questions re. data and referral discount

[bradC]

Hi there,

I just set up a new account and transferred my number over and just had a couple of questions:

1) I want to only use my own Wi-Fi data on my phone (apart from MMS texts), so that way I won't ever have to worry about going over data and having to pay (I am on the cheapest plan).  To be sure of this, what settings would I have to adjust on my phone to ensure that it never uses any data from Public and only uses my own Wi-Fi?  (I have turned off "Cellular Data" under "Data Usage", but I'm worried that may also prevent me from even sending or getting MMS messages?  Is there some other setting I should be adjusting for that instead?)

2) I entered a referral code for a bonus when signing up, which someone had just given me the other day, and it appeared to process, but there is no discount showing up for my first payment apart from the $2 off for using automatic payments.  Did I miss a step there or is there someone I should specifically message about that?

Thanks for your help.

[bradC]

Thanks a lot! @darlicious @CannonFodder @NDesai 

[darlicious]

 @NDesai @bradC  Toggling airplane mode on and off will reset the data used by MMS in your account. So if you sent an exceptional amount of MMS that used 5mb of data and that was needed to check an email you could recover the data to be added to remaining plan data. If you only had 10mb left that would give you 15mb to use.

[CannonFodder]

---

@bradC wrote:

I had been a little uncertain about switching to Public Mobile on account of there not being a way to reach customer service by phone, but this is obviously an *amazingly* helpful community, and already has proven me wrong on that concern, as this has proven to be more helpful than any call to customer service I ever had with my previous provider!  Thanks again for all your help!! 🙂 

---

EXACTLY! While there's no phone number, to talk to a person about whatever issue(s) you may have with your service, when you post here, you almost always get NUMEROUS responses, and you probably get those responses A LOT quicker than sitting on the phone,  for a half hour, or more, listening to "elevator music", while waiting for a CSR to FINALLY get around to your spot in the queue. Not only that, but since you get several responses, you often will get some different potential ways to solve your problem, instead of ONE person giving you a "canned" response, which may have little to do with the issue at hand.

[NDesai]

---

@bradC wrote:

Turning on cellular data makes it work, but then it seems to count this towards my data total (it even added it into app usage under "Messaging", even though MMS is supposed to be included in the plan so surely shouldn't be counting towards the data total regardless. 

So I'm kind of confused again... With Freedom, my previous provider, they had had to turn something off on their end so that my MMS messages wouldn't count towards data on their end.  And then I left the data turned on on my end, and was able to send MMS with no problem, and only used wi-fi instead of roaming for all other data use.  So, I'm not sure if Public offers this as well, but it seems they should because otherwise it's counting MMS towards my data total...

---

This is normal. There is no way to make the phone stop counting the data used by the MMS service. Similarly, PM cannot turn off this feature from their end. You will see entries with 0.001 MB used by MMS messages, but this does not count towards your data. Even if it does, you would have to send 1000 MMS messages which would equal to 1MB of data used. This is very small amount of data. If you ever run out of data, MMS will continue to work.

Roaming is something you would use when you are outside of the provider's network coverage. Since Freedom were shorthanded with their towers, they used services from other towers and implemented roaming like solution. Since PM/Telus network is covered all over Canada, you will not have to worry about Roaming. Leave the Roaming option turned off unless you travel to USA where PM/Telus uses other providers' (AT&T and TMobile) towers to connect. 

[bradC]

I tried turning off data, and tried to send myself a photo (MMS) to test it out...however, it just says "sending" perpetually and gives me an error message saying:

"MMS cannot be sent/received when mobile data is disabled"

Turning on cellular data makes it work, but then it seems to count this towards my data total (it even added it into app usage under "Messaging", even though MMS is supposed to be included in the plan so surely shouldn't be counting towards the data total regardless. 

So I'm kind of confused again... With Freedom, my previous provider, they had had to turn something off on their end so that my MMS messages wouldn't count towards data on their end.  And then I left the data turned on on my end, and was able to send MMS with no problem, and only used wi-fi instead of roaming for all other data use.  So, I'm not sure if Public offers this as well, but it seems they should because otherwise it's counting MMS towards my data total...

[Anonymous]

---

@bradC wrote:

@LovesToPM @Purplepan @Anonymous @computergeek541 @NDesai @hairbag1 

Just wanted to thank you all very much for helping me out with my questions!!  I had been a little uncertain about switching to Public Mobile on account of there not being a way to reach customer service by phone, but this is obviously an *amazingly* helpful community, and already has proven me wrong on that concern, as this has proven to be more helpful than any call to customer service I ever had with my previous provider!  Thanks again for all your help!! 🙂 

---

Welcome to Public Mobile.

The community can't quite do everything but we can certainly send you in the right direction if we can't.

Edit: since I'm last poster...I tested something on my Android phone. I removed default from the APN Type line leaving mms,supl (the defaults that came with the activation). This did not open a web page but it did allow an MMS to send. So it's possible to not browse but get MMS.

[bradC]

@LovesToPM @Purplepan @Anonymous @computergeek541 @NDesai @hairbag1 

Just wanted to thank you all very much for helping me out with my questions!!  I had been a little uncertain about switching to Public Mobile on account of there not being a way to reach customer service by phone, but this is obviously an *amazingly* helpful community, and already has proven me wrong on that concern, as this has proven to be more helpful than any call to customer service I ever had with my previous provider!  Thanks again for all your help!! 🙂 

And again sorry that I couldn't accept all of your replies as solutions (as I attempted to but it only let me click one).  But they were *all* equally helpful solutions, so thanks!

[NDesai]

---

@bradC wrote:

I do have one other quesiton I forgot to ask, which is on the plan I signed up for (the $15 one), it said "Unlimited International Text and Picture Messaging", but then in the little note up top it said "International text includes only text messages that originate from Canada", which doesn't make it quite so international...

Does that mean I'd be charged for texts sent to my phone from the US, and for texts I send in reply to the US?

Thanks! 

---

You will be able to use what you paid for in advanced. There will not be any extra charge. The service you paid for will work and everything else simply won't work. Forget about getting charged extra with Public Mobile 🙂

To call/text while you are in US, PM offer USA roaming add-ons that lasts for 10 days. They do not offer any other roaming option outside of North America. 

[hairbag1]

---

@bradC wrote:

Thanks everyone for your help!!  I tried to "accept" all of your solutions, but it looks like it only let me accept the first one I clicked.  This definitely puts my mind at ease about the data, as it doesn't sound like it will be anything to worry about!

I do have one other quesiton I forgot to ask, which is on the plan I signed up for (the $15 one), it said "Unlimited International Text and Picture Messaging", but then in the little note up top it said "International text includes only text messages that originate from Canada", which doesn't make it quite so international...

Does that mean I'd be charged for texts sent to my phone from the US, and for texts I send in reply to the US?

Thanks! 

---

Nope...it means that you can send and recieve texts while you're in Canada. If outside of Canada your regular PM features will cease...although I've heard that you'll recieve tm's but won't be able to reply.

You will not ever be charged anything extra, not texts, not talk and not data ...unless you purchase it ahead of time.

What took you so long to come to PM, you're thinking huh eh !!

[bradC]

Excellent, that's a relief!  Thanks again for your help!

[LovesToPM]

---

@bradC wrote:

Thanks everyone for your help!!  I tried to "accept" all of your solutions, but it looks like it only let me accept the first one I clicked.  This definitely puts my mind at ease about the data, as it doesn't sound like it will be anything to worry about!

I do have one other quesiton I forgot to ask, which is on the plan I signed up for (the $15 one), it said "Unlimited International Text and Picture Messaging", but then in the little note up top it said "International text includes only text messages that originate from Canada", which doesn't make it quite so international...

Does that mean I'd be charged for texts sent to my phone from the US, and for texts I send in reply to the US?

Thanks! 

---

Your plan service will work while you are in Canada.

To be able to use your phone in USA, you will need to purchase one of the available 10 day US Roaming Add-ons. However you can receive SMS texts for free while you are in USA.

[Anonymous]

---

@bradC wrote:

Thanks everyone for your help!!  I tried to "accept" all of your solutions, but it looks like it only let me accept the first one I clicked.  This definitely puts my mind at ease about the data, as it doesn't sound like it will be anything to worry about!

I do have one other quesiton I forgot to ask, which is on the plan I signed up for (the $15 one), it said "Unlimited International Text and Picture Messaging", but then in the little note up top it said "International text includes only text messages that originate from Canada", which doesn't make it quite so international...

Does that mean I'd be charged for texts sent to my phone from the US, and for texts I send in reply to the US?

Thanks! 

---

It is kind of a confusing term to use but it simply means that you can send and receive texts from/to anywhere - while. in. Canada.

[NDesai]

---

@Purplepan wrote:

---

---

Not sure if you have the same function on your phone, but on my old phone when I get MMS it says I received one, and I can just turn on data to view it. On my current phone, it automatically temporarily turns on data to view it, and doesn't allow background data. There isn't a way for me to miss MMS, and I'm on Android. Do you know if your phone has similar features?

---

Same on my Android phone. I get a download symbol whether i have data turned on or off since it is set to not automatically download. Then i turn on my data from the quick drawer and download the MMS text. 

[bradC]

Thanks everyone for your help!!  I tried to "accept" all of your solutions, but it looks like it only let me accept the first one I clicked.  This definitely puts my mind at ease about the data, as it doesn't sound like it will be anything to worry about!

I do have one other quesiton I forgot to ask, which is on the plan I signed up for (the $15 one), it said "Unlimited International Text and Picture Messaging", but then in the little note up top it said "International text includes only text messages that originate from Canada", which doesn't make it quite so international...

Does that mean I'd be charged for texts sent to my phone from the US, and for texts I send in reply to the US?

Thanks! 

[Anonymous]

 @bradC 

So I was curious about this. Do you intend to browse any pages on your phone? Or will the ONLY data you use be MMS?

I tested this on an old Windows Phone that has an internet browsing APN and also an MMS APN. I altered the internet one. Turned on data. Browsed to a page. Was unsuccessful. Sent an MMS. Success.

So if you never wish to use your browser then there might be a way in your settings to turn that off, leave cell data on and send/receive MMS all you want.

I would imagine the phone would still take a _bit_ of data. But I would imagine not nearly as much.

[LovesToPM · Accepted solution]

@bradC 

When you receive an MMS, the message will be pending until you enable mobile data to view it.

Roaming is automcatically disabled with Public Mobile. You do not have to be concerned about unexpected overages. Just check your data counter (via My data and Add-ons on your account) from-time-to-time if you want to keep an eye on your data usage. You can also set your phone to give you a warning when you have used x amount of data.

[Purplepan]

---

@bradC wrote:

Thanks for your helpful messages! 

The issue with turning the data on and off though is that I have no way to really predict when someone might send me an MMS message so I can't turn it on and off like that...  

On my previous plan, I just called the company and they changed a setting on their end so that my phone would never use their roaming data and I wouldn't be charged for any data from them, and that way I could keep the data turned on on my phone so that there would never be an issue with an MMS message coming in (which was included in the plan like it is with Public).  Is there a comparable way to do it with Public, because they can't really expect that we would know when we're going to be getting MMS messages and turn on and off the data every time?

Thanks.  

---

Not sure if you have the same function on your phone, but on my old phone when I get MMS it says I received one, and I can just turn on data to view it. On my current phone, it automatically temporarily turns on data to view it, and doesn't allow background data. There isn't a way for me to miss MMS, and I'm on Android. Do you know if your phone has similar features?

[bradC]

Thanks for your helpful messages! 

The issue with turning the data on and off though is that I have no way to really predict when someone might send me an MMS message so I can't turn it on and off like that...  

On my previous plan, I just called the company and they changed a setting on their end so that my phone would never use their roaming data and I wouldn't be charged for any data from them, and that way I could keep the data turned on on my phone so that there would never be an issue with an MMS message coming in (which was included in the plan like it is with Public).  Is there a comparable way to do it with Public, because they can't really expect that we would know when we're going to be getting MMS messages and turn on and off the data every time?

Thanks.  

[NDesai]

Welcome to Public Mobile!

1. You just have to keep your Data button set to off so it will never use any data. For MMS text, you might have an option to set MMS to not automatically download. With this, you are forced to turn the data on before you can download the MMS text. I am not sure if iPhone has this feature, but Android does and i use it.

BTW, on Public Mobile, you will never be charged for over using the data because the service is prepaid and you won't be able to use data at all after you consume the data limit. 

2. You will see the bonus $10 account credit by tomorrow.

[computergeek541]

---

@bradC wrote:

1) I want to only use my own Wi-Fi data on my phone (apart from MMS texts), so that way I won't ever have to worry about going over data and having to pay (I am on the cheapest plan).

There isn't any way to go over your data amount and get charged extra wihout you knowing about it. If you run out of data, it will stop working. To be able to keep using it, you would need to purchase a data add-on.

[Anonymous]

1. and further...make sure none of your apps or OS do updates while on cell data.

[Purplepan]

1) Turning off cellular data is the right thing to do. Depending on your phone (iPhone or Android) you should look for other things as well, such as:

• turning off background data options, because usually when you send MMS you'll have to turn data on briefly. This prevents background apps from using data, this includes closed apps.
• turning on the app store setting that prevents apps from automatically updating on data
• ensuring you don't have the setting on that automatically turns on data when your wifi signal is weak

With those settings in place, if you turn on your data to briefly send an MMS, you normally shouldn't go overboard.

2) The $1 off a month discount is granted to those that referred you, and not yourself. You should however receive $10 credit for being referred. The only discount you should have is that $2 for auto pay.

Hope that helps.

[LovesToPM]

@bradC 

1) Turn mobile data off when you don't want to use it.

Turn it on to receive or send MMS, then back off again.

Depending on which phone you have, you can also adjust your phone settings to limit background usage of mobile data. BTW with Public Mobile, there are no overages. Once you use up all your data, data will stop until your plan renews or you buy a data add-on.

2) Your $10 referral credit will show up in your account within 72 hours, but usually by the next day.