Freedom is Hurting

[kav2001c]

Freedom has released a series of promos further undercutting thier ARPU in a desperate bid to stop the port outs 

Even with bonus data & lower price points people still swamping Public's activation servers again (too bad system has such a bad first impression on many)

[Michael77]

@Bonez82,

I really like the Telus network. The reception is great.  If you are happy with Freedom Mobile that is great. Enjoy their service.

[Radeonic]

@zoomzoom87, no idea why you are replying to such an old thread. But just to make sure anyone in the future to not get any confusion or false idea on your reply. My plan was before Public Mobile split their 3G/4G offering, I was one of the customers that transferred from Freedom to here on one of their promo (which predates their current split speed plans, so my plan is full 3G&4G speeds).

The issue I was having at the time was due to some possible configuration/tower issues, when PM first introducted their 3G plans, it looks like they have also restricted my 3G speeds to very slow as well, I have to stress that I was still having full 4G speed on my plan. The issue was resolved in a couple of days when I tested my 3G speeds again in different areas and I'm getting full 3G speeds instead of the current reduced 3G speed plans on offer.

I hope it clears the confusion for you.

[zoomzoom87]

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@Radeonic wrote:

Well I can tell you one thing for sure that all our 3G speeds are now restricted to 3mbps or less. I distinctly remember right after I got my promo plan my 3G speeds was about 25 - 30 mbps but when I try again yesterday, I cannot get any higher than 3.1mbps no matter where I tried.

I'm sure you'll tell me I have 4G in my plan so I shouldn't care. But the fact remains that PM (or Telus) can arbitrarily change my plan speeds without consulitng with me before does not give me any confidence.

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@Radeonic they can change whatever they want at anytime they want. It's in their terms of service? I don't know why you're surprised either.

You signed up for a 3G plan, the website clearly states speeds are diminished on a 3G plan, you now get their advertised 3G plans and you aren't confident? You're getting exactly what you paid for.

Can the terms of service change?

Yes, Public Mobile has the right to change any of the terms of service, including rates, without notice. Changes become effective thirty days after being posted at publicmobile.ca/plans. By purchasing service after a change is posted, including by continuing to top up your account, you accept the current terms of service. You can cancel service at any time, without penalty or cancellation fees.

[zoomzoom87]

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@Bonez82 wrote:

Public is s*hit. Still overpriced for the quality of service they provide. Seems like any time I made a call, it was like the person on the other end was under water or something...and this was in a full coverage area outside. And on more than one phone. The fact that public can't provide basic things like wifi calling or volte make no sense. I'll stick with freedom since it's actually provided me better results than public's garbage throttled network.

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@Bonez82 why are you even on this forum if you have nothing to do with PM? PM is great, telus network, telus service. They don't need wifi calling or volte (Freedom does, becuase their signals are CRAP indoors). Get educated dude, PM is telus NOW. You may have used PM in the past where they did have their own network, which was terrible. Things are different now. 

[stonechucker]

@Bonez82, For myself, and many others, we have switched from Freedom Mobile, previously WINd, when they did not have quality services for anyone outisde of MAJOR population centres like Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver.  Although plan price were cheaper than the big 3, many of us didn’t have Home service areas reliably, and as a result got toaming charges in roaming “AWAY” zones.

i live in an area that is flooded with Bell towers, and as Telus and Bell share most of their network with each other, I no longer have roaming charges across Canada, and I actually get cell service in my apartment, and my workplace.

User experience is simply that, one person’s experience.  When I start hearing the same experience over and over again, I start to think maybe it’s the better choice.

I still won’t touch Freedom with a 100 mile long pole.  It’s overpriced, too many features I do not need or want, and every plan is simply ‘overkill’ for my historical usage patterns over at least 10 years with 3 different providers and networks.

im notre than satisfied with my quality and value of my Public Mobile service.

Happy Holidays my friend, your freedom to choose Freedom Mobile is fine with me, it’s just not for me.

[srlawren]

@Bonez82 thanks for sharing, please continue to enjoy your FM service.  Happy holidays!

[Bonez82]

Public is s*hit. Still overpriced for the quality of service they provide. Seems like any time I made a call, it was like the person on the other end was under water or something...and this was in a full coverage area outside. And on more than one phone. The fact that public can't provide basic things like wifi calling or volte make no sense. I'll stick with freedom since it's actually provided me better results than public's garbage throttled network.

[norton]

PM not having a call centre is no loss compared to Freedom.  Ever since Shaw took over, Wind/Freedom's support has gone from excellent to non-existent.  There is no longer chat support and the on-line system is ignored.  I've sent 3 support messages to Freedom over the past 4 days and have zero response from them.  

I also just discovered that some of their stores are independently owned (with no indication as such) and their systems are not integrated.  I bought a phone at one of them, which has since shut down, and Freedom has absolutely no record of the sale, which is now causing a snag with warranty repair.  I"ve tried to be loyal to them for 7 years now but it's past time to move to another carrier that has its act together.

[canucks4life]

I imagine the latency/ping times were not that stellar either?

[srlawren]

I posted a couple here:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Plans-Add-Ons/3g-2-5-vs-4g-what-is-the-real-world-dif...

Edit: sorry not sure what happened. I edited that other post just now from mobile site and lost the images somehow. I won't be near a pc to fix them til sometime tomorrow probably. Sorry about that.

Those are taken on my second sim slot, running a newly activated (yesterday morning) line with new 3G data plan. Frankly, they are underwhelming, particularly the upload speeds.

[Radeonic]

Ok I was able to did some more 3g testing at various locations. It seems like it is wildly flutuating between 2 - 12 Mbps. Doesn't looks it's throttled but I definitely haven't gotten anywhere close to 20mbps like I had in the first couple of days of the plan.

[canucks4life]

I ran some speedtests last night alternating between LTE+ and HSPA+ upstream wasn't great but does not appear to be throttled.

I would be interested in seeing some detailed 3G speedtest numbers from newcomers or anyone who decided to change plans.

[Jeremy_M]

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@Radeonic wrote:

Well I can tell you one thing for sure that all our 3G speeds are now restricted to 3mbps or less. I distinctly remember right after I got my promo plan my 3G speeds was about 25 - 30 mbps but when I try again yesterday, I cannot get any higher than 3.1mbps no matter where I tried.

I'm sure you'll tell me I have 4G in my plan so I shouldn't care. But the fact remains that PM (or Telus) can arbitrarily change my plan speeds without consulitng with me before does not give me any confidence.

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@Radeonic I'm surprised by your claim - seems to me as there might be an issue? If you activated on a 4G LTE plan you will not be throttled. There might be other things in play - network availability, surroundings...etc. Please reach out to our @CS_Agent and have them look into it.

Jeremy

[srlawren]

@shawnie_boy I see that you have test results that show yours isn't being throttled.  Is that what you are referring to?  If so, that's great, and as it should be!  But, it doesn't make it impossible for @Radeonic's account to have accidentally been included in the list.

[Radeonic]

Ok, I hope its just a glitch in the system or network yesterday night. I will try again when I got home to test at the same location again.

[shawnie_boy]

@srlawren

see my post above

[srlawren]

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@shawnie_boy wrote:

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@Radeonic wrote:

Well I can tell you one thing for sure that all our 3G speeds are now restricted to 3mbps or less. I distinctly remember right after I got my promo plan my 3G speeds was about 25 - 30 mbps but when I try again yesterday, I cannot get any higher than 3.1mbps no matter where I tried.

I'm sure you'll tell me I have 4G in my plan so I shouldn't care. But the fact remains that PM (or Telus) can arbitrarily change my plan speeds without consulitng with me before does not give me any confidence.

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I just did 3g speedtests and average was 8.87 down and 2 up.  There is no throttle for LTE customers. 

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@shawnie_boy there definitely shouldn't be, no.  It's possible there was a glitch that caused @Radeonic's account to accidentally be included?  I've tagged Jeremy and asked for him to look into it.

[srlawren]

@Jeremy_M can you please look into @Radeonic's claim?  What he or she is stating is in conflict with the message PM has delivered.  He or she is claiming that, as an existing grandfathered customer, he or she is now getting throttled 3G speeds.  Please investigate ASAP.

[shawnie_boy]

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@Radeonic wrote:

Well I can tell you one thing for sure that all our 3G speeds are now restricted to 3mbps or less. I distinctly remember right after I got my promo plan my 3G speeds was about 25 - 30 mbps but when I try again yesterday, I cannot get any higher than 3.1mbps no matter where I tried.

I'm sure you'll tell me I have 4G in my plan so I shouldn't care. But the fact remains that PM (or Telus) can arbitrarily change my plan speeds without consulitng with me before does not give me any confidence.

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I just did 3g speedtests and average was 8.87 down and 2 up.  There is no throttle for LTE customers. 

[Radeonic]

Well I can tell you one thing for sure that all our 3G speeds are now restricted to 3mbps or less. I distinctly remember right after I got my promo plan my 3G speeds was about 25 - 30 mbps but when I try again yesterday, I cannot get any higher than 3.1mbps no matter where I tried.

I'm sure you'll tell me I have 4G in my plan so I shouldn't care. But the fact remains that PM (or Telus) can arbitrarily change my plan speeds without consulitng with me before does not give me any confidence.

[jpar]

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@srlawren wrote:

 Everyone on an existing plan before yesterday are grandfathered and not directly impacted by this.

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Hopefully indefinitely....

[srlawren]

@Radeonic I wouldn't if you got on one of the previous plans, prior to yesterday's changes.  In paritcular if you got on a promo plan such as last fall's promo plan, or the recent one aimed at Freedom customers.  Everyone on an existing plan before yesterday are grandfathered and not directly impacted by this.

[Radeonic]

Time to switch back to Freedom?

[PriMo]

The hurting at freedome stopped this morning believe me ! 

#FreePublic #3Gis2012 #Less4Less4Sure

[Wonder_why]

How many frustrating FM customers switch to PM this time, just imagining 

[PriMo]

True freedom is Public Mobile: pay when you use, no more contracts, no more third world customer service. An active community, a very stable network, low cost. I bought an Iphone 6 Plus , took a 25$ plan, and live off my home , friends and public wifi. It works AMAZING and no more $80.00/monthly bills. My phone is mine. 

For me the future of mobility is this : Buy your own equipement full price (don't sell your soul) and shop around for a low cost plan. I did the same thing with my home phone line. I pay $4.99/month and never looked back.

Same with TV no more cable bills. HDTV antenna, some online content. I feel more free then ever 🙂 

[jgurholt]

I had a friend who lived in Windsor, Ont and had a Freedom plan. His house was fairly close to Detroit (he could see it out the window). Every time he'd walk to the part of the house closer to Detroit, it would drop his call and say he was roaming.

[will13am]

I am sure this past couple of weeks freedom saw increased activations and increased churn.  Maybe they will make a lot of money on selling SIM cards, lol.

I left when the service was still called wind.  I was paying only $25 for 5 gigs.  Even that low cost wasn't enough to keep me as a customer.  I don't know what Shaw was thinking that immediately upon taking over that they can raise prices without improving the product first.  To me, the biggest greedy mistake was keeping all old plans on 3G.  When I saw that, I was absolutely convinced that I had the right move last year.  Now I am seeing plans for $60 per month.  OMG, that's getting into top tier pricing territory.  I don't care if it comes with 10 gigs and roaming in Canada and the US.  Fact is, there's far too much suffering when in the home zone.  I see people showing massive bouts of frustration in this forum when their activation fails.  That's me every time I tried to use data on the wind network.  

This past week, a buddy switched from Fido to the freedom promo.  Naturally, he needed to get a freedom account first.  When we were at the freedom store he comments hey this $40 is actually pretty good.  Why should I consider anything else?  Long story short, he tried the service from his house that evening, no signal, emergency calls only!  He answered his own question.  The freedom account is now closed.  He's totally happy to be a Public Mobile customer.  He has 6 times more data than with Fido for the same cost.   

[Samianauman]

Agreed.
Also freedom prices are can't be compared if they just fix up their reception and add more towers they will easily get lots of carrier business.

[Radeonic]

I just switched from wind to pm with the current promo too. But as much as we like to trash on wind/freedom, the fact that public mobile still exists under Telus is because they (and ex-mobilcity) was still around.

We would have never gotten these plans if wind bankrupted and Shaw didn't rescue it. Telus would have just killed pm quickly.

For that I am grateful wind/freedom still exists outside of the big 3 today and I would have no problem consider using them again when they have better spectrum and service in the future. I think this is an important point we have to remind ourselves everyday