Peterborough, ON service

[megis]

hey all,

i just switched to Public from Virgin, since i wasn’t getting cell service with Virgin anywhere in ptbo. i looked at the public coverage map and it says where i live and the whole downtown area should support 5g. so i signed up for a 5g plan, but dont get more than one or two bars of service anywhere in the city. at first i thought it was because i live in a basement, but it’s legit everywhere.

weirdly when i switch to 3G i get full bars of service and my calls are clear and never drop, but the data is virtually unusable. what’s the solution? i know Canada is phasing out 3G service soon so when that happens am i just doomed to no service? of all the providers i know someone on Rogers that has service and no data issues, but i like Public for the prices.

i know this has been brought up before but i just want to see if anyone has any more info. thank you! 

[Phil_Adelphus · Accepted solution]

@megis   If you want to contact Public Mobile customer service and find out what their take is, you can open a service ticket using the chat icon bottom right of this page.

[megis]

i’m on an esim, but no i haven’t tried using his, that’s a good idea and i’ll ask him to try. i appreciate your help, i think the issue is unfortunately a cell tower one, im researching on reddit and everyone who’s called bell/telus has kinda given the same answer. apparently the issues in ptbo started around a year or 2 ago

[Handy1]

@megis  Yes chatr is Roger’s teir 3 budget service I knew people with them only to get them to switch to public , chatr being Roger’s is the lone  wolf that some might experience better service in some areas  as they don’t have agreement with Telus to share towers 

[Phil_Adelphus]

@megis   iPhone 13 mini is what I have and it has no issues getting 5G on Public Mobile where it is available, just mostly on LTE at my home.  You are right that it should get 5G, are you on physical sim or esim?  If physical sim have you tried switching sims between your boyfriend's phone and yours to see how that works?

[megis]

the reason i ask about Chatr is because my boyfriend is on Roger’s and his 5G works perfectly on an iphone 13 mini, so i think i wouldn’t even have to rely on 3G at all anymore. just sad that i literally just switched to Public this month and may have to switch again. it seems a lot of people in Peterborough have these problems with anyone other than Rogers

[megis]

when on 5G, the calls are virtually unusable anywhere in the city, people on the line say i’m cutting out, and once or twice they’ve totally dropped. the data is the super slow and almost never works (doesn’t complete chrome searches, doesn’t load instagram or youtube). 

i have an iPhone 13, and 4G and LTE are the same issue, the only thing that works better is 3G, but the data is so slow

[Phil_Adelphus]

@megis   iPhone 13 does get 5G, I have one.  Mine is set to 5G Auto, and spends most of its time on LTE because it is a stronger signal.  You asked about Chatr, bear in mind that when Rogers shuts down 3G it will also be shut down for their other brands, i.e. Fido and Chatr.

[megis]

i realized this too late :’) do you know anyone on Chatr? it seems that they are the budget service on the Rogers network. thank you for the warm welcome regardless!

[megis]

i have an iphone 13, so it is supposed to be compatible with 5G, and when i go into toronto i have no problems with 5g service or data. i just read that apparently in this area Bell decided to invest in internet, while Rogers invested in cell towers, so that makes sense

[Phil_Adelphus]

@megis   It may depend what phone you have and what it is capable of.  If your phone can only do 3G it would also have problems on Rogers after March 2025 as they are shutting down their 3G network.

[Immune]

Try switching your phone's data setting to LTE - That seemed to work for me.

[Handy1]

@megis  What’s odd about that is virgin is bell and Public mobile is Telus and Telus and bell share towers so signal and service should be the same , but welcome to public mobile all the same . And enjoy the savings 🙂

[Dunkman]

@megis 

When on the 5G network, even though 1-2 bars of service, how is the quality of calls, data and text service?  

Which model phone do you have?  Is it VoLTE compatible with PM network?  

What happens if you try to switch to 4G/LTE?  Any difference?