Promotions

[p1brownavery]

Hi,

I saw that usually in December Public Mobile offers a 5GB bonus and 1 month free promotion for all plans $25+. I was wondering what the likelihood they would offer it again this year would be? Is this a pretty consistent promotion that time of month? 

Thank you! 

[Nezgar]

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@0PX9O4 wrote:

Common sense would dictate that 3G could not possibly be getting "decommissioned" when it's the only service available for voice for all of prepaid customers across the Telus board.

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ONLY phones that were SOLD by Telus are currently allowed to use VoLTE on any of their networks. No matter the network, if your phone came from elsewhere currently you don't get VoLTE. They'll hopefully back down on that policy eventually, otherwise there's a large number of subscribers that will lose voice service.

Also, 3G doesn't just instantly get decommissioned. The bands allocated to it are slowly being "refarmed" as more of the spectrum gets reallocated to LTE instead of HSPA/WCDMA. This allows them to continue to ensure 3G devices work, but if 90% of the usage is on LTE, then can accommodate that by allocating the spectrum appropriately for quite a long time.

This is how Rogers kept their 2G GSM service going for so long, as it was allocated a very small slice of spectrum. On June 7, 2021 Rogers finally turned off the remaining 1900Mhz 2G service, and they plan to turn off the remaining 800Mhz by Dec 31, 2021: https://www.rogers.com/business/support/iot-network-updates#iot1-4

[Meow]

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@0PX9O4 wrote:

It's such a shame, most of the world would probably have moved on to standalone 5G by the time PM rolls out VoLTE 🙄

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When you have almost no competition and majority of people living in few cities in such huge (and beautiful!) country, do not expect any fast progress. It cost money so why invest when old stuff still works. Better to increase VP's bonuses...

[0PX9O4]

@gpixel

I would encourage you to report your reception/phone calls issues to PM so they can investigate.

Common sense would dictate that 3G could not possibly be getting "decommissioned" when it's the only service available for voice for all of prepaid customers across the Telus board.

[gpixel]

@0PX9O4 

yeah they say that, but it's going to be a lot sooner. there are many complaints of reception issues. 3g is getting decommissioned right now. I've also noticed my reception becoming worse during phone calls

[0PX9O4]

@gpixel 

Unlike the American carriers, the Big 3 Telcos in Canada have seemingly decided to keep 3G around a lot longer, possibly till 2026: https://northernbi.com/3g-sunset-update-for-us-and-canadian-network-carriers/

It makes sense considering the current plan is for Telus to roll out standalone 5G only by the end of 2022.

By contrast, T-mobile rolled out 5G SA in 2019, and AT&T is currently in the final testing phases of its rollout process

[gpixel]

@0PX9O4 

they're going to have to do it soon. otherwise pm is going bye bye! 3g will be gone by end of next year

[0PX9O4]

It's such a shame, most of the world would probably have moved on to standalone 5G by the time PM rolls out VoLTE 🙄

[0PX9O4]

@darlicious  I've never been able to get VoLTE to work on my Telus-branded phone. Searching through the community, I was unable to find other reports of someone being able to successfully use VoLTE on a PM account. But like you said, this could have been because of a very particular set of circumstances in your case.

@gpixel  Thank you for the correction. I found the following page describing how VoLTE is indeed available for postpaid plans on Koodo: https://www.koodomobile.com/en/help/volte

@Nezgar  Thank you as well for the correction. I should have stated there that WiFi calling and VoLTE are features that are independent of each other. One of them being configured (or being available) does not indicate anything about the availability of the other.

[gpixel]

@0PX9O4 

VoLTE is not offered to any MVNO customers (meaning no VoLTE for Koodo customers either). Only Telus accounts are given VoLTE access (and even within Telus customers, I've heard lots of complaints of problems with configuring the devices)

koodo offers volte... just not for prepaid. also at&t has already offered volte to their prepaid customers. so this is an easy task to accomplish. wether Telus wants to provide pm customers with it is another question. it's just a filter. they say you they need to do all these things to make it work, is a crock. 

i think this year we will probably receive 3gb of free data

[Nezgar]

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@0PX9O4 wrote:

@darlicious  Voice over LTE has absolutely no connection with WiFi calling. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_over_LTE

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Ahem, they are very much related - they both stem from same core IMS "IP Multimedia Subsystem":

According to your linked page: "VoLTE is based on the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architectural framework, with specific profiles for control and media planes of voice service."

Now compare with a wiki article about GAN / Wi-Fi Calling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_Access_Network

"The latest generation system is named Wi-Fi Calling or VoWiFi ..... The service is dependent on IMS, IPsec, IWLAN and ePDG"

[darlicious]

@0PX9O4 

Since you mentioned you have a telus phone.....is voLTE calling still enabled on your phone from your time with telus? While it is a strange anomaly the bf experienced it would be interesting to see if it could be replicated. Too bad you weren't around when I was asking if there was anything any one wanted to test before reactivating his plan.

[0PX9O4]

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@darlicious wrote:

@0PX9O4 

I know the difference between wifi calling and voLTE. The bf has only the pre-installed phone app on his phone. When he called me and later a test call to a telus customer his pm phone number showed on call display.  voLTE calling is enabled in his phone....glitch that it is the likely theory when I asked the community about it was that the provisioning for voLTE remains active on his phone.

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Maybe I'm not not understanding what you encountered. But I assure you that PM does not offer any VoLTE service.

Not being fully aware of that situation, I can't comment on the anecdote you are describing.

[darlicious]

@0PX9O4 

I know the difference between wifi calling and voLTE. The bf has only the pre-installed phone app on his phone. When he called me and later a test call to a telus customer his pm phone number showed on call display.  voLTE calling is enabled in his phone....glitch that it is the likely theory when I asked the community about it was that the provisioning for voLTE remains active on his phone.

Edit:

My apologies....you are correct. However it is required to have voLTE enabled in order to access wifi calling. I will make a note in the thread that I initially asked the question. 

@Nezgar 

You may find  this of interest.

[0PX9O4]

@darlicious  Voice over LTE has absolutely no connection with WiFi calling. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_over_LTE

[darlicious]

@0PX9O4 

It's a quirk but you explain to me how a pm customer with suspended services was able to call out while at home on wifi?)

@Meow 

300,000+?

[AE_Collector]

The last 2 or 3 Christmas seasons have had promotions beginning with the US Black Friday time frame and typically have had more incentives tacked on through the run up until about January 1. Starts out a bit “yawn” but then ramps up to a fairly decent incentive by sometime in December. I would say that the Black Friday to New Years time frame has been the best overall time to become a new customer with PM.

The last two Christmas seasons have brought free gifts (free add-ons) for all existing customers as well though you need to watch for the announcements here or the text messages they send out and then log in to accept the gifts. I am hopeful of a shake up this season with possibly the gifts being a bump up in data across all plans. But I may very well be dreaming. The constant 2GB (sort of) permanent bonus for new customers along with steady erosion of the savings by being with PM as compared to 1st and second tier Telus providers is what makes me think that this is due.

AE_Collector

[0PX9O4]

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@softech wrote:

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@0PX9O4 wrote:

A nice "gift" would be enabling VoLTE for all PM plans, so we can stop living in 2013.

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I always think.. another possible gift for the VoLTE "fix" is to "upgrade" us all to Koodo, ie, closing down of PM.. LoL

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Again, from previous discussions on this community, my impression was that VoLTE is not offered to any MVNO customers (meaning no VoLTE for Koodo customers either). Only Telus accounts are given VoLTE access (and even within Telus customers, I've heard lots of complaints of problems with configuring the devices)

[0PX9O4]

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@darlicious wrote:

@softech 

If you have a telus phone you might already have voLTE....as the bf discovered when he forgot to pay for his renewal but could still call out.

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AFAIK (and I too have a Telus phone) VoLTE is not enabled on PM. This matter has been discussed in the community a few times.

[Meow]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 @darlicious : I did say "there have been". 🙂 Ok last year not so good. 🙂

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I guess PM has solid user base for the time being so no need to attract new customers. People are signing with PM on a daily basis anyway.

These promos are similar to bank's interest rates: in the beginning they offer great promos for new (or current customers). Later on they all become the same... 😞

Any idea how many customers PM has?

[Anonymous]

 @darlicious : I did say "there have been". 🙂 Ok last year not so good. 🙂

[darlicious]

@Anonymous 

Last year's black Friday sale was terrible! $5 off for 6 months $35+ plans?!!

[Anonymous]

 @Yummy : There have been some very nice promos around Black Friday. Yes for new customers. The gifts are a different thing that may or may not happen.

[Yummy]

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@p1brownavery wrote:

Hi,

I saw that usually in December Public Mobile offers a 5GB bonus and 1 month free promotion for all plans $25+. I was wondering what the likelihood they would offer it

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But this promo is for new customers only, correct? Existing might get some Christmas gifts and that is all?

[darlicious]

@softech 

If you have a telus phone you might already have voLTE....as the bf discovered when he forgot to pay for his renewal but could still call out.

[softech]

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@0PX9O4 wrote:

A nice "gift" would be enabling VoLTE for all PM plans, so we can stop living in 2013.

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I always think.. another possible gift for the VoLTE "fix" is to "upgrade" us all to Koodo, ie, closing down of PM.. LoL

[0PX9O4]

A nice "gift" would be enabling VoLTE for all PM plans, so we can stop living in 2013.

[LeePublic]

@p1brownavery 

A nice "gift" would be bumping all the plans up by 250 MB - 2 GB depending on the plan.

Yes, I remember even though I wasn't a PM member at the time. Who knows? They might have something new cooking by then.

[darlicious]

@p1brownavery 

It's been consistent the last 2 years. I would hope pm repeats those kind of promotions again this year.