How do I know if my phone will work on the Public Mobile network?

[srlawren]

@deyneko1 that is strange, the phone appears to be compatible.  If you search the reviews for "Koodo" you can find a second review that says it didn't work with Koodo.  This is definitely disconcerting, though I'm not sure why in this case.  

To be completely honest, this is a VERY low-end phone, that came out nearly 4 years ago (April 2013), has a terrible resolution, VERY little storage (4GB--there would be almost none left for the user right out of the box), and only a half gig of RAM that will make running more than one application at a time a nightmare.

If I were honest, I wouldn't even buy this for a child.  They are going to want to do things on it and be frustrated right away and continuously.  If you want to keep the cost to a minimum due to potential for losing the phone, maybe pick up a used phone on craigslist?

[srlawren]

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@computergeek541 wrote:

I believe that many customers would be fine with a phone not having LTE much of the time, but to not have one of the 3g bands is asking for trouble, especially when the 850MHz band is often important for indoor coverage.

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@malbrax I agree with @computergeek541's assessment completely.  

[texwood]

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@deyneko1 wrote:

Hi,

I am going to buy unlocked BLU Advance 5.0 on Amazon.ca for my daughter. It will be her first smartphone, so she can lose it etc. For this reason, my wife and I decided to buy a phone less than 100CAD.

But I found HERE that one person wrote the phone doesn't work with PM:

"This product was thoroughly disappointing. I purchased 9 of these for my business and I wish I would have done more research, this phone does not live up to expectations in any way. Terrible phone, claims it is unlocked but will not work on telus, koodo or public mobile. 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?"

It is strange because I checked tech data and it should work in 3G and http://willmyphonework.net/ "said" it is OK with PM.

What do you think?

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Yet if you look at other reviews you'll see the exact opposite:

Person A:

"So far this is a great phone, It's able to do just about everything I want a phone to do. There isn't as much internal memory as I would like. But for the price this is a great phone. Good reception on the Telus/Koodo network."

Person B:

"Good unlocked phone for the price ($90 + tax). Fast delivery ahead of schedule. Working with TELUS network..."

Person C:

I bought this phone for my son because his Telus phone died. So far, we have no complaints. It was super easy to setup and connect to the network. I've seen a lot of complaints about available space. But, really, I have never had a phone that didn't require an additional SD card so that is not an issue. I am quite sure that we will be buying another BLU when someone in the family needs a new phone.

Person D:

As a hardcore Apple user, I am astounded by this phone. I bought it for my mom who was still using a 15 year old flip phone, therefore I didn't want to invest in a high-end phone she would barely use. I set it up for her as a pay-as-you go with Telus in a few minutes...

Person E:

...Edit: I forgot to mention that I tested it on WIND mobile and Telus (both at the same time) and it worked right away.

[sonician]

Hello,

My Galaxy Note 4 died due to a bad memory chip on board.

I was going to pickup the Oukitel U13 as the specs are similar, hardware-wise, but was curious about the network support.

Here's the details:

Network:
2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz
3G: WCDMA 900/2100MHz
4G: FDD-LTE 800/900/1800/2100/2600MHz (Bands: 1/2/7/8/20)

Thanks!

[srlawren]

@sonician that phone is not good for use with Public Mobile. You will get no talk, no texting, and only some lte data in certain areas. The 3G section is the biggest problem as it lacks both 850 and 1900 frequencies used by pm.

[sonician]

Thank you for your reply, much appreciated. I will have to do some more research and be careful to note the band support.

[srlawren]

@sonician yeah make sure the phone has both 850MHz and 1900MHz 3G frequencies for compatibility.  For LTE 4G data (if desired), look for band 4 at a minimum, with optionally any of bands 2, 5, 7, 12, 13, 17 being an asset (bands 2 and 7 being the most commonly available after 4, it seems)

[sonician]

@srlawren, this look better?

Network:
2G: GSM 900/1800/1900MHz
3G: WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100MHz
4G: FDD-LTE 850/900/1800/2100/2600MHz

Thanks!

[srlawren]

@sonician 3G is great, you will get talk, text, and 3G data.  Can you find the 4G specs listed in bands instead of in MHz?

[sonician]

Here's the specs including the bands:

2G bands	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 & SIM 2
	CDMA 800 / 1900
3G bands	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
	CDMA2000 1xEV-DO
	TD-SCDMA
4G bands	LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500)