Using phone in the US

[MoSnow]

Looking to add the US Roam - Talk Txt 3 GB Data on my 3G network phone.  Will my phone work in the states in light of the fact that some providers have shut down their 3G networks?  Or, do I need to change to a 4G network plan?

[darlicious · Accepted solution]

@MoSnow 

The only difference between a 3G plan and a 4G plan is your data speed. Data and texts use the 4G LTE network (or can use the 3G network). Your voice services use the 3G network. When roaming in the US your voice services will use T-Mobile's 2G network.

Your ability to use your voice services will depend on a few factors but most customers have had decent voice calling when roaming in the US in urban or more densely populated areas of the US. Where do you plan on traveling in the US? What is the make and model of phone? There have been some customers having issues connecting to the 2G network with Google pixel 5 phones with the latest OS update and iPhone 13 and newer iPhones and it's latest iOS update.

It's also suggested you download a voip provider such as textnow or fongo for voice calls in case you cannot connect to the 2G network in certain areas or for any other issue that may prevent calling on the 2G network.

For more info on US Roaming add ons read the following post and the update post that includes the cell mapper link with detailed 2G network coverage maps so you can plan and anticipate where you may or may not have 2G network and in some cases 4G LTE network coverage (like Alaska where there is none offered by T-Mobile....get a local CGI network Sim card/plan instead.)

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

[softech]

@MoSnow 4G speed or 3G speed plan is just about the data speed you will get with PM

For ALL PM customers, they are now using 3G network for the voice and will be using 2G network on T-Mobile for Voice roaming in US

So, for you, no need to change your plan, just go ahead and buy the Roaming

Please note that since we are using the unreliable 2G TMobile network for voice roaming, the roaming talk might be hit or miss.  However, your data roaming will be relatively reliable.  You might want to download VoIP app TextNow as a backup just in case roaming Talk does not work well

[computergeek541]

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@MoSnow wrote:

Looking to add the US Roam - Talk Txt 3 GB Data on my 3G network phone.  Will my phone work in the states in light of the fact that some providers have shut down their 3G networks?  Or, do I need to change to a 4G network plan?

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Which plan you have is unrelated to the networks used while roaming. With a roaming add-on, all Public Mobile customers have access to the same networks in the U.S.   For voice service, you'll need to use the T-Mobile 2g network.  Text messaging and data should work on LTE, but some customers have been have difficulties.  Is your phone compatible with LTE?