Text Message from Public Mobile May30.2025

[Em59]

I recieved a message saying PM was upgrading voice messages systems  as of June 3rd. It reads :

Your device may lose or experience a degraded voice connection. To help you stay connected we are teaming with TELUS to offer you exclusive savings with 5g plans starting at 29.00/month. Keep your current phone number and devise. I am currently on the 25.00 dollar plan 1g from when I joined PM. Which is all I need. But I have recently bought a new 5g phone which works fine with the 3g I'm on. 

In any event my question is why are they suggesting to go with TELUS if I can upgrade  to the 29.00 dollar plan through this company PM? Is PM  being bought out by TELUS? I might add that TELUS plans are ridiculously expensive. They say if you show them a code TELUS will give you a plan for 29.00. I would rather stay with PM. I don't know what to do please advise. Thank You

[hTideGnow]

hi @P-A-A 

Galaxy A51 has both 3G-850  and 1900 band.  So, even 850 is gone, the 1900 will still work.  But of course, it might not work well indoor if too far away from the tower

But you should be ok for now, just hold on and see

One thing, your phone was released in 2019.  So, it is  a 5+ years old phone, you should slowly thing about phone upgrade, but no big rush

[P-A-A]

Samsung Galaxy A51 

[hTideGnow]

hi @P-A-A 

what phone do you have? 

PM uses Bell towers in NB, so, whether you will have the same issue depends if Bell will reframe 3G towers like Telus. I think for now it is ok

[P-A-A]

so does this mean if I live in New Brunswick, my phone will likely continue to work but if down the road, I travel to either BC, AB, Windsor, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec, I will likely find myself without service ? 

[hTideGnow]

 hi @Deal_Hunter 

S20 is not on PM's VoLTE whitelist, but it has both 3G-850 and 3G-1900

yes, it is true that PM reframing the 3G-850 band for other use and hence in some area, only 1900 is available.   S20 is capable with that, only thing is that 1900 might not work too well if indoor and far away.  But test it out and see

[Deal_Hunter]

@slusagm I was referring to Telus about the price increase not PM. I know PM is very good in that regard that is the reason I want all my household connections to stay with PM. But if that update on Jun 3rd doesn't work I have to move out

[slusagm]

@Deal_Hunter PM rarely increase plan price

They only did it once of twice in it 15+ years history. Last one I recalled was increased the $10 plan to $13, and that was like 3 years ago

[Deal_Hunter]

My wife got the sand message.  She us using S20. We went to Telus store yesterday to heck the plan. $29 20GB 5G plan, he didn't even check the code in the message from PM. So this plan is not specific to users moving from PM. while. the plan is good with telus the problem is they increase the plan after few days not months. I'm going to wait and see if the voice calls are affected after jun 3rd.

[Em59]

Thank You for your help.

[hTideGnow · Accepted solution]

hi @Em59 you don't need 5G plan, 5G plan is only about data speed.  The text they sent is about voice, but you are ok with this new phone 

[Em59]

I guess I will have to wait and see come June 3rd. I have no problems moving up to the 5g ( if that will help) I was going to anyway just waiting for a good deal. But I don't want to go to TELUS where I'm sure they will be like Bell hiking  up the bill whenever they feel like it. Which is why I got rid of Bell.

[hTideGnow]

hi @Em59 yes, if you have an S23, you are good. VoLTE will work and won't have any problem

[Em59]

Hi I bought a Samsung S23 and googed it before hand to see if it would work on PM...it said Yes it would....

[Em59]

I googled the question to see if the Samsung 23 would work on PM and it said Yes..which is why I went ahead and bought it.

[Em59]

Hi, I just bought a Samsung S23 and am all set up on PM. Then this message from PM arrives...

[Dunkman]

@Em59 

To add to what has been mentioned, Public mobile has done some bounce testing in your area where the network changes are going to happen.  It has determined that your phone MAY have issues with the network change.  Don't know until June 3 whether your voice will be affected.  It has nothing to do with which plan you are having with Public mobile.  Likely your phone is not VoLTE compatible with Public mobile network. 

However, your phone is likely VoLTE compatible with Telus network.  That is why the text has offered the option to migrate over to Telus network. I know that it sounds confusing since PM uses the Telus network.  However, since PM introduced VoLTE in 2022 (while Telus and Koodo much earlier), PM manufacturers need to turn on VoLTE for Public mobile users.  Unfortunately, some manufacturers have not (mostly Android) turned on this feature on the PM network.  The same phone may work with Telus, but not with Public mobile at least with VoLTE.  

[Yummy]

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@Chalupa_Batman wrote:

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@Em59 wrote:

Oh. This just means that Public Mobile, like every other provider in Canada, are slowly moving away from the 3G network. This is nothing new. Depending on what phone you have, you may just need to upgrade the phone. 

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To upgrade the phone or PLAN?

What if PM gets read of $15 plan few of us have? Would we need to pay more for 4/5G plans?

[Chalupa_Batman]

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@Em59 wrote:

I recieved a message saying PM was upgrading voice messages systems  as of June 3rd. It reads :

Your device may lose or experience a degraded voice connection. To help you stay connected we are teaming with TELUS to offer you exclusive savings with 5g plans starting at 29.00/month. Keep your current phone number and devise. I am currently on the 25.00 dollar plan 1g from when I joined PM. Which is all I need. But I have recently bought a new 5g phone which works fine with the 3g I'm on. 

In any event my question is why are they suggesting to go with TELUS if I can upgrade  to the 29.00 dollar plan through this company PM? Is PM  being bought out by TELUS? I might add that TELUS plans are ridiculously expensive. They say if you show them a code TELUS will give you a plan for 29.00. I would rather stay with PM. I don't know what to do please advise. Thank You

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Hey @Em59 

Oh. This just means that Public Mobile, like every other provider in Canada, are slowly moving away from the 3G network. This is nothing new. Depending on what phone you have, you may just need to upgrade the phone. 

Older phones that work primarily on 3G will have issues. Here is, a somewhat outdated list, of what phones you can use on Public Mobile.

https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/get-help/articles/volte

What phone are you using?

Also, if you're still on the $25 1GB 3G plan, open up the app, go into Change Subscription and see if the $25 5GB 4G plan is available to you. If so, just switch to that and your golden. Pay the same, 4 more GB and on 4G. Bob is your Uncle. 

[hTideGnow]

hi @Em59 

what phone do you have? is that Android?  What model?

This is the background to the network change that affected you 

https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/get-help/articles/850-turndown

basically, Telus is refarming all of their 850 to 10 MHz LTE B5 in their markets, mainly BC, AB, Windsor, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City.   Bell has not done this, so it won't affect area that has Bell networks which Telus/PM use

So, it might affect voice calls for phones that has only 850 Band 5 on the phone but lack 1900 Mhz, those phone people bought in other country.  That's why your iPhone , Pixel are working but not Vivo.  Vivo is not designed for North American and not have all the required 3G bands