iPhone 17 Pro Max not compatible with Public Mobile?

[rmf757]

I’ve been having data connectivity issues with my phone for the last month or so. I cannot connect to NordVPN, nor can I play games like Honkai Star Rail while on data. Everything was working fine until recently, and I had spoken to a PM rep earlier who “reset” my network and solved the issue. However, it came back after only a few days. Now Public Mobile support refuses to help as they claim my device is not compatible with their network. I find it very hard to believe an iPhone 17 Pro Max purchased directly from Apple in Canada is somehow incompatible with the network, nor does it explain how this issue only recently started occurring. Any advice on what I can do here would be greatly appreciated. 🙏

[rmf757]

Uhoh, well that doesn’t seem very good haha. I also tried getting a new eSIM but it doesn’t seem to have changed anything for me.  

[umnikke8]

Certainly the iPhone 17 Pro Max is compatible. It's weird a bunch of stuff works partially. I'm pretty sure someone else reported an issue with Honkai Star Rail on Public and several people have reported issues with NordVPN. It seems like there is some issue with Public's networking for you account. Whether it needs a reprovisioining or something I'm not sure. Just to totally rule it out, it would be interesting to see if it is using IPv6 for internet: https://test-ipv6.com/ 

"There seams to be an issue with NordVPN as it is hardcoded to use with IPv6 which PM is not using." - To be clear I don't think NordVPN is hardcoded to use IPv6, but it seems like it is trying to use IPv6 as the work around to change the APN to IPv4 and force apps to use IPv4 seems to work. I also think Public is using IPv6, but not in the obvious way, at least not for everyone. I do find a secondary interface with an IPv6 address on my device from Telus and it appears to have active connections running. I believe these connections are used to establish the VoLTE connection. It is possible that some apps that setup their own internet connections are using this secondary interface by mistake. It is also possible that Public is also testing out using IPv6 connections for general internet.

[rmf757]

This is a great suggestion! I’ll give it a shot and report back. Thank you for the quick responses! 🙂 

[softech]

@rmf757 

iPhone 17 is surely compatible with PM network, many PM subscribers are using it and many of them are regulars here.  So far we didn't hear major complains about it

if the issue is there when NordVPN was disabled, then I suggest you to first buy a new eSIM as it will reprovision the account and usually will resolve the issues.  Also, make sure Carrier Profile is up-to-date.  Also try using different network mode (5G on, 5G Auto, 4G-LTE)  for at least a full day to see if network mode is the issue . 

[rmf757]

I did stumble upon this when looking at potential solutions! I do plan on trying it out later tonight, however I didn’t suspect that this was my exact issue. It’s not just Nord that’s misbehaving for me. If I am not using a VPN at all games like Honkai Star Rail & Genshin Impact don’t work. Apps like Google Photos and the iOS Photos app won’t load cloud images. Gemini errors out when attempting to ask questions. YouTube refuses to play videos. I did find a very strange workaround, but it’s not ideal. If I download the Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 app and run their VPN all the apps begin to work again. However, my network performance on the app is pretty degraded so this isn’t the most ideal solution for me. 

[softech]

@rmf757 

if the issue is mainly when NordVPN is turned on, then it is neither an incompatibility issue nor a Public Mobile problem.    There seams to be an issue with NordVPN as it is hardcoded to use with IPv6 which PM is not using.  But thanks to Community member @victorzhao , there is a trick to force NordVPN to use IPv4 back

Ref: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Get-Support/VPN-not-working-with-PM-cellular-data/m-p...

1. On PC, download iMazing Profile Editor from the Microsoft App Store and launch

2. On the left hand pane, select Cellular, press the "+ Payload" button on the main pane.
3. For Data APN, click + at the bottom of the grid.  Fill in the "Data APN" column with "isp.mb.com".  Leave the rest of the table as is
4. fill in only the following:
   Default APN name:  isp.mb.com
   Default APN supported IP versions:  IPv4 only.
5. Optional step: on the left hand pane, under General, update:
   Payload Display Name: public_mobile_disable_ipv6
   Payload Description: Set APN to isp.mb.com and IPv4 only
   Target Device Type: iPhone/iPod/iPod Touch
6. Next, press File -> Edit -> Save As and name the file "public_mobile_disable_ipv6.mobileconfig".
   Leave the "Sign profile with" as Do Not Sign
7. Transfer this file to your iPhone
   (one way is to uploaded to OneDrive and downloaded it using the OneDrive app into Phone's Downloads folder.
8. Open the file on iPhone 
9. On the iPhone, go to Settings -> General -> VPN & Device Management, and click on the new configuration profile to Install it. 
10. Check using any "What's my IP" site to confirm only IPv4 is showing and not IPv6.  With this new VPN profile setup,  NordVPN should now be working on IPv4 only