Long distance minutes wasted because of towers location

[spastik0827]

Hello,

I live on the border of two provinces (QC and ON) and I've had a problem where I run out of minutes quickly because PM thinks I'm doing "long distance calls" while I'm actually making only local phone calls. A mod had once replied to me and gave me a credit so I could replenish my minutes until the problem was settled. She explained it was because I'm being sometimes connected to a tower on the other side of the border and therefor my "local calls" are considered "long distance". I was with Telus before and this never happened... 😞

Well, it happened again. I've been out of talk minutes for two days now. And that leads me to believe the problem hasn't been fixed yet.

Can someone please help me with this issue? I'd also like to get my talk time back, I have to do WiFi calls now and that's pretty embarassing!

JP

@Shazia_K

@Mary_M

@Saray_O

[pakmode]

This reminds me of the old days when people living on the US/Canada border would always get roaming charges because of connected to US towers lol.  

Unfortunately there is no easy fix for this provincial issue due to existing system limitations and infrastructure setup. 

[Shazia_K]

Hey @spastik0827, 

I'm sorry to hear about this, 

I will reply to the message I just received. 

Thanks,

Shazia

[spastik0827]

BUMP

I still haven't gotten any answer from anyone and I've posted about this a while ago!

Please someone help me!!

@Shazia_K

@Mary_M

@Saray_O

[zhadj030]

As I am living in Ottawa I can understand the struggle. I am as we waiting on them to decide something

[stonechucker]

The issue with the border areas is easy to understand, as the boundry of the Provice dictates the area codes.  Unfortunately, cell towers don't know geographic boundries.

A local call to Hull from Ottawa is part of the old system of local vs. long distance.  I maintain as I mentioned in a previous thread, Public Mobile should honour all "local calls" based on this setup.  It shouldn't matter if you're in Ottawa, accessing a Hull based tower to make a call to Ottawa, or Toronto, or Windsor ON.  

[will13am]

---

@ShawnC13 wrote:

@will13am, I agree that this persons issue needs to be fixed but I still see why PM has Provincial wide and Canada wide plans.  They can offer the best pricing for specific needs.  I am on the Fall Promo with Province wide calling and I purchased the $8 addon (Should have read more and got the $15 International) and I have used 7 of those minutes in 4 months and the minutes don't expire so I may have this $8 addon for 2 years or more who knows.  Not having to pay for Canada wide calling when I don't really need it was a great thing it lowered the cost of the plan that would work for me.

---

@ShawnC13, I am not saying the cost of buying a calling addon is punitive.  It is a matter of principle that Canada wide calling should be offered in all calling plans by now.  Those on legacy Bell landlines still have to pay long distance to call a neighbor across the street all because of a jurisdictional boundary.  This is simply wrong in the 21st century.  I don't believe that there is a meaningful cost to providing Canada wide calling vs province wide calling.  I also don't believe huge money is being made on the addon as we are in violent agreement that the addon costs is minimal and uptake is small. 

I will be traveling soon and I have no intentions of buying any calling addon.  It has been so long that I had to pay extra for a long distance call that I don't remember when. 

[ShawnC13]

@will13am, I agree that this persons issue needs to be fixed but I still see why PM has Provincial wide and Canada wide plans.  They can offer the best pricing for specific needs.  I am on the Fall Promo with Province wide calling and I purchased the $8 addon (Should have read more and got the $15 International) and I have used 7 of those minutes in 4 months and the minutes don't expire so I may have this $8 addon for 2 years or more who knows.  Not having to pay for Canada wide calling when I don't really need it was a great thing it lowered the cost of the plan that would work for me.

[will13am]

Public Mobile needs to do something special for the customers that live in border towns and cities and have province wide talk.  They are alienating a lot of potential customers.  As much as Public Mobile's business model is disrutpive to the industry, they remain mired in the dark ages when it comes to calling plans.  The notion of charging for long distance for calls within the country has no place in the 21st century.  Long distance is not something that fits into the internet urban dictionary.

[NDesai]

This problem is still in their to-do list. Get in touch with one of the mod again and see if they have any update on this.