Is 4G worth it? (my details to help explain are in post)

[Masters2150]

I joined last year before they introduced 3G and 4G options for their plans. I get 6GB on a 90 day plan at 4G with province wide talk and global text for $120. So if I change it, I lose the old plan, which means I lose 4G unless I want to pay the now insane prices.

Problem is I find that 2GB per month just isnt enough anymore. Is 3G speed enough for streaming youtube? I don't mean in 1080p or anything, hell 480 looks fine to me.

I tried putting in the plan that would get me 9GB total at 4G, so 3GB per month, would cost me $180 with public mobile, as apposed to my current $120. If I go with the 3G option, it's only $141, only $7 more per month for an extra GB, not bad.

So while 4G is nice, is it worth it or needed for 360 or 480 youtube quality? I guess the dilemma comes that if I have blazing 4G speed, I can watch 1080p YouTube, but I'll burn through my data like nothing else. If I watch YouTube at 360 or 480, I do notice the difference, but it's wathcable and I don't care too much, so it uses less data. Right now if I'm not on wifi, I watch youtube at 144 to conserve data but I watch it alot on the bus and on breaks.

Any thoughts and/or help would be nice!

One oher thing! I just paid for 90 days, while I understand it's non-refundable, does Public Mobile give credit? So if I wanted to instantly upgrade my plan to someting else, do I just pay the difference? Or do I have to wait till my 90 days are over to upgrade?

[Masters2150]

Well decided to go with the "3G" service next time my renewal is up.

Did some testing on my pc, and used a program to throttle my internet speed down to315kb/s. Honestly it's not all that bad. Can't watch HD but who cares, and most websites still load relatively fast.

But ya, rebranding it would be better, if I had not asked, and went off what 3G speed really is, only to find it a lot slower, I would have been be pretty ticked off.

[srlawren]

@Jeremy_M much appreciated!

[Jeremy_M]

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@srlawren wrote:

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@NDesai @Luddite I sure wish PM would listen to feedback that calling these throttled plans "3G" is too confusing and misleading.  @Jeremy_M will you guys please reconsider rebranding it?

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Thank you for sharing @srlawren, I will take this back to the team.

Jeremy

[Luddite]

Listening is not the issue; it's the doing! 

Same in every workplace I have ever been. 

[srlawren]

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@NDesai wrote:

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@Masters2150 wrote:

I figured out how to force my phone into 3G only mode. Ya uses the same amount of data, but I don't notice the speed very much when using 360 or 480, so this could work!

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When you are on 4G and when you enable 3G only on your phone, the speed will be around 5-10 mbps. But the 3G plan speed on PM 3G plans is throttled at 2.5mbps (LTE enabled). So it is different than the actual 3G speed. Currently, that same 3G speed you can also get on the 3G plans if you force to use 3G only but we have heard that it will also be throttled to 2.5mbps. 

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@NDesai @Luddite I sure wish PM would listen to feedback that calling these throttled plans "3G" is too confusing and misleading.  @Jeremy_M will you guys please reconsider rebranding it?

[Luddite]

@Masters2150 Consider renewing your current plan early when out of data. To do that make a 1 time payment to your account so that Available Funds equal your plan cost. Then send a private message to the moderators requesting an early reactivation of your current plan.

[Mana]

I think if you are really used to 4g for streaming and faster browsing, you may need some patience with 3G. 

[mimmo]

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@NDesai wrote:

@mimmo wrote:
Your 3g speeds are likley much faster than the throttled 2.5 MBs that pm is offering in their "3g" plans

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No, not 2.5MBs as it would be 20mbps. PM 3G is throttled at 2.5mbps or ~300 KB/s.

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Thanks for the correction.

[stonechucker]

I don't use my phone for video streaming very often, but I do use it for audio streaming while at work.  I don't need high quality audio, so I set my app to use the lowest available quality.  I really only use the data otherwise for limited social media, GPS navigation, and google searches.

im rarely using even half of my 12 GB over the 90 days, and until recently, I only got 3G service at work...  They installed a signal booster or repeater the other month, so now I'm spoiled.

As for whether 4G is worth it, I don't really know.

[Masters2150]

I was looking around, may have actually found a way.

 An download speed limiter, it can artificialy limit your speed. Just having problems getting it working.

[NDesai]

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@Masters2150 wrote:

Anyone know if a program I can use to throttle the network speed on my phone down to 2.5?

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No, there is no way to test other than getting the 3G plan. 

[computergeek541]

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@Masters2150 wrote:

I figured out how to force my phone into 3G only mode. Ya uses the same amount of data, but I don't notice the speed very much when using 360 or 480, so this could work!

That isn't a good test.  The 3g network is capable of much faster than the 3g-like speeds offered with some of the current plans.  For me, speed testing results using the HSPA network are usually somewhere between 10 and 20Mbps.  The 3g data offerings by Public Mobile only give about 2.5Mbps of speed.  I suspect that if Public Mobile were to actually offer full 3g speeds with these price plans, very few people would be willing to pay extra for the faster speeds.

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[NDesai]

@mimmo wrote:
Your 3g speeds are likley much faster than the throttled 2.5 MBs that pm is offering in their "3g" plans

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No, not 2.5MBs as it would be 20mbps. PM 3G is throttled at 2.5mbps or ~300 KB/s.

[Masters2150]

Ok...that sucks. IS there any way to test the speeds to really know before I make a switch?

Anyone know if a program I can use to throttle the network speed on my phone down to 2.5?

[NDesai]

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@Masters2150 wrote:

I figured out how to force my phone into 3G only mode. Ya uses the same amount of data, but I don't notice the speed very much when using 360 or 480, so this could work!

Honestly...IS there any reason to even have 4G? Seems like anyting that would benefit from it, you'd burn through your data so fast you'd never use it.

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When you are on 4G and when you enable 3G only on your phone, the speed will be around 5-10 mbps. But the 3G plan speed on PM 3G plans is throttled at 2.5mbps (LTE enabled). So it is different than the actual 3G speed. Currently, that same 3G speed you can also get on the 3G plans if you force to use 3G only but we have heard that it will also be throttled to 2.5mbps. 

The upload speed on 3G is also throttled at 2.5mbps so this is pretty slow to upload images to social medias and it might be a problem with HD facetime quality. This could be a reason to use 4G as you get higher download and upload. 

[mimmo]

Your 3g speeds are likley much faster than the throttled 2.5 mbps that pm is offering in their "3g" plans

[Masters2150]

I figured out how to force my phone into 3G only mode. Ya uses the same amount of data, but I don't notice the speed very much when using 360 or 480, so this could work!

Honestly...IS there any reason to even have 4G? Seems like anyting that would benefit from it, you'd burn through your data so fast you'd never use it.

[NDesai]

Here is another topic where we, Oracles, and other users shared 3G experince: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Plans-Add-Ons/Share-Your-3G-Real-World-Experience/m-p...

Take a look at the video i posted. It demonstrates how youtube videos play on 3G. 

Watching youtube video at 720p should not be a problem. It takes a few sec to start and a few sec if you skip the video. If you watch it on lower quality, i think there should not be any wait, and it would be just like on 4G. 

We are still testing 3G, so if there is anything in particular you want to know, let us know 🙂

[SD08]

Here's a thread with some user experience for 3G data. Seems to be usable, even for watching Youtube video.  https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Plans-Add-Ons/3g-2-5-vs-4g-what-is-the-real-world-dif...

As for changing plan before the end of your current cycle, public Mobile doesn't give credit. However, since your cycle just started, you might be able to get a moderator to change it for you by paying the difference, provided you haven't used much of your data yet. No guarantees though.

Click this Moderator_Team link to send a private message for assistance.  Include your phone number.
More info on moderators:  http://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Knowledge-Base/Updated-Contacting-our-Community-Modera...

[xCameron94x]

3G data will still be fine for streaming. Just will take a little longer to load, quality may be a little lower. But no matter what you technically will still be using the same amount of data at the end of the day. 

Example: A video may buffer on LTE in 1 min, where a 3G video can buffer in maybe 1 minute and a half, but in the end of the day, it will still use the same amount of data (approximatley). The only real thing that would affect the amount of data on youtube is the length of the video, and the quality of the video.

Public mobile does not usually offer credits back.