So yesterday, I switched to Public Mobile's special offer plan, which gives 4.5GB of data in 3G Speed. As everyone here might know, its 3G plan uses LTE network capped in 3Mbps.
Before I switched to Public Mobile, I used Rogers prepaid, which was $30/month for 50 minutes talk, unlimited text (Canada-wide), and 250MB data (In full speed). I worried about 3G plans when I heard that it is very slow, so I considered to switch to its $35 LTE Plan through build my own plan, which will give unlimited province-wide talk, unlimited international text, and 500MB LTE data. However, since special offer plan offered 4.5GB data, I thought it is way better deal an it was a limited time offer, so I decided to switch to 4.5GB plan.
After making a switch, I started to test out its speed, seeing if it is suitable plan. I tested e-mail, web browsing, social media, and video streaming.
1. E-Mail
E-Mail will be absolutely fine on its 3G plans. In fact, as it uses capped LTE, it actually loads E-Mail faster than actual 3G, thanks to its lower latency and higher realiability.
2. Web Browsing
Web browsing is working great. Google will load very well, including Google images. However, some websites with a lot of images will load slower than regular LTE. Still, web browsing is also possible and if you do not mind slower speed on image-based webpages, its 3G plan is great deal.
3. Social Media
Almost everyone use social media through apps, so I do. I tested speed on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Twitter and Facebook worked great, and it was slightly slower than full-speed Rogers LTE, but still in acceptable level. Instagram was slower on 3G plan than Rogers LTE, loading images quite slowly. However, its speed was still acceptable, as with 250MB LTE plan I used with Rogers, I couldn't even think about using Instagram on data.
4. Video streaming.
On Public Mobile 3G plan, I could stream YouTube very well on 480p (Maybe even 720P, as 1.5Mbps mall wi-fi could stream YouTube in 480p). You might not notice significant difference between 480p and higher resolution, so I would recommend setting resolution to 480p, as it will also help you to stream more using same amount of data than 720p.
Conclusion:
After running test on 4 different tasks, Public Mobile's 3G plan will be suitable for most of people. Unless you download large files through data network, 3Mbps is enough speed for most of tasks, including video streaming. Furthermore, as Public Mobile's 3G plan is LTE capped in 3Mbps, it is actually more reliable than real 3G.
