Data add-on in relation to autopay bonus

[xiv]

Hi guys,

The following quote is from the Add-on page in self-serve:

Data Add-Ons to supplement a Data Plan will be provisioned at the data speed selected in your plan. If you have a Talk and/or Text Plan only with no data, the Data Add-Ons available to you will be defaulted to 4G LTE speed.

From this, I can infer that if I am on the 15$/100min plan with the 250MB auto-pay bonus, and I purchase the 15$/1GB data add-on, I will have access to 1.25GB at 3G speeds.

And if I disable auto-pay, I will instead have access to 1.0GB at LTE speeds.

Am I correct in my interpretation?

Thanks agin,

-xiv

[darlicious]

@xiv 

Yes correct more or less....

1. Your data is 4G LTE throttled to 3mbps. If you switch to the 3G network (3G only setting) you can get as high as 20+mbps but will likely average 10-12mbps depending on network traffic.
2. Your outgoing minutes will not be depleted by calling toll free numbers in North America or those countries in the NANP.
3. There is a 5mb data buffer when your mobile data is enabled that is reset each night or when you toggle airplane mode on/off
4. There are certain "apps" that use miniscule amounts of "background" data associated mostly to your OS that you have no way of turning off and depending on your phone your camera app may have an associated obscurely named "app" that will also use a few kb when sending MMS that appears as plan or add on data even though MMS does not use the same server so is not counted against your regular mobile data but is rare and only appears on a couple of phone models. ( Sorry the name escapes me?🤔)

@Yummy 

That has something to do with MMS I think because it appears on the bf's daily usage long after he has run out of data but he sends a lot of MMS, emojis, memes etc....

To contact customer support click below:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

To pre-verify your account include your full name, address, email, phone # and 4 digit acct pin #.

[xiv]

Hi all,

Just as a follow-up to my own question and to confirm answers provided by others...

I switched earlier this week from the 25$/Unlimited Canada-wide talk +500MB +500MB bonus to the 15$/100 outgoing Canada-wide minutes + 250MB at 3G speed without auto-pay bonus. Here are my observations:

- As @darlicious and @softech mentioned, the 250MB is active even though I don't have the auto-pay registered (I even removed my CC from the records before the switch and the 250MB is still there). So it is indeed a known "glitch" in the plan. If I had only relied on the advertisement page for this plan, I would have been mislead.

- Since the 250MB is "at 3G speed" the small-text provision relating to add-ons working at the plan speed mean that my 15$/1GB add-on will also work under the same conditions when it kicks in. No LTE for me.

- The 100 outgoing Canada-wide minutes do not deplete when I call toll-free numbers (1-8xx numbers) in Canada.

So far, so good. Like @esjliv I may not turn back either.

And @Yummy the very small data usage you see, is it possible that it's the phone system services (DNS, NTP, etc...) and not any app in particular? Such small values mean it's not really data, most likely something internal, and probably out of your control.

Thanks again to everyone...

-xiv

[Yummy]

Brief update. Here is my 'data' usage even though I did not have data on on my phone.

and I definitely was Not up at 5 or 1am whatever time zone PM uses.

[Yummy]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 @Yummy : Well that seems very peculiar to have any leakage with it off from the start. If you had data off well before renewal and left it off, it should remain at zero. And remain at zero.

Had you sent or received any MMS? Perhaps the moment it took to open up cell data for that, it sync'd a little data for itself.

---

It was always like that from the beginning of my PM life.

I will monitor closely after next renewal in a few days... Let me bookmark this topic so I can come back and report...

[Anonymous]

 @Yummy : Well that seems very peculiar to have any leakage with it off from the start. If you had data off well before renewal and left it off, it should remain at zero. And remain at zero.

Had you sent or received any MMS? Perhaps the moment it took to open up cell data for that, it sync'd a little data for itself.

[Yummy]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 @Yummy : Are you certain you never turned on mobile data since a renewal?

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100% I did Not turn data on my phone since renewal.

[Anonymous]

 @Yummy : Are you certain you never turned on mobile data since a renewal? It should be 0 shortly after midnight ET of your renewal. If you turn on data then it takes the buffer. Then turn off data and don't use it for at least overnight then that buffer will drop leaving you with the little bit of data the phone used to sync with things when it saw the mobile data connection. Your 0.191 is 191 kilobytes.

[Yummy]

Autopay USED to be died up with 250MB bonus but not anymore.

If you Never use your data you will see at your account that some tiny portion of it is used:

I believe that is required for some of PM services to function so they need some buffer to give you. You are of course free to use all 250MB at will.

[softech]

@darlicious   Yes, i said it is a known "glitch" (with the quote)  PM just trying to make that on this plan so it in line with the rest of the plans that there are "bonus" if you do something , and also fool others to enable Autopay so they have a better "expected" revenue when they prepare the book.

[darlicious · Accepted solution]

@softech 

The 250mb autopay data bonus is coded to the $15 plan. It is not a glitch and has been this way since they updated the original $15 plan in 2019 to unlimited incoming minutes rather than 100 total anytime minutes. This was done so as to ensure that once the $10 plan was grandfathered no other in market plan would have full speed 4G LTE data. I can't remember if a customer with the old $15 plan without autopay confirmed if they could get full speed 4G LTE data or not?

To contact customer support click below:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

To pre-verify your account include your full name, address, email, phone # and 4 digit acct pin #

[softech]

True @esjliv   , so I guess PM was doing more than needed.   🙂

[esjliv]

@xiv CRTC's post in July 2021 this:

https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/phone/mobile/occa.htm

Although note @softech , it only refers to Postpaid plans (not Prepaid, as we have here at Public Mobile).

Perhaps this is the way Public Mobile as built their offers/plans: 1 line item with a Calling/Minute feature and another line item with a Plan/Data feature ?

Which would be connected to why we see a 2-line break down in our payment history.

Let's hope it stays that way. 👍

[xiv]

I appreciate the help guys, I'm going to try it out for a cycle and adjust as needed.

Thanks again,

-xiv

[softech]

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@xiv wrote:

I stand corrected, then.

The screenshot of the plan description does mention that the 250MB is tied to AutoPay, but I've read a number of posts that indicate that the PM site is wrong, so this is likely one of those instances.

Thanks for the clarification!

-xiv

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@xiv   for $15 plan, the 250Mb is free WITH OR WITHOUT Autopay enabled.  It is a known "glitch" but we suspect PM did that on purpose so it satisfies the CRTC guidelines for basic plan with some data.

[esjliv]

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@xiv wrote:

@esjliv I am thinking of switching to it, currently on 25$/Unlimited talk with 500MB + 500MB bonus.

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@xiv  - oh okay, I did that same switch from $25 to $15. And never turned back since.

But, just know that if you miss the unlimited calling and (edit) the extra 750mb of data, it is really easy to switch back to the $25 plan.

So try it for a cycle and see how you get along. I don't even need the $5/500 Canada wide addon, since I use free wifi apps to make outgoing calls usually (Fongo / Textnow are ones often recommended here).

When you do go to Change Plans make sure you select "Change on next renewal date", this way it will change for you automatically when your plan renews.

If you select "Change plan now" and you have enough funds in your account it will renew right away, and you will lose out on the funds already paid in your current cycle...no prorating in this case.

[xiv]

@esjliv I am thinking of switching to it, currently on 25$/Unlimited talk with 500MB + 500MB bonus.

[xiv]

I stand corrected, then.

The screenshot of the plan description does mention that the 250MB is tied to AutoPay, but I've read a number of posts that indicate that the PM site is wrong, so this is likely one of those instances.

Thanks for the clarification!

-xiv

[esjliv]

@xiv , sorry, I didn't address the data speeds. That is relative to the plan you are on.

Are you on an older grandfathered plan currently?

OR on the $15 inmarket plan, or at least thinking of switching to it?

[esjliv]

@xiv  - 

Currently, this $15/Plan is the only plan that will give you the advertised +BONUS data regardless if you are on Autopay or not. 

So, if you purchase the $15 1GB addon to your account, it will be on top of the 250MB to your plan data.

The 250MB will be replenished each plan renewal, and the 1GB addon will only kick in when your plan data runs out in a particular cycle. 

Any remaining data amount from the 1GB addon will roll over to future cycles until consumed.