Does switching over from an LTE plan to a 3G plan make a big difference?

[jessicat13]

I was previously on an old, build-your-own Public Mobile LTE plan but found that the new ready-made plans were actually a better deal for me. Because of that, I decided to risk changing over from my LTE plan to a new 3G plan.

I now get more data than I had on my old plan, where I was paying $57 a month and getting 4GB of data with unlimited Canada-wide talk and unlimited international text. Now I get 5GB unlimited Canada-wide talk and unlimited international text for $40 a month. 

I've only been on the new plan for a short amount of time but I haven't noticed a difference so far. 😄 Therefore, at this moment in time, making the change was definitely worthwhile for me! 

[hss]

I have both the 3G data on my personal phone and 4G on my work phone and there is a speed difference but it doesn't matter much depending upon what you do with your phone. 
Maps, facebook, instagram etc work fine with very less noticeable difference but for video streaming, it does makes a difference. Youtube switches to lower resolution and buffers while on 3G. So if you stream netflix and Shows on your phone, LTE would be a better option. For rest all 3G is just fine. 
And depending on your device, you would still be on LTE/LTE+ with throttled speeds of 3Mbps on 3G while for LTE it is 50-300Mbps depending upon the area. The ping rate is almost similar. Most Video Streams require 5 Mbps for HD and about 8Mbps for Full 1080p. So videos can't run on 3G unless otherwise downgraded to 480p. 

[jessicat13]

@Jake-911 

Yes, I understand that LTE is faster than 3G but I know that some customers/users are curious whether or not the speed difference is noticeable when switching over to the new ready-made plans. I, personally, haven't had any issues or haven't noticed a recognizable difference so that's all that I wanted to inform users of. 

[jessicat13]

@srlawren  It's been more than the 3 days but I will definitely provide an update after another week or so. 🙂 

[srlawren]

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@jessicat13 wrote:

I've only been on the new plan for a short amount of time but I haven't noticed a difference so far. 😄 Therefore, at this moment in time, making the change was definitely worthwhile for me! 

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@jessicat13 when you say "a short time", how short are we talking?  It can take up to about 72 hours for your plan speed to change after you change your plan.  There is a manual process involved in switching you to or from the "3G" speed throttling.  If you're within that time frame, maybe let us know in a few more days how you're sitll liking it.

[Jake-911]

Yes it does make a big difference. LTE is much faster. In theory, LTE can be up to ten times faster than 3G. In practice, the actual network speed will vary based on network load and signal strength. Even if LTE does not meet its theoretical speed, it is still much faster than 3G

[spenczoid]

That's good to know. I've wondered how the difference from LTE to 3G would be. Thank you.

[will13am]

@jessicat13, from a price perspective, it is a no brainer.  You do lose data speed which will hamper pure downloads.  I am on a legacy plan that cost $40 per 30 days and with 4GB data.  I have avoided switching for the extra 1GB data so that I can retain the ability to  do large downloads without frustration.  I don't really care about Canada wide calling vs province wide calling.  Minutes are $5/500.