Coverage and speed compared to BELL

[Dave76]

Hello, I switched my phone from Bell pay as you go to PM and i am very pleased with how it is working for me.  My wife is still with them and they keep increasing her plan so I was wondering how the speed and service of PM compares to BELL.  We are not close enough to the makor cities to get the best speed.  Is PM slower in rural alberta than BELL?  I can't tell because I have never had data until I joined PM

Dave

[farmbot]

Definitive unicorn sighting.

[Coyote98]

Public mobile has 3g internet packs, so even on 4g it is providing 3g speeds becuase of throttled lte.

[computergeek541]

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@Dave76 wrote:

Hello, I switched my phone from Bell pay as you go to PM and i am very pleased with how it is working for me.  My wife is still with them and they keep increasing her plan so I was wondering how the speed and service of PM compares to BELL.  We are not close enough to the makor cities to get the best speed.  Is PM slower in rural alberta than BELL?  I can't tell because I have never had data until I joined PM

Dave

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I would suggest to not think too much about speed comparison to Bell. If you're on a plan with 3g-speed data that is capped at 3Mbps when connected to an LTE network, the speed comparision between the two brands is likely not too much of a factor. Both Bell Mobility and Public Mobile customers are likely more than capable of receiving 3Mbps speeds most of the time.

[computergeek541]

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@murtaza404 wrote:

I used my data on PM and i was surprised that even on 3G my samsung was getting speeds up to 200mbps 

I was actually surprised on how fast it was

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When you say "3G", you mean as your plan type?  I can say for certainty that you were not connected to the 3g network for that test. You should also know that you likely used somewhere around 300 to 400MB that test, so I would advise to discontinue running these tests, unless you know for sure that you won't need that amount of data further into your billing cycle.

[gblackma]

Lol. @sheytoon   At one  point I had Rogers for everything was without tv, internet and phone for 5 days. Sure felt like an emergency to me. The only saving grace was the Bell cellphone.

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@sheytoon wrote:

@gblackma for best chance of having coverage, yes you're right.

But for real emergency 911 calls, it doesn't matter. You can make 911 calls on any operator, regardless of SIM status or coverage.

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[sheytoon]

@gblackma for best chance of having coverage, yes you're right.

But for real emergency 911 calls, it doesn't matter. You can make 911 calls on any operator, regardless of SIM status or coverage.

[murtaza404]

I have it for a week now and i guess it depends where you are in the area.

[gblackma]

Thanks @sheytoon so if there is an emergency,  the OP would be safer having 1 phone with PM and one Shaw/Rogers/Freedom right?

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@sheytoon wrote:

Rogers doesn't share RAN with Bell/Telus outside of Manitoba.

Rogers can physically use the same tower as another operator, but they would have their own RAN equipment which is completely independent of Bell/Telus. This scenario is not called RAN sharing. It's more like real estate sharing.

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[srlawren]

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@murtaza404 wrote:

I used my data on PM and i was surprised that even on 3G my samsung was getting speeds up to 200mbps 

I was actually surprised on how fast it was

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@murtaza404 did you just activate a "3G" plan?  It can take around 72 hours for the throttling to take effect.

[sheytoon]

Rogers doesn't share RAN with Bell/Telus outside of Manitoba.

Rogers can physically use the same tower as another operator, but they would have their own RAN equipment which is completely independent of Bell/Telus. This scenario is not called RAN sharing. It's more like real estate sharing.

[Anonymous]

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@sheytoon wrote:

@gblackma @Anonymous see here:

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

If the tower (RAN) goes down, Bell and Telus subscribers in that coverage area will lose service.

If there's outages or issues in the core, it would impact all or a subset of subscribers for only 1 operator.

Here's a helpful diagram for LTE. CN refers to core network, which includes nodes like MME, SGW/PGW, HSS:

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That's a great diagram. Do you know if Rogers is ever on the same mast/tower as Telus/Bell? And if so and that tower became disfunctional, then they would be out as well? I'm sure they would have physically separate transceivers but I wonder if they could be on the same tower.

Thanks

[murtaza404]

I used my data on PM and i was surprised that even on 3G my samsung was getting speeds up to 200mbps 

I was actually surprised on how fast it was

[farmbot]

Public Mobile also allows Hot Spot ie. wifi  from phone. Used many times for internet connection to laptop. BONUS!

[sheytoon]

@gblackma @Anonymous see here:

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

If the tower (RAN) goes down, Bell and Telus subscribers in that coverage area will lose service.

If there's outages or issues in the core, it would impact all or a subset of subscribers for only 1 operator.

Here's a helpful diagram for LTE. CN refers to core network, which includes nodes like MME, SGW/PGW, HSS:

[farmbot]

I live in rural south Alberta. Speedtest now shows  LTE with Ping 34 Jitter 7 2.90 Mbps download  1.5Mbps up.  Good for my uses google maps live music stream web and email.

Neighbor has Bell and Public Mobile signal more robust at same location.I don't video stream. Switch with confidence. One year for me. All good.

[Anonymous]

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@sheytoon wrote:

@gblackma it's the same shared Radio Access Network, but separate core networks.

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Thanks for piping in @sheytoon . So if I interpret this right...if there's some kind of non-connecting, no-service outage in an area...they're all out?

[gblackma]

Thanks @sheytoon .  Could you please explain that to me? Say for example something damages the Bell cell tower in the area? Would Telus/PM still be able to provide service?

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@sheytoon wrote:

@gblackma it's the same shared Radio Access Network, but separate core networks.

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[kselmak]

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@gblackma wrote:

@Dave76 Another thing to consider is an outage. Right now, you are both on the same network. You may want to consider having one of you on a Shaw/Rogers one.

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If they are not close to major cities good luck with Rogers and Shaw/freedommobile even less

[sheytoon]

@gblackma it's the same shared Radio Access Network, but separate core networks.

[gblackma]

@Dave76 Another thing to consider is an outage. Right now, you are both on the same network. You may want to consider having one of you on a Shaw/Rogers one.

[kselmak]

Hi Dave

Did you notice any difference in voice calls? Did anybody every complain they can't reach you when you knew your phone was on? Did you ever had hard time connecting your call though your bars are good?

The reason I'm asking is that pm doesn't support voice over LTE, which means that you can be in the area with great new towers but the old 3g ones may be missing and they don't put them up as far as I know. In that case you would notice that the service is not as good as telus or bell. But only on that case and the case where you must download huuuuge files over your data connection (which is also not that common) the rest should be the same. 

[gblackma]

@Dave76 don't forget to apply your referal code when signing your wife up to get $1 monthly off and your wife a $10 one time payment.

[geopublic]

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@Dave76 wrote:

Hello, I switched my phone from Bell pay as you go to PM and i am very pleased with how it is working for me.  My wife is still with them and they keep increasing her plan so I was wondering how the speed and service of PM compares to BELL.  We are not close enough to the makor cities to get the best speed.  Is PM slower in rural alberta than BELL?  I can't tell because I have never had data until I joined PM

Dave

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@Dave76  Public Mobile (Telus) and Bell share the same network so service should be the same. Enjoy the savings!

Edit: Wow I just checked the Bell Pay as you Go plan rates...Ouch!!!

[mimmo]

data is slower, but unless you watch super HD video or download lots of files on your phone, most people do not reall notice a difference.

since you both have data why not try doing some typical things at the same time on both phones and see the difference. 

if you search teh forum 3g vs lte you will see some good posts with the comparisons.

[will13am]

@Dave76, I suggest you go by real world experience as opposed to actual speed test values.  If you find the user experience adequate, that is all that matters.  This service runs on the same network as Bell.  Therefore, you can switch everybody over with confidence. 

[Anonymous]

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@Dave76 wrote:

Hello, I switched my phone from Bell pay as you go to PM and i am very pleased with how it is working for me.  My wife is still with them and they keep increasing her plan so I was wondering how the speed and service of PM compares to BELL.  We are not close enough to the makor cities to get the best speed.  Is PM slower in rural alberta than BELL?  I can't tell because I have never had data until I joined PM

Dave

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Coverage would be the same.

In your case, data speed doesn't matter if you never used data before. 🙂