call this morning from Burnaby, BC. The call was cut off after a minute, and when I tried to reconnect, I was connected to an automatic "Please add a long-distance addon" message. How could this happen?!

This question seems relevant, and seems I should contact system support?:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Plans-Add-Ons/Long-distance-issue/m-p/252370#M29628

[EdmondY]

From my experience, I haven't been seeing myself getting billed for the time it rings, only when the call itself gets connected.  So if it rings for a whole minute, that extra minute will show up in usage but I don't lose that extra minute.

[CherylKirby]

I have Canada wide long distance and I never dial 1 before. I have never had a problem this way, but I have had problems dialling 1-800 numbers if I don't remove the 1.

[srlawren · Accepted solution]

@devenne the $10 plan is an exception plan.  ALL other plans at public mobile either have ulimited talk or no talk at all.  On those plans, the long distance add-ons can literally only be used for long distance and cannot be uses as a susbstitute for having talk in your plan.  E.g. you couldn't buy a no-talk plan and use the LD mins for local talk time.

HOWEVER, confusingly, the $10 plan is the exception to the above rule.  Because it has metered and very limited airtime, the powers that be at Public Mobile decided that $10 planholders CAN use the long distance minutes to add more airtime, beit for local calls or not.  For yourself as a $10 planholder, you can think of them as "long distance minutes when I still have plan minutes left for my local calls, and local+long distance minutes afterward", if that helps.  

[devenne]

Yes. This month is just catching me off-guard, but historically, $10 is perfect for my needs.

There are some serious messaging issues on the main site, since the $10 plan clearly mentions/promotes "Canada-wide talk" (and it is!). So getting a "long distance" message was incredibly deceptive.

Staff, please link to the knowledge base on the promotional page when showing the plan's details, and please update event phrasing to describe what is happening!

[Anonymous]

---

@Dunkman wrote:

Do you have the $10 plan? 

---

I think I read above that he has Canada-wide. He's just doing some digging while waiting endlessly for the mods.

Otherwise, excellent. I suspect that's where I saw that rounding up info.

[Dunkman]

@devenne

Do you have the $10 plan?  

Here is more information how limited plans for talk are calculated (from knowledge base)

Talk

 Talk minutes are counted whenever you make or receive calls on your phone. Talk time is calculated from the start of a call to when it is disconnected, and includes ring time and call routing. Total call time is always rounded up to the nearest minute. Please note that calls to voicemail and forwarding calls will use plan minutes.

Uses Minutes	Doesn’t Use Minutes
Making a call Answering a call Retrieving voicemail messages Using call forwarding	Calling *611 (the IVR) Making or receiving calls from 911 Using calling apps when connected to Wifi

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Knowledge-Base/Plans-amp-Add-Ons/ta-p/250167

[computergeek541]

---

@devenne wrote:

I haven't heard back from the @CS_Agent yet, but I've done some additional digging.

• Each call's duration recorded by my phone is 2-20 seconds less than the duration recorded by Public (I assume this accounts for transit to/from a cell tower).
• The total of call airtime was 00:40:29.
• If I round each call's airtime up to the next minute, I get exactly 00:52:00.

---

For any completed call, your phone's counter likely only starts working once the call has been answered.  However, I can almost promise you that Public Mobile will count the amount of time that the call takes to be answered while ring as part of of the cals duration. So if you call someone who doensn't have an answering machine or voicemail and it rings 100 times and then the person answers and you talk for 1 second, expect that you're going to be using up a few minutes worth of your airtime.

[Anonymous]

---

@devenne wrote:

I haven't heard back from the @CS_Agent yet, but I've done some additional digging.

• Each call's duration recorded by my phone is 2-20 seconds less than the duration recorded by Public (I assume this accounts for transit to/from a cell tower).
• The total of call airtime was 00:40:29.
• If I round each call's airtime up to the next minute, I get exactly 00:52:00.

Public, please disclose plan billing details on the site somewhere! I would love to know more about how talk time is rounded up. I thought airtime would be calculated per-second. And please review/clarify your terminology. My "Canada-wide" plan absolutely doesn't need a "long-distance addon". I'm disappointed the automated message told me to purchase a "long-distance addon" for a local call! Please let users know they just need to top up airtime.

---

For the unlimited Canada-wide plans you shouldn't even be caring about how it specifically internally technically counts calls.

The only minute-limited plan is the $10 plan. Or add-ons. I'm pretty sure I've seen mention in several places that calls are rounded to the minute.

Your current issue is probably a provisioning issue that seems to happen from time to time. Yes...please continue to wait for the mods.

[devenne]

I haven't heard back from the @CS_Agent yet, but I've done some additional digging.

• Each call's duration recorded by my phone is 2-20 seconds less than the duration recorded by Public (I assume this accounts for transit to/from a cell tower).
• The total of call airtime was 00:40:29.
• If I round each call's airtime up to the next minute, I get exactly 00:52:00.

Public, please disclose plan billing details on the site somewhere! I would love to know more about how talk time is rounded up. I thought airtime would be calculated per-second. And please review/clarify your terminology. My "Canada-wide" plan absolutely doesn't need a "long-distance addon". I'm disappointed the automated message told me to purchase a "long-distance addon" for a local call! Please let users know they just need to top up airtime.

[curjoe45]

I had the same problem yesterday. It sounded like I didn't have a voice-included plan, so I also bought add-ons and that didn't help.

The best thing would be to ask the moderator, I think.

** I have Province-wide calling included in my plan. (Vancouver, BC) Perhaps this is the issue.

[will13am]

@devenne, if adding 1 in front of the 10 digit number is not working, I would suggest reaching out to the moderator team to confirm whether the account has a provisioning problem. 

[Anonymous]

---

@KMG wrote:

Trying adding +1 before the phone number when you try to call back.

Are you able to call other numbers without any problems?

---

 @KMG: I'm curious about your use of the plus (+) in front of the 1. Do you mean this intentionally?

I seem to recall in international calling parlance that the plus sign implies that, of course, however you need to get out of your country. In North America (NA) that is 011 to get out to somewhere international. Then you start dialing the country code. In NA that's the 1 (of course you wouldn't dial the 011 if calling somewhere in NA from NA). Then the area code. Then the prefix (or exchange sometimes). Then finally the last 4 digits.

So to type the plus sign means to get out of your country.

[stonechucker]

Possibly a localized issue with the system, such that Southern Ontario experienced a few months ago.  Service was down, and on a province wide plan, I was required to use part of my LD addon i had previously, to make an in-town call.

Saying  this, I was, and still am on the province wide calling plan, so this may not be it at all.

[RobertQc]

---

@devenne wrote:

My phone number is in Vancouver, BC, and I recieved a call this morning from Burnaby, BC. The call was cut off after a minute, and when I tried to reconnect, I was connected to an automatic "Please add a long-distance addon" message. How could this happen?!

This question seems relevant, and seems I should contact system support?:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Plans-Add-Ons/Long-distance-issue/m-p/252370#M29628

---

Sorry you are having trouble. You might find that adding a ”1” to the beginning of your phone call dial might solve the issue. As long as you have minutes left (are not on a limited calling plan) your account may have a provisioning issues where the database of included calling numbers is corrupted.  Please reach out to the moderator team and they should be able to reprovision your account.  Click this to send them a message

I know it can be a little frustrating to wait but send a message to the moderator team and include your name, account number and/or phone number and pin number and they will get back to you asoon as they can between Monday-Friday 9am-9pm (EDT) and Satuday-Sunday 9AM-7:30PM (EDT)

For more information about contacting a moderator Click Here

[devenne]

Other calls aren't working either. I just tried calling neighbours with +1 (same city as me!), and the long-distance message still occurs.

[KMG]

Trying adding +1 before the phone number when you try to call back.

Are you able to call other numbers without any problems?