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Question about PM's data usage round-up policy

tim_zhao_tim
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Hi, I have a question about PM's data usage policy.

 

From its web site's small print, it says - Data usage is rounded up each session to the nearest 10KB.

 

So does it mean, that, say, my phone connects to 3G, even my phone is only consuming one(1) byte of data, and then I disconnect, PM will still mark my data usage at 10 KB, for that session?

 

Is that industry standard practice, or not?

 

How does PM define a data session? How do I know when my data session starts, and when it ends?

 

Is that policy unfairly punishing small-data-usage-but-frequently-connect-and-disconnect users?

 

Thanks,

11 REPLIES 11

@tim_zhao_tim, first of all, Public Mobile hasn't had call centre support for NON-LEGACY members since January of 2015.  For all plans since that time, it's only been the community forum, the members of the forum, and moderators.  This is not a service that has been lost, but rather stopped for those who were previously on Legacy and Pioneer plans, and they've now been welcomed to continue with their peers in current reward eligible plans, and if they do so, they're getting up to 4 year's worth of loyalty rewards, plus if they choose to enroll or continue, AutoPay reward, and now Community and Friend referral rewards.  For many, that could be a $13 per 30-day cycle reward.

 

There are no hidden / clawbacks here.  Terms of service include all details if the consumer chooses to read them and abide by them.  Instant plan change describes that all current services will be lost when confirmed in the presented dialogue box.  Refunds are not available when porting out, as it is the same at all prepaid carriers in  Canada.

 

I've been here since Summer 2016.  I'm now saving $13 on rewards for AutoPay, Loyalty, and Friend referrals, plus my community rewards which have changed over my time here.  To me, that alone, and the $3 for loyalty that will eventually come in 2.5 years is reason enough alone to stay here.

 

The service on Public Mobile is the same as Lucky, and for me, superior to Chatr.

tim_zhao_tim
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Both Chatr and Lucky Mobile offer data usage round-up at 1 KB, much much better than PM's practice.

 

Plus, Chatr and Lucky essentially offer unlimited data use ( you can continue to use data after the allotment, for free, at a slower speed ), whereas PM just cuts you off after you use up your data.

 

Chatr and Lucky also have better international calling plan than PM's one. Chatr's one is even better than Lucky's one as Chatr does not force you to buy a monthly subscription.

 

So I think PM's subscribers sacrificed too much for that auto-pay/Loyalty bonus:
* Loss of customer service, PLUS:
* A bunch of hidden price-grab/claw-back practice.

 

So suddenly PM may not look better than Chatr/Lucky.   Actually I think Chatr is the best choice ( Generous data round-up + unlimited data + better international calling ) .

@RobertQc, at first I wondered why you were talking about the battery drain.

 

Turns out, I missed that part in the thread.  Thanks!


@stonechucker wrote:

WiFi when it is available, normally stops cellular data access, unless you’re using a feature on your device designed to use cellular to ‘assist’ when the WiFi is weak.  These so-called features from iOS, and whatever the Android equivalent is, should be turned off unless you want to leak data

 


@stonechucker 

 

"Aggressive Wi-Fi to mobile handover- When enabled, WiFi- will be more aggressive in handling over the data connection to mobile, when Wi-Fi signal is low"

 

"Mobile data always active- Always keep mobile data active, even when Wi-Fi is active (for fast network switching)."

 

Mobile data always active contributes to battery usage.

 

@tim_zhao_tim, I’m on a 90-day plan with a total of 12 GB of data.  I do not force my data off, nor do I do a lot of data activity on cellular data.

 

im going to renew my cycle during the evening/early morning hours March 6-7.  I’ve used only 2850 MB, or 2.9 of my 12 GB available.

 

WiFi when it is available, normally stops cellular data access, unless you’re using a feature on your device designed to use cellular to ‘assist’ when the WiFi is weak.  These so-called features from iOS, and whatever the Android equivalent is, should be turned off unless you want to leak data.

 

Activly monitoring your usage is a standard practice we recommend so you don’t have a surprise later.

 

Note, although cellular data is required to send and receive MMS messages, thé data used is not counted as usage on your data plan, or data addon.

wetcoaster
Mayor / Maire

@tim_zhao_tim wrote:

Hi, I have a question about PM's data usage policy.

 

From its web site's small print, it says - Data usage is rounded up each session to the nearest 10KB.

 

So does it mean, that, say, my phone connects to 3G, even my phone is only consuming one(1) byte of data, and then I disconnect, PM will still mark my data usage at 10 KB, for that session?

 

Is that industry standard practice, or not?

 

How does PM define a data session? How do I know when my data session starts, and when it ends?

 

Is that policy unfairly punishing small-data-usage-but-frequently-connect-and-disconnect users?

 

Thanks,


I don't have concise answers, but if you are turning your data on and off I would say one such cycle is a session. As far as I know, all provider have some similar policies in their ToS.

 

 

In my very personal opinion you are overthinking this. For my first 14 months with Public Mobile, I had a talk & text only plan, combined with a 1GB data add-on. While I didn't limit myself on my data consumption, like you I only turned my data on when I actually "needed" it (let's assume an average of 3 times a day?). My first 1GB lasted 10 months.

 

In the absolute worst case scenario of loosing 9KB every single time I turned data off, I would have roughly lost 1MB (= 1024KB) per month. Yes, in my case this loss could be in the 1% range. However, I believe that for people on the 500MB/30days plan, which is better value these days (unless you really, really use 100MB or less data a month), it's likely not more than 0.2%...

 

Just my 2 cents, of course.

Anonymous
Not applicable

 @tim_zhao_tim 

Turning on the data with data available will start your session. You can trigger a close by flipping in and out of airplane mode or restarting. Otherwise it will eventually time out. I don't know how long that is.

The system uses a buffer of data and flushes that when the session closes.

PlanShopper
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen
You could always purchase a 1 time addon and see how it works out. I have both my parents on PM and they have very small plans and do exactly as you do to avoid using too much data. They turn it all off when not in use. I monitor their data use and there is far from anything abnormal. Data rounding is done by every carrier, even for minutes, let alone data.

I don't think it's a problem that you'll run into, but the only way to convince yourself otherwise would be to try it for a month. Either upgrade your plan for a month, or just buy a one time data add on to see....

Good luck!

tim_zhao_tim
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Initially I planned to switch from the voice-only plan to a voice+data plan. But now I am aware of this data usage round-up policy, I am getting worried that the claimed 1 GB data may not be as much as it should be naturally.

 

I am not one of those typical smart phone guys that keep celldata + Wifi + Bluetooth options all turned on all the time, 24-hour, in their phones.

 

Most of the time, I turn these options off in my phone. I only turn them on when I need to, and I turn them off as soon as I finish my tasks, to conserve battery and to cut down radiation.

 

But I am worried that these prudent healthy practice may get punished due to corporate greed.

 

I will for now stick to my voice-only plan, and try to use Wifi option as much as I can, until PM changes to its data usage round-up policy to a more reasonable one.

Lieux
Oracle
Oracle

How does PM define a data session? How do I know when my data session starts, and when it ends?

@tim_zhao_tim 

You can see your data usage in your self serve account .If you click on the tab PLAN/ADD-ONS and USAGE HISTORY you will see your data usage for each hour and day.

Here is a good thread..https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Getting-Started/How-fast-does-quot-My-Account-quot-up...

 

PlanShopper
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen
This may not specifically answer your question, but there is some great discussion on it. Someone in there has a suggestion that as long as you remain connected to a PM tower and your phone remains on, that's a single data session.

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Discussions/What-defines-a-data-session/td-p/29664
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