US Roaming and Recent 3G Restrictions

[FLAMINGOGUY]

Heading to the states in about a month and see on the website references to problems pertaining to restrictions on 3G in the United States. Does this only pertain to public mobile customers that are still on a 3G contract? If I have upgraded to a 4G plan will these 3G restrictions still possibly affect my service in the same way?

Would like to know if I have to plan a work around like buying a sim card down there which I prefer not to do.

[darlicious]

@hycm53 

That still isn't exactly accurate. Add ons (data) are the same as your plan either throttled 4G LTE at 3mbps or up to 100mbps for the new "4G" plans, higher for the old "4G" plans. If you have a plan that does not include data then it defaults to full speed 4G LTE data (ie. the "unlucky" $13 plan.)

[dust2dust]

@hycm53- But not roaming on T-Mobile. Modern phones wait sitting on 4G/LTE whether roaming or in Canada. When a call comes in in Canada, the phone will drop to 3G/UMTS and start ringing. When roaming on T-Mobile, the phone will drop to 2G and start ringing.

Data and text works on 4G/LTE as well.

[hycm53]

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@darlicious wrote:

@hycm53 

?? That is not correct. Public mobile's data is on the 4G LTE network. Unless you set your preferred network to 3G only your mobile data will automatically choose the 4G LTE network. Only pm voice services use the 3G network or when roaming in the US T-Mobile's 2G network.

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I wrote :"PM add on is a 3G service."

[darlicious]

@hycm53 

?? That is not correct. Public mobile's data is on the 4G LTE network. Unless you set your preferred network to 3G only your mobile data will automatically choose the 4G LTE network. Only pm voice services use the 3G network or when roaming in the US T-Mobile's 2G network.

[hycm53]

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@FLAMINGOGUY wrote:

Heading to the states in about a month and see on the website references to problems pertaining to restrictions on 3G in the United States. Does this only pertain to public mobile customers that are still on a 3G contract? If I have upgraded to a 4G plan will these 3G restrictions still possibly affect my service in the same way?

Would like to know if I have to plan a work around like buying a sim card down there which I prefer not to do.

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PM add on is a 3G service, so you change plan to 4G plan won't work. Since PM add on service is very tricky, if I were you I would buy US local pre-paid sim card. I am doing so when I go to the state on March.

[Meow]

According to Public Mobile:

PM will have T-mobile 2G network for US talk. Try to manually connect to T-mobile.

Roaming is for Data only. Voice and SMS text will still work.

Data will work on LTE, but will switch over to 2G to make a call.

However, the quality of service will vary depending on the different coverage areas when roaming in the USA.

[darlicious]

@FLAMINGOGUY 

"3G" and "4G" plans only refer to data speed. All pm customers automatically connect to the 4G LTE network for their data and texting and drop down to the 3G network for voice calls. "3G" plans have their data speed throttled to 3mbps while on the 4G LTE network. If you choose to use the 3G network only you will recieve data speeds up to 29+mbps depending on network traffic. If you have a "4G" plan your data speed can reach speeds of up to 100mbps although higher speeds have been shown to occur. This has no real affect on US Roaming add ons. 

The issue for pm customers using US Roaming add ons with the decommissioning of the 3G networks is voice calling since pm uses the 3G network for our voice services. Until telus decides to implement VoLTE for pm customers when you use US Roaming add ons with a talk feature you voice services will use T-Mobile's 2G network. Most urban areas are well served by the 2G network while rural areas especially in the western US have very poor coverage if at all even tbe 4G LTE network has large areas of no coverage in certain states. By doing a little planning and research on your destination or itinerary you can decide which US Roaming add ons will be best suited for your travel in the US.

For more info on US Roaming add ons and helpful links read the following thread and the updated post that includes links to the cell mapper interactive cell tower map that you can plan ahead for 2G network access....

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Get-Support/US-Roaming-Add-ons-Decommissioning-of-US-...

[cellphoneuser1]

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@FLAMINGOGUY wrote:

Heading to the states in about a month and see on the website references to problems pertaining to restrictions on 3G in the United States. Does this only pertain to public mobile customers that are still on a 3G contract? If I have upgraded to a 4G plan will these 3G restrictions still possibly affect my service in the same way?

Would like to know if I have to plan a work around like buying a sim card down there which I prefer not to do.

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There isn't any 3g network in the states.  Your plan doesn't restrict you. The plans are only about speed, not network. Changing to 4g plan won't help for roaming.