what is a phone call ?

[barndoor]

What is a phone call on PM ?  I'm getting minutes where i never had minutes with previous company . 

What is a mb of data ?  One  usage chart on my account shows  one number that is about twice as  much as  the other useage chart adds up to  and my phone says consumption is halfway in the middle . 

 I expect the total is going to be what its going to be  ...I'm just curious how they get there . 

[krs99]

@barndoor 

If you look at your detailed usage, it shows the duration of the calls to the nearest second. It's just the billing that is set up to round to the next minute.

And it seems from your comment that there is also a grace period set up, something like 5 seconds.

[barndoor]

 In this day and age of technology, precision  and measurement to 1/100 of a minute as recorded in my usage here ...why is there rounding anyway  ? 

I have had a number of short calls and my billed for time is almost exactly twice that of my actual time as PM has logged it . 

Does it really matter that the time is rounded up ?? No, its a good enough deal  and the addons are flexible enough that it really  doesn't  matter ... for what I use anyway. It's just good to know how things work . Thanks for the input .

@krs99 

You are right. When I went back and rechecked they have rounded  every call up  except for three accidents  that were not over 5 seconds that they have not included .

[computergeek541]

---

@krs99 wrote:

AFAIK, calls on PM are always rounded up to the next minute, not just calls 30 seconds or over, but all of them.

So a call 1 minute and 1 second would count as 2 minutes

---

I don't know of any carrier who rounds down to the lower minute. Anjy partial minute counts as a full minute. In addition, for outgoing  calls, the ring time also counts.

[krs99]

AFAIK, calls on PM are always rounded up to the next minute, not just calls 30 seconds or over, but all of them.

So a call 1 minute and 1 second would count as 2 minutes

[dabr]

---

@barndoor wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

 @barndoor : I personally don't really like the term "roll-over" in this context.

---

What term do you  feel is better ?  😉

Minutes seem to be disappearing quickly . It seems that  they round up the minutes ...30 seconds and over counts a minute .  Seems if i  took too long to dial and let it ring too long it counted as a call even if not answered .  Hmmm  ...

---

@barndoor     Your available outgoing plan mins shouldn't be getting deducted if your call didn't get answered by the person you called or the answering system.    If you're seeing minutes deducted when the call didn't connect, then perhaps you need to contact moderators to take a look at your account. 

[hairbag1]

@barndoor...

if you find you're using more minutes than you though you would, consider upgrading your plan to the $25 plan...it has Unlimited Canada wide calling as well as 500mb + 500mb of data.

You can set to Change at my next renewal or Change plan now. If you opt for change right away, you'll pay right away and you'll forfeit whatever balance of talk / data you have remaining on current plan...and there's no refunds or prorating of plans.

Just something else to think about !!

[Anonymous]

 @barndoor : lol 🙂 Good question. I don't have one word. I have a phrase. "Buy once, consume over time". Roll-over implies buying again in my head. Like other providers. The add-ons can automatically renew...roll-over.

Keep refreshing the overview page. You might see counters increment up. And then refresh and they drop down.

[barndoor]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

 @barndoor : I personally don't really like the term "roll-over" in this context.

---

What term do you  feel is better ?  😉

Minutes seem to be disappearing quickly . It seems that  they round up the minutes ...30 seconds and over counts a minute .  Seems if i  took too long to dial and let it ring too long it counted as a call even if not answered .  Hmmm  ...

[Anonymous]

 @barndoor : I personally don't really like the term "roll-over" in this context. PM and Koodo are the only two providers that I know of that offer add-ons that you buy once and then have all the time in the world to consume it. It almost becomes a form of pay as you go only over an extended time. Or as quickly as you like. But if you're blowing through add-ons inside of 30 days you might want to go up in plan.

I'm on the no longer available limited minutes/limited texts $10 plan. The add-ons make this entirely great for minutes and data. Yeah ok a little tricky some months for texts. But I have a dual-SIM phone with two $10 accounts in it. And then there are voip apps like TextNow. I also happen to be a very low usage customer so that's part of it of course. And then this past year even more so.

So the $15 plan can be much the same thing. And cheaper than two $10 plans 🙂 Have the 1gb data add-on and the 500 minute add-on on hand and you're set. Then buy them again when you're nearly out. They're stackable.

[hairbag1]

---

@barndoor wrote:

@hairbag1 

Thanks ... yes I was thinking of getting the Data add on to ... it works the same as the calling add on doesn't it ,in that it just rolls over till used up ?

---

Yep...any unused add-on data will roll over until you use it up.

[barndoor]

@hairbag1 

Thanks ... yes I was thinking of getting the Data add on to ... it works the same as the calling add on doesn't it ,in that it just rolls over till used up ?

[hairbag1]

@barndoor...

for anyone on the $15 plan, I'd suggest you also get the $5 / 500 minutes of Canada wide calling add-on. If you happen to run outta regular plan minutes, then the add-on minutes kick in until next renewal fills your regular minutes in again. If you have any unused add-on minutes, they just roll over until you do use them up...even if that takes several months or longer.

Welcome to PM.

[barndoor]

@krs99 

I think it's all in the wording ... they count the minutes of the incoming calls  ,just don't charge for them .   I'm on the 100 outgoing canada wide plan too . 

[Anonymous]

 @barndoor : The usage details is basically a log of all the in and out activity of the account. Callers dropping to voicemail get there by way of call forwarding which then looks like an outgoing call. Call forwarding doesn't consume minutes. The thing that matters is the front page counter area. This will show the minutes counter on the limited minutes plan, data counters for all the buckets of data and all the add-ons which are all limited. Those voicemail calls don't consume minutes. Checking your voicemail from the handset will.

If you like to monitor your usage, be sure to set your phone monitoring at each renewal. Or get an app that can be set to 30 days. That's usually data.
But for here, it kinda doesn't matter because there are no overage charges. Once you're out of a feature, that feature just stops.

The usage details can be delayed. The front page counters are almost immediate.

[krs99]

Re the reply:

Talk minutes are counted whenever you make or receive calls on your phone. Talk time is calculated from the start of a call to when it is disconnected, and includes ring time and call routing. Total call time is always rounded up to the nearest minute. Please note that calls to voicemail and forwarding calls will use plan minutes.

--------------

I don't think that is correct - it certainly wasn't when I signed  up to Public Mobile.

For one, talk minutes are only counted for outgoing calls (when making a call), they are not counted for incoming calls (receiving a all). That is actual the main reason I switched to PM in the first place.

Call time is also not rounded to the nearest minute, it's rounded to the next full minute.

For example, an actual call of 2 minutes 25 seconds rounded to the nearest minute would be 2 minutes, to the next full minute would be 3 minutes. PM uses 3 minutes in this example.

If what I just wrote is no longer true, please someone enlighten me.

PS: I should add - what I wrote is for Ontario and the cheapest $15.- plan with 100 Canada wide minutes included (but only counted for outgoing calls)

All the other more expensive plans, $25.- and up include unlimited Canada-wide minutes so it doesn't really matter how minutes are counted.

[barndoor]

@Triguy 

Thanks ... I guess the phone call issue that seemed unusual  is they  seemed to make a call out of an unanswered call but I had let it ring for thirty seconds  so enough to round it up I guess . 

The data totals must not get recorded till the next day because my totals  just changed here a couple minutes ago and  now jive pretty much with what you said.

[Triguy · Accepted solution]

Talk minutes are counted whenever you make or receive calls on your phone. Talk time is calculated from the start of a call to when it is disconnected, and includes ring time and call routing. Total call time is always rounded up to the nearest minute. Please note that calls to voicemail and forwarding calls will use plan minutes.

When you turn on data there is a 5 MB buffer that shows up in your usage history but gets reset.  MMS needs data turned on but doesn't count towards your data limit.