North Western Ontario service and advice

[Triple-B]

Hey I've been a Rogers / Fido customer for years but not happy my cost keeps going up. Can anyone tell me how PM service is in North Western Ontario, especially the Thunder Bay area? I looked at the service map and it is very similar to all other carriers. Shows 5g in the area but occasionally i still have 3G speeds and dropped call around the city. 
Looking for suggestions and advice as I am considering the $34 cad-US plan.

Also does PM adhere to the CRTC 30 day satisfaction guarantee that if your not happy you can be full refunded for a plan within 30 days?

[erorr]

In Thunder Bay proper pm works ok. One of the areas I know the reception is not that good is out Lakeshore Dr. Rogers used to be better service there in the past not sure about now though. I don't have 5g capable phone so can't speak to that. 

[computergeek541]

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@Triple-B wrote:

I have an iphone 11 pro, I appreciate your review and suggestions. It does always drop down to 3G when I make a call. What does this mean, what is whitelist?

Maybe I will pay for a month of service just to test it out and see how it compares. Ive been frustrated as of late as your right, outskirts of the city it seems only Tbaytel has service. 

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Switching to the 3g network during phone calls means that your device is unable to maintain a connection to the LTE network during phone calls.  The "whitelist" refers to a set of devices that Public Mobile allows to use VoLTE.

[Triple-B]

I have an iphone 11 pro, I appreciate your review and suggestions. It does always drop down to 3G when I make a call. What does this mean, what is whitelist?

Maybe I will pay for a month of service just to test it out and see how it compares. Ive been frustrated as of late as your right, outskirts of the city it seems only Tbaytel has service. 

Thank you

[Neil11]

PM uses Telus lines which similar to Bell which i find has much better coverage up north. So from my experience up north in Kenora, Timmins and Sault Ste Marie, my phone always better coverage/signal and worked in more remote area than my work phone did which was on Rogers.

[computergeek541]

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@will13am wrote:

@Triple-B , you can inspect this coverage map to get an idea of what coverage is like in your area.  Telus does not have towers in the region, so they share towers with Bell.  Treat Bell tower as equivalent to Telus towers.

https://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html?lat=48.416720&lng=-89.259281&zoom=13&type=Road...

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Location of the sites only gives a rough idea of the coverage.  Terrain can also play a large factor when it comes to how far the signal can travel.  I agree that the map is a good starting point.

[will13am]

@Triple-B , you can inspect this coverage map to get an idea of what coverage is like in your area.  Telus does not have towers in the region, so they share towers with Bell.  Treat Bell tower as equivalent to Telus towers.  It has been a while since I traveled through the area, I do recall that Rogers and Tbaytel had the best coverage particularly the outskirts of the city.  

https://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html?lat=48.416720&lng=-89.259281&zoom=13&type=Road...

[computergeek541]

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@Triple-B wrote:

Hey I've been a Rogers / Fido customer for years but not happy my cost keeps going up. Can anyone tell me how PM service is in North Western Ontario, especially the Thunder Bay area? I looked at the service map and it is very similar to all other carriers. Shows 5g in the area but occasionally i still have 3G speeds and dropped call around the city. 
Looking for suggestions and advice as I am considering the $34 cad-US plan.

Also does PM adhere to the CRTC 30 day satisfaction guarantee that if your not happy you can be full refunded for a plan within 30 days?

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Sorry, but there is no 30 day satisfaction guarantee. That policy (15 days actually in most cases) only applies to postpaid plans/accounts.  All sales at Public Mobile are final.

[softech]

@Triple-B 

what phone do you have? PM has a decent coverage in the Thunder Bay area and definitely great 3G and 4G coverage in area outside Thunder Bay. 

As to the issue you see it drops back to 3G, any chance you see that when you are making calls?  For many phones that not VoLTE whitelisted with Public Mobile,  the voice calls will be solely on 3G even data is on 4G or 5G.  Only phones on PM's VoLTE whitelist will be using LTE for voice.  What phone do you have?

with the 30 days guarantee, that only applies to Postpaid providers.  PM is a prepaid provider and hence no refund or so.  But it is prepaid, so no contract and you can leave without any contract to hold you back