Google Nexus 6P - APN Setup automatically

[spmckinnon]

Hey guys,

First post! Just wanted to share my experience setting up with Public Mobile.

The experience was flawless!

I own a Nexus 6P (purchased directly from Google) and was on WIND Mobile. I had a great plan but the speed and reliability of the WIND network is just not good (4 years experience).

Ordered a Public Mobile SIM, came in 5 business days. Popped it into my phone, completed the setup process online. Choose to port my number over. All went very smooth.

Checked my APN settings in my phone and they were already setup almost identical to what is recommeneded, the name was "Mobile Internet" instead of "Public Mobile" and the APN type was "default,mms,agps,supl,fota,hipri". I left them as they were. 

Waited 45mins, restarted the phone and when the phone rebooted I was on the network. Man is it nice to see the little 4G logo for the first time.

Called my wife, she confirmed my number was coming up on her call display. She called me and my call display was working. Couldn't have been easier.

I just did a speed test at home in Coquitlam with 3/4 signal strength:

9.21 Mbps down

4.73 Mbps up

I imagine the speeds will improve as the signal strength improves. Will test when I'm at work downtown tomorrow.

Good to be joining this new family. Hopefully I can help some of you guys out and share the knowledge.

-Steve

[7789849803]

With technology still evolving, I think it'll be another 4 or 5 years before 3G networks are completely done away with. But we're still a couple steps away from that measure becoming viable.

VoLTE will need to be adopted first - and it doesn't look like Telus is going to launch that anytime soon (Rogers launched theirs in March/April this year). Once it is launched, hopefully VoLTE capable handsets will take another few years to become commonplace, before 3G can be done away with completely.

But with increasing adoption of 4G, hopefully service and coverage issues will be ironed out further. It's disappointing to hear of downstream speeds of 12-18 mbps on 4G. But I'm sure things will improve soon.

[srlawren]

@7789849803 I live in Surrey but am working in Langley at this particular moment.  Inside my office appears to only be HSPA but I will try to remember to retest later with LTE coverage nearby or near home or my other office in Delta.  I seem to recall around 12-18 Mbps downstream and 2-4 or 5 Mbps upstream but I could be wrong.

[7789849803]

@srlawren You're in Surrey, right? What speeds do you see there on 4G?

[srlawren]

Yeah, I figured downtown would be quicker than the burbs. 

[7789849803]

Here's one of my latest speedtest results from the West End:

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/1617125997 (36 down, 11 up). Previous speedtests done downtown have been around the same or faster.

Of course if you don't have 4G your speeds will be significantly lower. These tests were done on my Nexus 4 - on which I was able to enable 4G! /endgloat

[srlawren]

@spmckinnon welcome, and glad it went so well!  I'd be curious to hear about your speed tests downtown.  I'm in Surrey, work in Delta and Langley, and I rarely test much higher than that, unfortunately.  I did read recently that Telus is slower than Bell and Rogers for LTE speeds in most areas.  I'm still very happy though!

[Martin]

Hello Steve,

If you want your idea about the note to be considered, please move your post to the Public Lab. That is the ONLY place that PM looks for new ideas.

BTW, welcome to Public Mobile!

[spmckinnon]

Yeah I suspect that the information (or most of it) comes from the SIM card and the newer mobile devices know how to setup new APNs when you plug the SIM in.

Perhaps we should update the APN directions with a Note that says you MAY need to do this depending on the model of smartphone you have.

[youbme]

Welcome to the community @spmckinnon!

I have yet to manually enter APN settings and have used two phones with PM so far (Nexus 5 and OnePlus2). It might have something to do with how software plays with the SIM card...

[NDesai]

Welcome to PM.

Thank you for sharing your great experience.