Public Mobile without 3G/HSPA?

[Korth]

I noticed new small print under the US Roaming add-ons:

"Important: As of February 22nd, 2022, some United States (U.S) carriers will begin turning down certain 3G/HSPA networks in the U.S. As a result, some customers using U.S. roaming add-ons may be impacted by differences in coverage or service quality (including 9-1-1 calls) when roaming in the U.S. This shutdown will not impact your service in Canada."

Not mentioned in this small print is that certain Canadian regions are also phasing 3G/HSPA networks out in favour of 4G/LTE/5G service. And that Canadians in these areas won't be able to use 3G/HSPA talk. And that, over time, these scheduled "upgrades" will gradually shut down 3G/HSPA across more of Canada.

But Public Mobile says "this shutdown will not impact your service in Canada".

Does this mean that they're providing a workaround (perhaps enabling VoLTE?) for subscribers in affected Canadian areas?

Or is this just another example of Public Mobile somehow managing to carefully blurt out completely wrong and mangled wording?

[DennyCrane]

Thank you - very helpful. And interesting that the forwarding would turn off as soon as my phone connected to a US tower. Why would that be? My proposed solution wouldn't work then as I'd be connecting for text purposes (I need the continuity of being able to receive and send from my main number). I'm going June 10-13, so I'll take my chances then.

As for the add on steps, thank you I am familiar with the clunky process that PM has. Good reminder though. 

[dust2dust]

@DennyCrane- T-Mobile isn't scheduled until July. AT&T has started but they're not finished. You should be fine for next week if you just connect to T-Mobile.

You could forward your number but don't let your sim (in a phone and on and not in airplane mode) see a US tower or the forwarding will return to default.

Texting will work. You also receive texts without an add-on.

Remember to deposit money and see it in your balance and then buy add-on even though it looks like you bought the add-on if there was no balance at first.

[DennyCrane]

I am heading to the US next week and will need my phone number for calls and texts. Based on what I'm reading here and on the various US carriers sites, 3G is done in the US which means no phone calls for PM customers. Why is PM still selling voice roaming packages? That seems incredibly disingenuous.

Ranting aside, I'm assuming I can forward my PM calls to my Canadian VOIP (Fongo) number before I leave? As for text, if I purchase a text add on it should work, right? I won't need data as I use Ubigi for that.

[dust2dust]

Yes indeed. Just buy the roaming data and use a voip app for talk and text. TextNow does both. Or roaming data and roaming text. Still use voip for any rare calls.

[Marchibald]

I rarely communicate via calls, so it will work perfectly for me to just add u.s. data as I always have

[dust2dust]

@Marchibald- Until Public arranges volte then you won't be able to talk while roaming in the US depending on how quickly AT&T and T-Mobile shut down their 3G system. But you can buy roaming data and use voip apps to talk (using a different number). Texting would work on 4G anyway (if you buy the texting add-on) as it does here.

[Marchibald]

Other phone companies have sent out notices to their customers warning them of 3g being phased out.

[Marchibald]

That being said, what happens if we travel to the u.s.a in the fall

[sheytoon · Accepted solution]

Technically, they can implement VoLTE roaming independently of domestic VoLTE on their own network... But yes I agree. We've been asking for VoLTE for a few years now. I've been told Telus is actively working on it. No ETA though.

[DennyCrane]

Thank you.

I suppose this is good motivation for PM to adopt VoLTE sooner rather than later.  

[sheytoon]

Yes, for voice calls.

Until Telus enables outbound VoLTE roaming, it is a potential issue.

[DennyCrane]

I just noticed this as well. I'm confused why this would affect us in the US? While I'm aware we get throttled to 3G speeds, whenever I've roamed with my PM phone in the US I typically roam on am LTE band; so why would losing 3G matter? Is it for voice calls?

[sheytoon]

3G coverage in Canada isn't being decommissioned yet. There was a unique situation in Manitoba due to Telus not having 850 MHz licenses, but that is a different story.

There are also new sites built which are 4G/5G only. This is also not the same thing as decommissioning 3G coverage. There are some capacity removals happening, but that won't impact coverage.

[cellphoneuser1]

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@Korth wrote:

I noticed new small print under the US Roaming add-ons:

"Important: As of February 22nd, 2022, some United States (U.S) carriers will begin turning down certain 3G/HSPA networks in the U.S. As a result, some customers using U.S. roaming add-ons may be impacted by differences in coverage or service quality (including 9-1-1 calls) when roaming in the U.S. This shutdown will not impact your service in Canada."

Not mentioned in this small print is that certain Canadian regions are also phasing 3G/HSPA networks out in favour of 4G/LTE/5G service. And that Canadians in these areas won't be able to use 3G/HSPA talk. And that, over time, these scheduled "upgrades" will gradually shut down 3G/HSPA across more of Canada.

But Public Mobile says "this shutdown will not impact your service in Canada".

Does this mean that they're providing a workaround (perhaps enabling VoLTE?) for subscribers in affected Canadian areas?

Or is this just another example of Public Mobile somehow managing to carefully blurt out completely wrong and mangled wording?

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That doesn't mean anything.  The U.S. networks are different networks so of course the U.S. network won't impact your service in Canada.