cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Returning to Public Mobile .. I hope

GC411
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Hey everyone,

I used to have a PM account a year ago but the call quality got so poor in my area (Niagara on the Lake) that I had to switch to Telus. My previous community name was Cosmos411 which is where I talked about all the problems I was having. I'm not cell savvy, but it seemed frequencies stopped being supported in my area which caused poor call quality (maybe something to do with changes to 3G service?). Anyhow, I thought I would test out PM to see if anything has changed in a year and just activated a new sim. I made a test call and it was perfect, which is awesome! I didn't port my number over yet in case things weren't going to work. I did some research first and saw that I can still port my number at a later date. If someone could confirm this I would appreciate it. 

Looking forward to being part of PM after a few more days of testing!

p.s. Is there any way to link back to my old username for the community?

8 REPLIES 8


@GC411 wrote:

Interesting. I do see "3G" in the notification bar, but from what I understand that only represents the data speed your plan has, e.g. I'm using 3G data speeds because I'm in front of a computer most of the day. What's being used behind the scenes is 4G LTE. 

As for my Umidigi, I only use it as a media player while working out and use the Moto G Pure as my phone. Hopefully things stay working.

Thanks for the info. 


In the plan subscription in your account, 3G or 4G or 5G refers to the speed. All plans have access to all available network frequencies, the plan details determine the maximum speed throttle. Ie on your 3G plan you could be connected to 5G but the speedi is throttled to 3 mbps max.

On your phone status bar 3G or 4G (or 5G if your phone has the right frequencies and you are connected to a 5G tower) indicates what connection your phone is using. If the phone is not VoLTE capable or not on the white list, calls are routed through the 3G network. Ie your data is on 4G/LTE, you call someone or a call comes in, the phone switches to 3G. Depending on location and phone this is totally fine for the next little bit until 3G is discontinued, or it could make calls a pain to  totally unusable.

If your Moto G doesn't have the specific tag, watching the connection tag during a call would indicate if you are on VoLTE. If the status bar says LTE while you are on a call, you are using VoLTE.

If you are heading to the US, where 3G doesn't exist anymore, phones not on the white list might still be able to call by dropping down to the T-Mobile 2G network where it's available. However, to take full advantage of the roaming plans or add-ons, a white listed phone is definitely the way to go, unfortunately.

 

Found this screen shot from my Umidigi (on the first day it was active on VoLTE), this account is on a $15 3G plan.

031523.png

GC411
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Interesting. I do see "3G" in the notification bar, but from what I understand that only represents the data speed your plan has, e.g. I'm using 3G data speeds because I'm in front of a computer most of the day. What's being used behind the scenes is 4G LTE. 

As for my Umidigi, I only use it as a media player while working out and use the Moto G Pure as my phone. Hopefully things stay working.

Thanks for the info. 


@GC411 wrote:

I just compared the Umidigi A5 Pro to the Moto G Pure and it supports all the same frequencies and even a couple more under LTE so all is good. Looks like I'm coming back to PM!

This is why I like PM so much. It may be "self serve", but the responsiveness in the community is crazy fast and people are incredibly helpful. 


As a Umidigi owner (Bison 2021): PM is very restrictive with its white list, any device that wasn't/isn't sold by the Telus group is of high risk of not getting VoLTE, even if the device is perfectly VoLTE capable. 

When VoLTE was first activated on my 6 year old account, my Bison showed the VoLTE tag on the status bar and stayed during calls. Some time later Public Mobile took the feature away. Put the SIM into my friend's Pixel 6a and VoLTE is available and working flawlessly. Put it back into the clearly VoLTE capable Bison, PM is restricting me to 3G calling.

GC411
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

I just compared the Umidigi A5 Pro to the Moto G Pure and it supports all the same frequencies and even a couple more under LTE so all is good. Looks like I'm coming back to PM!

This is why I like PM so much. It may be "self serve", but the responsiveness in the community is crazy fast and people are incredibly helpful. 

HI @GC411 

please note the VoLTE compatible list with PM is shorter than the one Telus has

I don't think UMIDIGI phone is on PM's VoLTE list, but Moto G Pure is

GC411
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

You make an excellent point and I have a feeling that's exactly what it is, e.g. VoLTE now being available. My old phone is an UMIDIGI A5 which is what I'm testing PM on. It has VoLTE and the call quality is perfect. My current phone is a Moto G Pure and it has VoLTE as well.  Good times!

hTideGnow
Mayor / Maire

@GC411 PM and Telus share the same network (use Telus and Bell)

A year ago, there was no VoLTE but we have it here now on selected phones.  What phone do you have?  if you have a VoLTE phone compatible with PM, I expect the service would be as good as Telus. 

kb_mv
Mayor / Maire

@GC411 You can port in your old number ay anytime. Just make sure your old sim is in the phone to receive the SMS to authorize the port and that your old account is still active. Username? Maybe customer service could answer that better. Contact them at the link below:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

Need Help? Let's chat.