Text From PM About Changes To Manitoba Prepaid Network

[bluejaywpg]

I just received the following text now:

"Public Mobile here. As of March 16, 2021, our Prepaid network in Manitoba will be changing and select areas of Winnipeg and Brandon may experience reduced voice coverage. Data speeds will remain unaffected. In order to maintain the best voice coverage after March 16, 2021, changes will need to be made to your account. For more information, please call us at 1-866-975-3058. Free Public Mobile Msg"

Before I call this number, has anyone here heard anything related to this or what exactly this is about? What changes are we talking about???

[AE_Collector]

Hey thanks for the update!

AE_Collector

[bluejaywpg]

After several months of service since this "switchover", & spending the last 2 months making way more phone calls than normal because I recently moved, I can say that I have not had any known issues with PM service.

I think the alarmist nature of the text I had received was just that - alarmist & nothing more.

Now, if only this damned pandemic would end, or at least subside enough so that it's safe to travel again. I took a drive to Kenora, Ontario today. Data service with PM was good. I was so excited to finally use my phone out of province for the 1st time since signing up with PM over a year ago - even though I was only in Kenora for 2.5 hours LOL.

[Anonymous]

 @brad_br : Right. Because Koodo offers talk over LTE. This place only uses UMTS/WCDMA/HSPA/3G for talk.

[brad_br]

The only way I know of is to call and check. Be careful with Koodo though, as Koodo wants to charge you a connect fee, unless you are very careful (it took a very long call with customer service to avoid a connection fee). I did make the switch to Koodo and now have a much better signal than I did before, to the extent that I can now use my cell phone in the house and have lengthy clear calls without the call being dropped all the time as I am in a fringe service area.

[darlicious]

@toxicfire 

If you look thru this thread I believe there is a number that was provided for a migration offer and they were offering similarly priced $15 and $25 plans to pm customers with voLTE calling and full 4G LTE data.

Beware of Dog!

[toxicfire]

So is there anything to migrate to koodo or telus like that was offered back when this info came out as my service sucks out here and would prefer telus over koodo.If no deal then id go fido since there port over is decent.

[darlicious]

@dougc 

Not sure myself but the next time I visit Winnipeg I will be bringing the back up flip phone to find out what happens! But Portage la Prairie is unaffected by these changes.

[dougc]

Had a good signal using a flip phone with PM SIM, last time visiting Portage la Prairie.  

With these network changes,   will the new phone (3G/4G/LTE listed specs Moto-G-Fast )  using same SIM but now Nano-sized (LoL) ,   have issues ?

[dougc]

" . . . shame on koodo for taking advantage of the situation and spreading misinformation and fear . . "

That is why when walking by a Koodo kiosk  (usually at a RCSS)   I tend to avoid eye contact with any of their   sales people,   whom can be tough to differentiate from their prospective  customers.

[darlicious]

@BearFBI 

Yes this sits squarely in Telus' hands but shame on koodo for taking advantage of the situation and spreading misinformation and fear. Who do they think owns them? Robbers....oops I mean Rogers?

[BearFBI]

@f15eagleger Wow ! That is crazy. 

Telus handled this situation very poorly. Shame on you Telus. This is such a joke. 

[umnikke8]

Just got a call from Koodoo trying to get me to switch. The caller id was Public Mobile though. The weren't knowledgeable about my current account.

[darlicious]

@bluejaywpg 

Funny how there is such a disconnect between telus>>koodo>>pm. I'm an extremely happy pm customer and was a very loyal telus mobility customer mostly just unhappy with the price and I'm still home internet customer. But the many horror stories I have heard here about koodo and have helped a few customers get redress from.....amazes me that they are part of the telus family. It's like they are family so you are stuck with them but no one talks to them and they aren't getting invited to the wedding.

[bluejaywpg]

@hTideGnow I agree that those reps likely have no clue, which tells me even more about Telus' vague & dishonest attempt to get PM customers to switch to Koodo.

[hTideGnow]

Of course, these are just a bunch of Koodo sales.  They likely have little knowledge and interest  about this PM issue.  They just know what PM given them a big batch of "Potential customers" and they can finally meet their monthly quota with this push.

[bluejaywpg]

@f15eagleger crazy. How much more blatantly can someone lie? This whole thing is a complete joke. If Telus is looking to lose me as a PM customer, they are not doing a good job of it. They are doing a better job of keeping me from being a Koodo or Telus customer though. 

I wonder how many people switched to Koodo because of this. Nothing wrong with doing so, but maybe some are regretting it now.

[f15eagleger]

Just throwing in my story about these text messages. I've ignored them all until I got another message on March 16th saying things have changed. I called the number and Right away a Koodo Rep answered. After listening to his sale pitch, I started to ask him questions about what happens if I don't switch. He ended up saying that on March 16 your phone will no longer work and you won't be able to make any calls and that I need to switch to Koodo before. I asked him how it was possible that I was talking to him on March 16 from my phone that "wouldn't work". He then said it started the next day... I asked why public Mobile is still selling plans to MB customers on their site, he claimed they hadn't updated it yet. I told the guy to tell his boss to get the facts straight as all I heard up until this point were straight up scare tactics and lies.

He ended calling me back and said a few things like "you can only buy 3g on public Mobile". Ok, great. I eventually asked my final question which was "when will I receive a final call or text message that my services are being stopped and will no longer work". He said he was not authorized to answer that question. 

I told him again that this is just another attempt by Telus to get rid of all the customers that are on the 12gb fall promotion and that they've tried it before by raising prices on a plan that was good for life. Last time telus tried this they got shut down hard.

I'm not switching until my phone really doesn't connect. Don't cave in.. The only way they can get you off the fall promo is to either get you to voluntarily switch or they figure a way to discontinue services completely. 

[Dtack]

Well I'm in Winnipeg with PM and have had no automated messages, just the couple of texts regarding the changes.  I would be extremely annoyed with those automated messages. So far everything has been great and I haven't noticed any dead zones, and plan to stay with PM.

[gpixel]

@roeroeroe I don't agree with how Telus handles volte. when I was with virgin mobile my pixel 1 was able to register volte. maybe you should look into moving to virgin mobile. their prepaid is basically the same plans as public mobile just $5 more with better coverage because they have rights to 850mhz band

[darlicious]

@roeroeroe 

Wow that would be very annoying as is so many hours wasted on the phone trying to put a stop to it. So when you travel outside of the Winnipeg or Brandon coverage zones do the messages stop? If they don't stop are they automatically set to your address on the account? Or on your IMEI? Finding out the basis of how they are set may help you find an escape hatch to get away from them. If they expected me to remain a customer I would expect some considerable compensation for the harassment and the wasted time on every phone call you make.

Maybe @sheytoon has insight on this one?

Triple fish egg....awesome fish gang name! You can join but you have to have a set of wheels and be initiated in during a campfire roast. There may or may not be drinking involved.

[Nezgar]

@roeroeroe I'm not in Winnipeg or Brandon, so just following along out of interest, but this is the first I've heard of a recorded announcement (on Koodo) on outgoing calls! As you indicated, PM was only sending texts.. And yeah, if your phone is still working, that would be really annoying that they're still playing it, since the cutover is done...

Would be interesting for the rest of us to hear if maybe you can try recording the audio and sharing?

[roeroeroe]

This has been very frustrating for me. My wife and PM and I am with Koodo. 
I brought my own Android google phone to Koodo. I have no desire to change my phone or my plan (had for 3 years now)
I disregarded their attempts to keep harrassing me with automated messages. Anytime I wanted to make a phone call, I had to listen to a 30 second automated message, telling me again and again about the impending network upgrade. I called Koodo and told them that this is not tolerable and I want it gone. It took several tech people to "reset" my account or something on their end. The automated messages were then finally gone.
March 16th has come and gone and my phone is working just fine, making calls like before all throughout Winnipeg and other areas.
However now the automated messages are back. Now they say, the network is recently upgraded and you may lose coverage. I called Koodo and over 1.5 hours and several escalations with their reps, they accepted the fact that this is pure harrassment. My wife has Public Mobile and an even older phone (iPhone). She only received several text message s about the same network upgrade. That's it. No automated messages and harrassment. Why does Koodo have to do this? They were able to perform another "reset" on their end, where their system is supposedly told me hat my phone is not compatible with volte (which it is) so that the automated messages will stop. The very next day, they started again!
I'm DEFINITELY making a complaint to the CCTS. and calling them again. I don't give a **bleep** , they cannot force consumers to give up and give in to their demands to buy new phones from them. It's not even a financial thing for me, it's just the blatant bullying. They offered several deals to make me go away. Their whole "list of compatible devices" is arbitrary from what I can tell. Telus does support my google pixel phone to conduct volte, but Koodo has chosen not to support my device. That's fine. They can either cut off my service entirely, which will force me to switch carriers. But they can't randomly not "support" my phone, when everything works fine and all my cell coverage is unchanged - while continuing the automated messages. I use the phone for work and can't tolerate a 30 second message prior to each call.
I kept telling them - what if I want to move to Steinbach, or Morden, or Dauphin or anywhere else for that matter. I will not be affected by your network upgrades at all (Wpg and Brandon), but my phone is now locked into a network wide automated message frenzy. Bull**bleep**. I know that they can just suspend these messages from their system for all users, but are chosing not to.
I will provide an update on what happens in the next couple days. Any recommendations are appreciated.
If you are also willing to send a complaint to the CCTS, please do so. Thanks.

[BearFBI]

@gpixel "public is most likely going to shutdown when HSPA gets decommissioned. that's probably what the Telus reps are saying(quietly)"

Hmm. Not sure about this one. It was confirmed that PM has looked into VoLTE in the past. By the time HSPA gets decommissioned PM will probably already have VoLTE. Keep in mind there's still a lot of phones without VoLTE capability or carrier support for it. 

Also what would the other two brands do ? Close too ?

PM is going to shut down in the future. There's no doubt about it. Only thing we don't know is when, could be tommorow or 10 years from now. 

Right now the cell industry is a mess. Until we see how Freedom Mobile and Dotmobile pans out then we can make a guess whether or not PM will shutdown in the near future. 

If there's no competition in the coming years say good bye to PM. 

Now everyone keeps thinking PM will shutdown including Telus reps. So something is going on here..... Something we don't know about......

[bluejaywpg]

Or simply increase the speed for PM either to full or even half 4G, & make Telus & Koodo 5G. 

[gpixel]

I think the current Koodo prepaid prices are pretty good for full LTE. it's only a $5 increase over public. all they have to do is add some of the rewards program($2ap, $10loyalty and the referral reward)

[softech]

if they close down PM, hope they will move us to Koodo with PM price  (yes, I know I am dreaming ..)

[gpixel]

public is most likely going to shutdown when HSPA gets decommissioned. that's probably what the Telus reps are saying(quietly).

Telus needs to make room for 5g/lte towers. that 1900mhz 3g band will be refarmed

[bluejaywpg]

@Barwolfe no coverage? Why? Looks like there are still lots of Telus towers in Winnipeg that also serve as towers for Koodo & PM.

https://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html?lat=49.915081&lng=-97.153816&zoom=11&type=Road...

[Nezgar]

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@Barwolfe wrote:

soon in Winnioeg there will be no more coverage with public mobile.

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What? As many have reported, there is coverage in Winnipeg, albeit reduced for 3G/voice calls. as long as your phone supports 1900Mhz HSPA. The network reduction has already occured, there's nothing saying no more coverage with Public Mobile...

[computergeek541]

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@Barwolfe wrote:

I got the same text, it is from Telus and they migrate you to there Koodo brand which is still Telus, I had the 15 dollar plan unlimited text ; 100 Canada minutes, with the change to them still pay 15 dollars but get unlimited calls and texts and 250 mb of data, Only thing that sucked was I lost all my Christmas bonus data and minutes: soon in Winnioeg there will be no more coverage with public mobile.

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Did you switch to a Koodo prepaid account or a Koodo postpaid account. Neither Telus prepaid nor Koodo prepaid support VoLTE.