Perspective

[Luddite]

As a regular contributor I periodically think about whether Public Mobile service is good or poor. It is certainly poor if you are having a problem, but is it so poor to consider moving to or away? Actual statistics for the various cell phone providers are impossible to gather so we are stuck with guessing.

I assume PM has around 300,000 customers (there were 280,000 when it was acquired by Telus) so this means there are 9,000 (if everyone is on 30 day plans) - 3,000 (if everyone is on 90 day plans) renewals being processed EVERY day. So let's guess at 6,000 per day since we know there are still a lot of grandfathered customers.

I looked at all the topics for last Wednesday and Monday. The number of current customers having accounts issues (suspended, payment, referrals) was only a total 8 out of 12,000; so a very small fraction.

On the other hand 7 new customers had problems getting started, 4 of them porting. It is even more difficult to find out how many new customers join every day, but 1% customer turnover is considered very low so perhaps PM adds 60 each day.  This is a more concerning 7 out of 120.

One should also consider PM's resolution of issues. Here PM does an excellent job of resolving issues for affected customers within the constraints of an email/forum only support programme that has moderators available just 8 hours/day.

MY CONCLUSION:

1. Once on board the chance of a service disruption is miniscule but if being without a phone for a few hours is disconcerting take precautions. Perhaps my suggestion here: Security

2. Signing up has much higher chance of failure so I still recommend my cautious approach: Low cost activation

3. Most problems are resolved quickly, though the odd one drags on a day or so.

[imm1304]

Hi @Luddite!  Thanks for sharing your insightful perspective.

Its good to be reminded from time to time, especially relevant because there are no call centers and customers are officially told to visit the community for all sorts of help and guidance.  

I often wonder how many customers subscribe to PM.  I found this article from 2 years ago which suggests there were 220,000 customers.  http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/03/22/public-mobile-new-phones_n_5013677.html

I suspect that we may have slightly more than 220,000 because after the initial exodus during the buyout and migration to Telus, we have witnessed a slow and steady growth.

About the new customers experiencing issues with porting, I don't count the porting issues in the same category as activation failures.  There is high probability of user error causing port failures.  Also, if a stalled/failed port request is addressed on the same day by a moderator, then its not a real problem to me.  Most other carriers would have a staff process the port request anyways and after customer's attempt, if port is successful on the same day via a moderator, that should be good enough for most people. 

[kav2001c · Accepted solution]

@Luddite Overall I think most people won't quit over minor annoyances. It is mostly new clients who leave when something does not go right in that first 30/90 day window. I suspect their subscriber numbers overall have remained flat since takeover.

I am sure there were not 280,000 subs though. There was a HUGE fallout at time of takeover regarding Telus crippling the old pre-pioneer plans. Remember back in the day they had things like Siren music and UNLIMITED data, every single one of those clients on unlimited data who kept the launch plans are now capped at 1GB only. Still for $29 how can you complain about unlimited North American calling with data.

In addition to this Telus (through Koodo brand) gave away GSM handsets for great deals. I know alot of people were essentially selling accounts online just for the sake of grabbing hardware. And they also lost a relatively small number of subs who refused to transition off CDMA, but still it has to be in the 20,000 range. 

Telus could have made serious traction with the brand, but instead relagated Public to the closet and made no effort to promote brand whatsoever. I suspect there are more people on the Koodo $48 than there are on Public...