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3G and 4G - which is the standard

stuart
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

I am connecting to PM with standalone android smart watches (Kospet Omnibus Pro) and they work great.  What confuses me though is that they only report using 3G on my PM sim.  I have an older Bell sim which also reports 3G BUT a newer Bell sim reports 4G. in either phone (so it's not a phone issue)  Now, as I understand it, Bell and Telus use the identical bands (often sharing towers etc).  So as in  a=b b=c therefore a=c   the phones are identical, the bands are the same, therefore the diffrence is in the sim meaning the sim is only programed to establish a 3G connection.  Is this correct ?  If so, how would I be able to get data at 4G speeds if I paid for it?  Also, with a 4G capable phone, would it ever occur that it would go 4G rather then 3G depending on network traffic?

 

The good news is I am able to do everything I need/wamt to do now on 3G so I have no complaints just curious.

7 REPLIES 7

Korth
Mayor / Maire

Perhaps the smartwatches/whatever can only tether on 3G, unable to do 4G regardless (while the 4G network identifies as 3G for backcompatibility) . 

Yes, all users should have access to 3G and 4G with any SIM card and any plan.

stuart
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

sorry - meant 4 not 5 G above.

stuart
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Yes - it only shows as 3G on both of the smart watches but they are identical so thats not a surprise. The "old" Bell sim is about 5 years  old, the newer one about 2 years old.

 

Do you see yourself on 5 G on your device with a PM cards ?  My PM sim is about 2 weeks old plus however long it had been on the shelf.  I am happy with the quality of service I am getting but curious as to why the differences.

sheytoon
Mayor / Maire

I'm not sure why you see 3G with PM and 4G with Bell.

 

The Radio Access Network is always shared between Bell and Telus, so that's not the issue. Depending on the age of the old Bell SIM, it may only work on 3G.

 

Are you saying that you never successfully registered on the LTE network with your PM SIM with any phone?

All available plans are LTE based, but voice calls always fall back to 3G.

 

The 3G Speed plans are throttled LTE, but you can force 3G on device.  if your device doesn’t have LTE, it will connect if it has the correct bands.

 

As you’ve mentioned, it’s working on Bell, so it should work here also.

geopublic
Mayor / Maire

@stuart wrote:

I am connecting to PM with standalone android smart watches (Kospet Omnibus Pro) and they work great.  What confuses me though is that they only report using 3G on my PM sim.  I have an older Bell sim which also reports 3G BUT a newer Bell sim reports 4G. in either phone (so it's not a phone issue)  Now, as I understand it, Bell and Telus use the identical bands (often sharing towers etc).  So as in  a=b b=c therefore a=c   the phones are identical, the bands are the same, therefore the diffrence is in the sim meaning the sim is only programed to establish a 3G connection.  Is this correct ?

@stuart  No, that is not correct. PM uses 3G for calling but if configured by your device will use LTE (4G) for data and texts.

 

  If so, how would I be able to get data at 4G speeds if I paid for it?  Also, with a 4G capable phone, would it ever occur that it would go 4G rather then 3G depending on network traffic?

 

Setup your preferred network to be LTE on your device. PM offers plans for data that are LTE throttled down to 3G speeds.

 

The good news is I am able to do everything I need/wamt to do now on 3G so I have no complaints just curious.


 

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