Doubts about data add-on

[vyshnavpv]

I am a new member to public mobile. I selected the $15 plan woth autopay option. ImI looking forward to add the 1gb 4g data add on. So does the 1gb 4g data grts activated only after i consume all the 250mb 3g data i have. Or can i use the 1gb data right away ? . Thanks

[darlicious]

@Anonymous @Korth 

    The speed tests or failed one as it appears got me thinking about testing the data speed in my $10 account and comparing it to my $40 account to see if there is indeed a difference and confirming that the data is 4G in my $10 account. The results were interesting when after my first comparitive test I remembered I should be comparing not only my phone data usage but the account usage as well. Duh?!! Anyhow rather than run a costly speed test I started with playing the same song without video from YouTube on each SIM card in my phone. These results threw me for a loop.....measuring just in the phone data usage a 3 min and 24 sec song used the following:

1. SIM card 1. 3G speed 6.0 mb
2. SIM card 2.  4G speed 1.8 mb

This was surprising and didn't make a whole lot of sense to me..? I continued playing a song with a video that was 6 min and 36 sec long on each SIM card and the phone data usage was :

1. SIM card 1. 3G speed 22.0 mb  both songs  28.0 mb
2. SIM card 2. 4G speed 21.2mb  both songs  23.0  mb

Hmmmm....ok I guess not what I expected so let's check what the two songs combined recorded in the data usage in the accounts....and yes I regret not checking the music only songs data usage...

1. SIM card 1 accounts data usage  19.035 mb (3G)
2. SIM card 2 accounts data usage  27.166 mb (4G)

Since the accounts data usage is considered the most accurate and my phone doesn't seem to distinguish all that well between the two speeds going by the account usage would appear to confirm the $10 account is set at 4G speed. No costly speed test needed in my mind.

[Anonymous]

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@darlicious wrote:

@Anonymous   The results of your speed test for the holiday gift data add on at 19.1mbps indicates that it is at 4G speed? What was the total data used for the speed test? Seems to me it would be an expensive (data wise) test to do. Thank you for the sacrifice....for the test I don't dare do one myself.

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Yes it does suggest that. The usage log shows I used 2.35MB. That doesn't seem right. The browser is a crappy old browser on a crappy old phone. Maybe it didn't actually run. Maybe that was a default screen of dslreports. I thought I was pressing the right buttons.

The curiousity struck me as I was writing that reply. So I ran the test. I didn't want to use the motherships speedtest site for obvious reasons.

Here's my theory in my case:

Start account on $25 plan and get the 5gb promo. Schedule the change to the $10 plan. The plan data ought to have been 3mbps. With the old rule about add-ons being set to the speed of plan data then the 5gb ought to have been 3mbps. Plan changes. Then the summer gift arrived. This _might_ have been the same result as I just saw. Consume that. Then the holiday gift arrived. Maybe just maybe these gift add-ons behave like they would with the rules about add-ons even though they say 3G. That without plan data they come in at full 4G. Maybe. I could also try the hotspot but then that adds that bit of a variable.

I just wasn't curious enough before. And nor did I want to bother wasting some data.

Maybe I'll be curious enough in the near future to do a speedtest on my other account. Except that that one is still consuming under the 200MB add-on which should be 4G as per the rules. It's that my data account is consuming out of the holiday data that made me curious. I won't be anywhere near gift data on my main account for. a. while.

[Korth]

@darlicious  no worries ... I sometimes get confused, too. Without any assistance from @Anonymous.  

[darlicious]

@Korth  Ok yes that is my understanding. @Anonymous  confused me a little making it sound like that particular add on gift was only set at 3G regardless of your plan. Doing a speed test with that add on on my $10 account would not be to my advantage.

[Korth]

My understanding is that attached add-on data always uses the rate ("3G" vs "4G/LTE") defined by plan data.

All PM plans are now only offered at "3G" speeds, anyhow.

Except the standalone $30 1GB LTE Data-only (no Talk, no Text, no phone number?) plan.

And except any 4G/LTE legacy plans which are still grandfathered.

We know that PM's "3G" is really LTE-based data capped at 3Mbps.

And we know that the 3Mbps cap takes 48 hours (or longer) to be imposed whenever a new plan is activated. Speedtests will report (and consume) data at faster rates until the speed limit is applied.

[darlicious]

@Anonymous   The results of your speed test for the holiday gift data add on at 19.1mbps indicates that it is at 4G speed? What was the total data used for the speed test? Seems to me it would be an expensive (data wise) test to do. Thank you for the sacrifice....for the test I don't dare do one myself.

[gblackma]

@vyshnavpv If the $30 add on will be done monthly, then get th $40 plan.  You get 5 gigs at 3g speed with autopay. Welcome to PM .

[Korth]

@vyshnavpv

$15 plan with AutoPay is $13, 1GB data add-on is $30

= $43 for 1.25GB total

$25 plan with Autopay is $23

= $23 for 1GB total (and Unlimited Canada-wide Talk)

Plan data is always used before add-on data is used, and unused add-on data will stay available until fully used.

The add-on is always nice to have "just in case" you eventually need it.

But if you'll need more than 250MB per month then the $25 plan is a better choice.

And if you need more than 1GB per month then a higher-priced plan will offer much better value than multiple $30 add-ons.

[Jb456]

Two steps to buy add-ons. Guide below.

CLICK HERE 

[will13am]

@vyshnavpv , please clarify when you refer to 4g data, you are not referring to this?  The included data with the plans and the data add-on are referred to as 3g data which is throttled LTE.  The item linked below is actually a plan by itself, data only, no talk, no text.  Anyway, the data add-on which costs the same is intended to be used after included data in a plan is used up.  It does not expire.

https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/bc/plans/30for1GB-4GLTE

[Anonymous]

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@vyshnavpv wrote:

I am a new member to public mobile. I selected the $15 plan woth autopay option. ImI looking forward to add the 1gb 4g data add on. So does the 1gb 4g data grts activated only after i consume all the 250mb 3g data i have. Or can i use the 1gb data right away ? . Thanks

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Unfortunately, with the dropping of the $10 plan, that was the last of the 4G add-on provisioning. It used to be we could build our own plan without data or get the $10 plan (in my time anyway) and if one chose to buy the data add-ons then they would come in as 4G speed. But now with all plans having some data that doesn't happen. They come in the lower 3G. Or the gift data is set to be 3G (writing this I wonder if that's actually true 🙂 )

Maybe I'll do a quick test.

Nokia Lumia 635 running Windows Phone 8.1 Update with stock IE browser unhindered with an account that started out with the $25 plan and then dropped down to the $10 plan.

dslreports 4G simple browser speed test consuming out of the holiday 1gb = 19.1mbps

[ddeep91 · Accepted solution]

@vyshnavpv Once your 250Mb is used up the 1Gb data addon will kick in. Also from the  1GB addon any unused DATA that will get rolled over to next month.

Cheers!