Idea

[tehowennathe]

Chatr wireless recently got rid of it's zones.  Meaning their customers now have access nationwide to their full data plan plus unlimited 2G data once limit is reached. If Public Mobile wants to keep it's customers then maybe it's something they should look into. They would defiantly take Chatr wireless customers as their plans are much cheaper.  Only reason I didn't switch is because Public Mobile has my 8GB under $30 and good US roaming.

[srlawren]

---

@will13am wrote:

---

---

4k video?

---

@will13am 4k video isn't a specific service.  Net Neutrality prevents carriers from zero-rating particular services, or giving some services speed advantages over others.  If you're on a "3G"-speed data plan and you try to stream 4k video on Netflix you're going to get about the same success as you will trying to stream 4k video on YouTube or on Crave or on Amazon Prime Video or on... etc.  [Of course, there will be some variation based on the bitrate each service encodes at, but you get the point.]  Drop each of those services down to a more reasonable resolution and they will perform about equally well instead of about equally poorly.  This is net neutrality.

EDIT: Just because you don't like the throttled speed doesn't make it a violation of net neutrality.  

[will13am]

---

@srlawren wrote:

---

@will13am wrote:

---

@srlawren wrote:

---

@will13am wrote:

---

---

Honestly traffic shaping LTE should be viewed as a strike against net neutrality and forbidden.  

---

@will13am while that would be lovely, this isn't a violation of net neutrality since it's being applied equally no matter what activities you do on your "3G"-speed data plan.  A net neutrality violation would be if Telus took some money from Netflix so that Netflix traffic was whitelisted and exempt from the throttling, so that "3G" users got full speed for Netflix and 3Mbps for eveything else.

---

3mbit/s makes a lot of video applications unusable.  I am not a lawyers, not saying this has a leg to stand on. 

---

@will13am do you have an example?

---

4k video?

[srlawren]

---

@will13am wrote:

---

@srlawren wrote:

---

@will13am wrote:

---

---

Honestly traffic shaping LTE should be viewed as a strike against net neutrality and forbidden.  

---

@will13am while that would be lovely, this isn't a violation of net neutrality since it's being applied equally no matter what activities you do on your "3G"-speed data plan.  A net neutrality violation would be if Telus took some money from Netflix so that Netflix traffic was whitelisted and exempt from the throttling, so that "3G" users got full speed for Netflix and 3Mbps for eveything else.

---

3mbit/s makes a lot of video applications unusable.  I am not a lawyers, not saying this has a leg to stand on. 

---

@will13am do you have an example?

[will13am]

---

@srlawren wrote:

---

@will13am wrote:

---

---

Honestly traffic shaping LTE should be viewed as a strike against net neutrality and forbidden.  

---

@will13am while that would be lovely, this isn't a violation of net neutrality since it's being applied equally no matter what activities you do on your "3G"-speed data plan.  A net neutrality violation would be if Telus took some money from Netflix so that Netflix traffic was whitelisted and exempt from the throttling, so that "3G" users got full speed for Netflix and 3Mbps for eveything else.

---

3mbit/s makes a lot of video applications unusable.  I am not a lawyers, not saying this has a leg to stand on. 

[srlawren]

---

@will13am wrote:

---

---

Honestly traffic shaping LTE should be viewed as a strike against net neutrality and forbidden.  

---

@will13am while that would be lovely, this isn't a violation of net neutrality since it's being applied equally no matter what activities you do on your "3G"-speed data plan.  A net neutrality violation would be if Telus took some money from Netflix so that Netflix traffic was whitelisted and exempt from the throttling, so that "3G" users got full speed for Netflix and 3Mbps for eveything else.

[Anonymous]

---

@tehowennathe wrote:

---

I agree it took them so long that Public Mobile now has a loyal customer of 4 years. Unless Chatr improves their service I see no reason to move.  Would be nice to have the unlimited throttled data. Maybe with Chatr going nationwide it's the start of a new prepaid industry and have PM go in that direction in the future.  PM is still the prepaid leader in Canada. 

---

I dunno. I looked hard at the Koodo $15 plan and then add add-ons. Even bought a SIM. Wanna buy a Koodo SIM? 🙂

But NO ONE has the rewards like this place.

[tehowennathe]

---

@dna2016 wrote:

@tehowennathe well it's about time they got rid of this ridiculous zone idea.  Was wondering what took them so long.  I can only imagine how confusing this is for customers, and I'm not even sure why people would want to join a company that has such restrictions.  But I think for sure in a year or so they will change the competitive playing field with PM.  I believe Chatr is part of the Rogers brand, so I'm sure in time they will make changes to their network offerings to remain competitive, and of course provide changes in their plans and price points.  Considering Chatr has footprint in shopping centres where there's high traffic volume, they'll be able to market these changes and I'm sure some heads will turn their way.  

Personally I think you can't beat free money, so until these competitors offer the ability to reduce the payments substantially, then I'm not going anywhere.

---

I agree it took them so long that Public Mobile now has a loyal customer of 4 years. Unless Chatr improves their service I see no reason to move.  Would be nice to have the unlimited throttled data. Maybe with Chatr going nationwide it's the start of a new prepaid industry and have PM go in that direction in the future.  PM is still the prepaid leader in Canada. 

[dna2016]

@tehowennathe well it's about time they got rid of this ridiculous zone idea.  Was wondering what took them so long.  I can only imagine how confusing this is for customers, and I'm not even sure why people would want to join a company that has such restrictions.  But I think for sure in a year or so they will change the competitive playing field with PM.  I believe Chatr is part of the Rogers brand, so I'm sure in time they will make changes to their network offerings to remain competitive, and of course provide changes in their plans and price points.  Considering Chatr has footprint in shopping centres where there's high traffic volume, they'll be able to market these changes and I'm sure some heads will turn their way.  

Personally I think you can't beat free money, so until these competitors offer the ability to reduce the payments substantially, then I'm not going anywhere.

[Psygineer]

I have to admit when I was looking for my first prepaid cellphone plan, Chatr looked very tempting due to the effectively unlimited data (if you don't mind a bit of extra throttling). The only thing that stopped me at the time was the Zone thing. According to their map I didn't live in a "Zone" and I was confused about what service I would and would not get and was pretty sure I would not get the "unlimited data". I ended up going to Public simply because it didn't appear to have Zones and the loyalty rewards looked more interesting than what Lucky offered. 

I have to agree with the OP, that if the Zones were not in place in the Spring of this year I likely would have been a Chatr customer right now. I don't plan on switching now, but I think the unlimited low speed data once you hit your limit would definately be a feature I would be interested in having access to. Right now I ration my data by turning it off unless I need it (no wifi available) being able to use it more freely would definately be nice.

[stonechucker]

@tehowennathe, Lucky has done the same as far as I can tell.

And then there's the gimmicky WiFi calling 'app' which doesn't use your real phone number.  I can, and do, this already using Fongo on my device when I need it.

Consumers are going to go where they want - I'm on a great network with Public Mobile, and it works better than the other guys wherever I've gone thus far.

[tehowennathe]

Yes they never used zones. Was simply saying some may see chatr's elimination of zones enough reason to switch because of the use of slower data even after limit reached. I agree better response time is important 

[will13am]

---

@stonechucker wrote:

Chatr is an inferior network in most of the country.  PM doesn't need to change what we already have here to draw the customers.  Those who choose to use Chatr do so because they require specific coverage area, and/or have old phones which will not work on Telus and Bell networks.

When the 2G network is shut off in the coming years, they're going to need to change devices.

---

There's no impact on hardware.  Back in the 2G era, frequency compatibility was not an issue.  There's weren't the large number of bands.  All devices have the same 2G capability.  It's only in Canada that we still try to sell 2G data while 5G is being rolled out.  Honestly traffic shaping LTE should be viewed as a strike against net neutrality and forbidden.  

[will13am]

Public Mobile has never used zones.  If there's one thing Public Mobile should fix it the moderator response time.  

[tehowennathe]

---

@stonechucker wrote:

Chatr is an inferior network in most of the country.  PM doesn't need to change what we already have here to draw the customers.  Those who choose to use Chatr do so because they require specific coverage area, and/or have old phones which will not work on Telus and Bell networks.

When the 2G network is shut off in the coming years, they're going to need to change devices.

---

True but it would have the PM customers who know nothing about networks think about switching 

[stonechucker]

Chatr is an inferior network in most of the country.  PM doesn't need to change what we already have here to draw the customers.  Those who choose to use Chatr do so because they require specific coverage area, and/or have old phones which will not work on Telus and Bell networks.

When the 2G network is shut off in the coming years, they're going to need to change devices.