Is Public Mobile's LTE throttled vs Telus/Koodo? Who here has the fastest Public Mobile speed?

[Eug]

I set my wife up on Public Mobile and it is working well for her. However, I've noticed that the max download speeds are more limited than I was expecting. They're decent and more than sufficient for her, but still, not quite what I might have expected for Telus or Koodo. (She was on Koodo before.)

Thinking it might just be luck of the draw for wireless conditions right at those times tested, I looked online, and it seems a few people have done comparative tests between Public Mobile and Koodo side by side, and Public Mobile is consistently slower. Well, at best Public Mobile is sometimes similar, but most of the time Public Mobile is slower. For example, one test had two Galaxy S6 phones testing Koodo against Public Mobile tested side by side. Koodo was over 100 Mbps, but Public Mobile was 20ish Mbps. Others have done maybe 5 tests in a row with the same phone models and again, Public Mobile usually was slower. Furthermore, I have never seen a Public Mobile speed test benchmark out there hit over 100 Mbps. In fact, over 60 Mbps seems to be rare.

Are Koodo and Telus given priority over Public Mobile in terms of download (and upload speeds), or is Public Mobile actively throttled (but still provided LTE speeds)? Or is Public Mobile using a more limited LTE feature set? Or is this all just by chance? To be fair to Public Mobile, I don't think I've ever seen truly scientific speed test comparisons between Public Mobile vs Telus/Koodo.

BTW, my iPhone 7 Plus on Fido is consistently slower than Public Mobile on my wife's iPhone 6s for upload speeds in my house, with my Fido consistently in the 1.5-2.5 Mbps range, and her Public Mobile in the 8-15 Mbps range. That's a pretty huge difference, and I'd rather have the faster uploads. This is her iPhone 6s on Public Mobile, to show the decent uploads.

[bryanbreguet]

No, there are many shills out there who somehow defend brands (or other things) without being paid.

Also, if it's too difficult for you to follow the logic of a conversation in a thread, I'd suggest you don't comment. And I'd really, really strongly suggest you stop misrepresenting what others have said. But hey, it's hilarious that you are quoting comments proving you wrong on your own. So keep up the great work!

[Jeremy_M · Accepted solution]

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@srlawren wrote:

Okay, let's go to the horse's proverbial mouth to get the definitive anser.

@Jeremy_M, @David_J

Could one of you please confirm whether or not PM traffic is throttle, de-prioritized, or otherwise treated worse than traffic from parent and sibling brands Telus and Koodo?

Answer: No, PM traffic is not throttled

There seems to be some concern about some speed tests possibly suggesting that PM traffic is not as quick as Koodo or Telus.  Can you please weigh in and provide any info you can?

Answer: Data speeds can vary depending on different scenarios:

• Location
• Device/Handset
• Weather
• Network - Equipment malfunction 

Thank you kindly!

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[kav2001c]

@bryanbreguet and just for the record, you do understand Public CAN throttle your data (so can Koodo and Telus for that matter)

They are not but they could

First bullet point on page 2

https://www.publicmobile.ca/pdfs/Public_Mobile_Terms_of_Service.pdf

https://www.publicmobile.ca/pdfs/Wireless_Video_Experience_Optimization.pdf

[kav2001c]

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@bryanbreguet wrote:

Thanks for proving yourself wrong and/or making stuff up.

The initial reply of McLaren was to simply disregard benchmarks numbers and forcus on real life. Pretty much telling us that as long as you browse fast, no need to worry, especially for the price. Nowhere in his post is he mentioning that benchmarks don't report accurately. You added this part.

You and McLaren replies are a little bit too close to a "shill" answer for my liking. We usually don't have those in this forum and I sure hope it won't start now.

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I don't think you even know what you are arguing anymore @bryanbreguet

McLaren said (quite clearly and I even quoted it for you) disregard benchmarks and focus on real world results (STREAMING + browsing)

I kicked in there are all kinds of reasons why benchmarks can be flawed

You chipped in that it was important if benchmarks appeared lower and told McLaren his examples just didn't cut it 

For the millions in attendance would love to hear how anything either of us wrote could be misrepresented as a shill? 

And for that matter you DO UNDERSTAND a shill has a vested interest right? So unless you think Public is paying us would love to know how we are shilling for them?

I'm not even an Oracle  so can't imagine what you think a personal interest could be lol

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/shill

[srlawren]

Okay, let's go to the horse's proverbial mouth to get the definitive anser.

@Jeremy_M, @David_J

Could one of you please confirm whether or not PM traffic is throttle, de-prioritized, or otherwise treated worse than traffic from parent and sibling brands Telus and Koodo?

There seems to be some concern about some speed tests possibly suggesting that PM traffic is not as quick as Koodo or Telus.  Can you please weigh in and provide any info you can?

Thank you kindly!

[bryanbreguet]

@McLaren wrote:

As long as you're happy with real world testing - ie Web browsing, streaming etc then who cares about the numbers. The more important number is the dollars in savings every month!

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@bryanbreguet he clearly said do stuff (browse & stream) and not to worry about a synthetic number from a benchmark.

There are TONS of reasons why a benchmark does not report accurately; that is the main reason people do not accept them as a sole basis. They can be better or worse than what you actually are getting.

Thanks for proving yourself wrong and/or making stuff up.

The initial reply of McLaren was to simply disregard benchmarks numbers and forcus on real life. Pretty much telling us that as long as you browse fast, no need to worry, especially for the price. Nowhere in his post is he mentioning that benchmarks don't report accurately. You added this part. If you want an analogy, it's like saying 1080p is perfectly fine and we don't need 4k. That might be correct but it doesn't mean 4k does not have factually more pixels.

Many here, including myself, have promoted PM to other people, including on RFD. And one of the main argument was that it was the same network with no restriction. So it's all good and all that web browsing is still fast, it doesn't change the fact that it's not okay if we are being throttled. At the very least, we should know.

Also, I find it pretty ironic that you tell me not to believe conspiracies but you are then really quick at making up reasons as to why PM would systematically, in a series of tests, perform worst than Koodo.

You and McLaren replies are a little bit too close to a "shill" answer for my liking. We usually don't have those in this forum and I sure hope it won't start now.

[kav2001c]

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@McLaren wrote:

As long as you're happy with real world testing - ie Web browsing, streaming etc then who cares about the numbers. The more important number is the dollars in savings every month!

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@bryanbreguet he clearly said do stuff (browse & stream) and not to worry about a synthetic number from a benchmark.

There are TONS of reasons why a benchmark does not report accurately; that is the main reason people do not accept them as a sole basis. They can be better or worse than what you actually are getting.

[bryanbreguet]

No it wasn't his point. Or at least that's not what he wrote.

I don't believe conspiracies, I don't know if this is true or not. All I'm saying is that we should try to find out.

[kav2001c]

@bryanbreguet McLarens point was to test it in real world situations instead of relying on a generic benchmark. Heck the internet abounds with posts if you google about Telus throttling home internet as well (which they don't, and if they did you could file a complaint against them).

Don't beleive every conspiracy theory online 

[bryanbreguet]

@McLaren I disagree that this is all the matters. A big argument to switch to PM was that it was using the same network. If we are being limited or throttled, I want to know

[PBForMe]

I get about 20+mbps on HSPA and 40+ mbps on LTE, and that's with a 4 year old phone. If there is any throttling I don't see it. 

[kav2001c]

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@Eug wrote:
Good to hear the reps claim there is no throttling for PM or prioritization favouring Telus & Koodo.

However, why would the benchmark apps treat PM any differently?

I'm using Speedtest on iOS 10.1.

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@Eug there have even been cases of certain vendors cheating on benchmarks (optimizing code to work better on specific phones). 

[Eug]

Good to hear the reps claim there is no throttling for PM or prioritization favouring Telus & Koodo.

However, why would the benchmark apps treat PM any differently?

I'm using Speedtest on iOS 10.1.

[srlawren]

@Eug my PM is actually faster in my home than my Shaw WiFi! 

[srlawren]

@Eug it's been asked to PM staff in the past and they insist there is no throttling or de-prioritization of PM traffic vs. Koodo or Telus.

These comparisons are really hard to do correctly.  They have to be done on the same phone or phone model running the same apps and OS, at the same time of day, in the same location, etc. etc.  They can vary a lot from moment to moment.  

I also suspect @kav2001c may be right that the apps may not know how to treat PM and might treat it differently than Telus/Koodo?  I'm not sure if that's a factor at all but I could see how it might be.

[Fr3lncr]

A friend and I both switched from Virgin to Public this week and we both have found our speeds to be slower now that we are on Public than when we were on Virgin (and as Bell and Telus share their towers, I assume these connections and speeds should be relatively consistent).

While trying to download a 500 MB file Friday night, I noticed the progress was just crawling.  So, I terminated the download, rebooted, and did a speed test and even with an LTE connection, I was getting about 2 Mbps DL and 0.02 Mbps UL whereas a friend who was on Telus had a much better result.

I've been monitoring it since and the best I have gotten with HPSA connection is around 10 Mbps DL and 1 Mbps UL and on LTE about 20-30 Mbps and 3-5 Mbps UL.

These are about half of what I had on Virgin.  

To be fair, the best comparison would be to find a Telus/Koodo subscriber and try their SIM in my phone to see if the speeds were any different to know for sure.  Unfortunately, no one I know close is on Telus/Koodo to test.

Also it dosn't help that Bell and Telus LTE coverage in Ottawa (Nepean, Barrhaven) is really not that good (one of them really needs to install some new towers) but again, it is still worse so far on Public than Virgin..

Generally, I don't care too much about DL speed but of course, when you do need it, you want it to be there and the other night, it certainly wasn't for me.

[rkd]

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@jchlo wrote:
I would like to know too

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well, why don't you first start with running a speedtest on your phone and sharing the results here?

[jchlo]

I would like to know too

[rkd]

i ran a speedtest on my Galaxy S6 and got 47.09DL 40.31UL. i got a buddy i was with who is also on public mobile to do it on his nexus 5, and he got around 27DL. i originally thought the slower speeds were because he had an older phone, but looking at your wife's iphone 6s results i don't know what to think anymore

[kav2001c]

I suspect the app is not optimized

Try downloading a large file and you won't see any slowdown

[bmendes]

Well, I haven't really noticed. But when I was with Virgin/Koodo, I disabled LTE for fear of going over my very small data limit faster. Ever since PM, it's been plenty fast, so no complaints. (Even faster than my home internet)

[jamestneutron]

The problem too with Wind is they sell it as LTE, but not all LTE are the same. The AWS band they use is so weak it has trouble penetrating concrete...not good in a big city. Theoretically there speeds are legit if you are stanging under the tower...but the service is not useable in a practical world. I suffered it for 2 years thinking ...hey it's cheap. I will not miss the frustration of deadzones in areas which should have good coverage...and also I love that I am able to put on a cartoon or something for the kids if we are waiting at the doctors office and they aren't feeling too hot...sickly toddlers+buffering=STRESSED OUT ! haha

[Eug]

I'm not sure Wind has ever been good, at least not in a consistent fashion in Toronto. Anyone I've ever known on Wind has always said Wind was cheap, but never said it was actually good. Wind's network just isn't up to par, and their LTE rollout is not going to magically make it good enough to compete against the big three any time soon.

But that's a different discussion.

[PublicMobile101]

I found that wind used to be good but now their prices seem a bit overpriced for what you get. They used to have things like pay by minute but now their cheapest plan is $25 which isn't bad except for the fact their service is only available in a select few areas.

[PublicMobile101]

Wow this is interesting for sure, however I have never really had a problem with my data speeds with public mobile.

[Eug]

I care about the numbers for two reasons.

1) Intellectual curiosity. Public Mobile seems to be positioning itself to take Wind customers, but not to go head to head against like companies like Virgin or Fido. Perhaps this is one way they've limited PM to still be way better than Wind but not better than its sister brand Koodo. Or not.

2) For my wife it's fine. For me it's also usually fine, but sometimes on business trips I need to tether my phone. In this scenario, my question may be more important, esp. if I'm sitting in a hotel with a bunch of other Telus or Koodo users also tethering.

[McLaren]

As long as you're happy with real world testing - ie Web browsing, streaming etc then who cares about the numbers. The more important number is the dollars in savings every month!