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Is 4G data add only available if one doesn't have data plan?

BEER
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

Have cut and pasted the following from my account page ----- 

"If you have a Talk and/or Text Plan only with no data, the Data Add-Ons available to you will be defaulted to 4G LTE speed."

Since my $15 plan includes 250 mb of data at 3G speeds it seems that a 4G data add on is not available to me. --------  Does this mean that in order to get a 4G add on I would have to switch to the $10 no data plan - then purchase 4G speed data add on and then again switch back to a $15 plan?     -----Or perhaps since my $15 plan only includes the 250mb data because I activated "auto pay" means that my data add-ons would be at 4G speeds?----What am I missing here ?

29 REPLIES 29

SD08
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@BEER wrote:

Cut and pasted below part of your explanation ---

"That course of action you proposed won't ultimately get you the 4G/LTE speed data.  Your $15 plan is defined as having 3G speed data. If you switch to the $10 plan, you'll be able to get the data add-on at 4G/Lte speed temporarily, but when you switch back, the data add-on will become throttled to 3G speed (after a delay of a couple of days)."

Your response is very much appreciated but there seems to be contradictory confussion --- are you absolutely certain of the above?   


@BEER  Now you have a definitive answer, a clarification straight from Alan K covering your scenario:

"By default, all data is at 4G LTE on our network, and then when you purchase a 3G plan, your account gets added into a list of "accounts that need to be throttled". This is why you may observe it takes time for data speed to "slow down" when you start a 3G plan.

 

As long as your base plan is on the list of "throttle this plan" to 3G, this will affect your Add-On Data Speed, no matter at what time you purchased the Add-On, or how much of it you have used. "

 

No need to waste any data on speedtesting.  As I thought, the data add-on would be throttled back to 3G speed once you switch from the $10 plan back to the $15 plan.

SD08
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@BEER wrote:

Data usage 


@BEER 

Not a typo. I'm on the grandfathered Fall 2016 promo plan: 90 days 12GB LTE, Unlimited Text, Unlimited Prov Talk.  While I don't get speeds that high all the time, they are not uncommon in Toronto where I am.  But the point of my post was to demonstrate how much data can be used up on speedtests, especially with LTE.  Glad you learned something.  That's what the community is here for - helping others. 


Thanks for info - just one last question—-  for example — would more data be used if one were to google a subject with LTE setting enabled instead of LTE disabled?


@BEER 

Generally no, because the same website pages are being loaded whether you're using LTE or 3G speed.  However, the exception is where videos/media are concerned.  Some sites (e.g. Youtube) automatically adjust the resolution (and therefore the amount of data downloaded) of videos streamed based partly on your connection speed.  Also, if you start downloading a video (or a page with lots of pictures/media) and then stop it partway through because you changed your mind, the faster LTE speed connection would likely end up downloading more of it than a 3G speed connection in the seconds before you decided to click stop or close the page.

 

To clarify the gist of my preceding adivce, speedtesting on an LTE connection tends to use more data because the testing app or page can auto-adjust to the higher speeds available to download larger amounts, probably for better accuracy in gauging the speed of your connection, if you leave the app on its default settings.

BEER
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

Data usage 


@BEER 

Not a typo. I'm on the grandfathered Fall 2016 promo plan: 90 days 12GB LTE, Unlimited Text, Unlimited Prov Talk.  While I don't get speeds that high all the time, they are not uncommon in Toronto where I am.  But the point of my post was to demonstrate how much data can be used up on speedtests, especially with LTE.  Glad you learned something.  That's what the community is here for - helping others. 


Thanks for info - just one last question—-  for example — would more data be used if one were to google a subject with LTE setting enabled instead of LTE disabled?


@SD08 wrote:


@BEER 

Not a typo. I'm on the grandfathered Fall 2016 promo plan: 90 days 12GB LTE, Unlimited Text, Unlimited Prov Talk.  While I don't get speeds that high all the time, they are not uncommon in Toronto where I am.  Screenshot_20190825-153023_Speedtest.jpg

But the point of my post was to demonstrate how much data can be used up on speedtests, especially with LTE.  Glad you learned something.  That's what the community is here for - helping others.  Smiley Happy


@SD08 It's too bad that you didn't achieve a 300Mbps result to show how much would be used. But hey: speed testing is fun!   

 

Everyone, this speed test stuff generally isn't a good idea. You're wasting data that you could have otherwise been used for something else.


@BEER wrote:

Wow you got 137Mbps Download speeds with PM on a cell phone - are you certain of this or did you make a typo and the result was 13.7 Mbps? If in fact it is 137 Mbps then my phone must be for the garbage.

Of interest is that my previous 


I"m not sure why that is surprising. 137Mbps is not actually that high of a speed for an LTE connection.  To get any higher than that at Public Mobile, you would need to have an LTE+ type connection and be on a full-speed LTE plan.

SD08
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@BEER wrote:


@BEER  I just performed an LTE speedtest (by Ookla) with default app and mobile network settings (LTE/WCDMA/GSM auto connect) and I got this result:

Download 137 Mbps (used: 157 MB)

Upload 12.8 Mbps (used: 12.8 MB)

 

 


Wow you got 137Mbps Download speeds with PM on a cell phone - are you certain of this or did you make a typo and the result was 13.7 Mbps? If in fact it is 137 Mbps then my phone must be for the garbage.

Of interest is that my previous tests were with the phones LTE turned off  that ate very little Data - But I just performed another Speed Test with LTE on and as you say - wow did it use up major data - Soooooo these posts and data wasted was not in vain because I just learned that disabling the LTE feature uses much less Data - so off with the LTE setting again.


@BEER 

Not a typo. I'm on the grandfathered Fall 2016 promo plan: 90 days 12GB LTE, Unlimited Text, Unlimited Prov Talk.  While I don't get speeds that high all the time, they are not uncommon in Toronto where I am.  Screenshot_20190825-153023_Speedtest.jpg

But the point of my post was to demonstrate how much data can be used up on speedtests, especially with LTE.  Glad you learned something.  That's what the community is here for - helping others.  Smiley Happy

torontokris
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

@BEER wrote:


@BEER  I just performed an LTE speedtest (by Ookla) with default app and mobile network settings (LTE/WCDMA/GSM auto connect) and I got this result:

Download 137 Mbps (used: 157 MB)

Upload 12.8 Mbps (used: 12.8 MB)

 

 


Wow you got 137Mbps Download speeds with PM on a cell phone - are you certain of this or did you make a typo and the result was 13.7 Mbps? If in fact it is 137 Mbps then my phone must be for the garbage.


Those speeds are achievable on the Bell/Telus network. Are you on a full speed LTE plan? Yes maybe your phone or it's settings are limiting your download speed.

BEER
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville


@BEER  I just performed an LTE speedtest (by Ookla) with default app and mobile network settings (LTE/WCDMA/GSM auto connect) and I got this result:

Download 137 Mbps (used: 157 MB)

Upload 12.8 Mbps (used: 12.8 MB)

 

 


Wow you got 137Mbps Download speeds with PM on a cell phone - are you certain of this or did you make a typo and the result was 13.7 Mbps? If in fact it is 137 Mbps then my phone must be for the garbage.

Of interest is that my previous tests were with the phones LTE turned off  that ate very little Data - But I just performed another Speed Test with LTE on and as you say - wow did it use up major data - Soooooo these posts and data wasted was not in vain because I just learned that disabling the LTE feature uses much less Data - so off with the LTE setting again.

dickwong
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

add on is on top of your plan's available data which can be 0 can be 4GB or any

SD08
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@BEER wrote:

Thanks for your detailed response - I did't realize that doing a few second Speed Test consumes much data. Anyways PM should have the answer and could share it with us.

 

PS. --- Just did a google search and pasting findings -- (10 MB / test is not goig to eat up my data)

"Because of the test length, even on LTE connections with speeds of 10 Mbps, the Speedtest will consume only around 10MB per test."


@BEER  I just performed an LTE speedtest (by Ookla) with default app and mobile network settings (LTE/WCDMA/GSM auto connect) and I got this result:

Download 137 Mbps (used: 157 MB)

Upload 12.8 Mbps (used: 12.8 MB)

 

Note the amount of data used. I've had some LTE tests before that used 250 MB in one shot in the download portion.  I don't mind speedtesting since I never use anywhere close to my allotted 12 GB over 90 days, but that's just me.  Depending on the app and settings you choose, you may be able to tweak it so you don't use up as much data, but you have fair warning that it's easy to burn up large amounts on testing if you're not careful.

BEER
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

Thanks for your detailed response - I did't realize that doing a few second Speed Test consumes much data. Anyways PM should have the answer and could share it with us.

 

PS. --- Just did a google search and pasting findings -- (10 MB / test is not goig to eat up my data)

"Because of the test length, even on LTE connections with speeds of 10 Mbps, the Speedtest will consume only around 10MB per test."

SD08
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@BEER wrote:

Cut and pasting part of advise by another Oracle ---

"If you switch to the $10 plan, you'll be able to get the data add-on at 4G/Lte speed temporarily, but when you switch back, the data add-on will become throttled to 3G speed (after a delay of a couple of days)."

The above advise is reasonable and most likely accurate but since I'm a bit sceptical because I think an add-on is an add-on until it used up ----For example if one purchases a Canada/US long distance add on with one plan the switches to a plan that only includes Canada  long distance ----- the LD add-on doesn't revert to only Canada LD.- I will try the switcha roo thing considering the worst that can happen is that I will get 1GB of free data at 3G instead of 4G speeds.


@BEER 

Everything I've read about the 3G plans since they've been introduced leads me to believe the add-on would be throttled when you switch back to the $15 plan.  While the following scenario isn't proof of anything, it's worth considering: Since your $15 plan comes with 250MB of 3G speed data, any data usage would consume your plan data first before the add-on data.  You're in the middle of downloading a large file at 3G speed (3 Mbps) when your 250MB plan data runs out, then it starts using your 1GB add-on, so suddenly you're downloading the rest at full LTE speed.  That would be unusual, to go from a slower speed to a faster speed once you hit a consumption threshold, but I guess stranger things can happen.  Usually, transfer speed goes from unthrottled to throttled, not the other way around.


Having said that, it would be great if I were to be proven wrong on this, as it would be a way to get LTE speed add-ons for 3G plans.  The self-serve accounts indicate whether a subscriber's plan has 3G speed (labeled as 3G) or full LTE speed (no 3G label), but I don't believe there is any indicator for add-ons -- perhaps another clue that it would depend on the current plan.  Unfortunately, in order to know for sure, you may have to do a speedtest at the cost of a significant portion of your 1GB add-on (especially if it remains at full LTE speed) and that's after burning through your 250 MB plan data first.  Of course, I'm not advising to do a speedtest, but if you intend to anyway, be aware that when you make a plan change that results in a switch between LTE and 3G speeds, there is usually a delay of up to 48 hours before the new speed takes effect.  In order to be sure any speedtest is accurate, at least hold off on any testing until after that transition period.  Either way, doing a speedtest while your data is unthrottled would use up a large amount of data, if it turns out you're right.  You'll have to decide if it's worth testing just to find out if your experiment is successful, which is a bit of a conundrum.

BEER
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

I have a PM Sim on a $15 plan in my iPad - (also have a $15 plan in my iPhone with data) The $15 plan in my iPad renews on the 24 which is convenient for me  to switch to the $10 plan in order to get the 1GB gift at 4G.  Since I have auto-pay I get a $2 discount =$8 I also have 3 friend referals for an extra discount of $3 = $5   Therefore my total cost for the month with 1GB data and some voice and texts will be $5 -( but of-course I can't use the voice minutes with my iPad)   Now this could be further reduced by a dollar or two if I were to get some forum participation $$$ .  Sooooo  at most I will be paying $1.25 for 1/4GB - if I were to switch back to the $15 with all the discounts (15-5=10) as listed above ----NOW of-course if after all this the 4G speed may be reduced to 3G after I switch back all this would just have been a futile excersice .  

@BEER  Why wait for spring? Just do it and tell us the results. Robot wink

As you have pointed out several times, $15 plan with autopay garners 1/4 GB data. If you have a no data plan and add the $30 add-on your costs for 1/4 GB will be $7.50 for a total of $17.50. Go for it! Robot LOL


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BEER
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

@srlawren wrote:

@BEER wrote:

I will try the switcha roo thing considering the worst that can happen is that I will get 1GB of free data at 3G instead of 4G speeds.


@BEER that's assuming you either A) don't mind sticking with the $10 plan for a full 30 days, and won't go over on the included texts and talk mins, or B) don't mind losing some of the $10 by doing an immediate plan change back to the $15 plan after the add-on is added.  


Yes you make a good point - also sorry about my smoke and mirror comment -- I did google it and I misused the saying - again please accept my apologies.

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@BEER wrote:

I will try the switcha roo thing considering the worst that can happen is that I will get 1GB of free data at 3G instead of 4G speeds.


@BEER that's assuming you either A) don't mind sticking with the $10 plan for a full 30 days, and won't go over on the included texts and talk mins, or B) don't mind losing some of the $10 by doing an immediate plan change back to the $15 plan after the add-on is added.  


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BEER
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

@srlawren wrote:

@BEER wrote:

Yes but the 4G plan is for Data only --- But wow!  even though I think PM plans are the best it seems that there is also some smoke and mirroring going on. But no big deal - it is what it is and I'm happy with our 4 PM  $15 less $2 each with auto pay - $13 / month for texting + voice + some data can't be beat ---


@BEER what is the smoke and mirrors, exactly?  I don't understand that comment.


Google it.

BEER
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

Cut and pasting part of advise by another Oracle ---

"If you switch to the $10 plan, you'll be able to get the data add-on at 4G/Lte speed temporarily, but when you switch back, the data add-on will become throttled to 3G speed (after a delay of a couple of days)."

The above advise is reasonable and most likely accurate but since I'm a bit sceptical because I think an add-on is an add-on until it used up ----For example if one purchases a Canada/US long distance add on with one plan the switches to a plan that only includes Canada  long distance ----- the LD add-on doesn't revert to only Canada LD.- I will try the switcha roo thing considering the worst that can happen is that I will get 1GB of free data at 3G instead of 4G speeds.

popping
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

My mother's $10 50/50 plan will get the free 1GB LTE data add-on in couple of weeks.

But she is using a flip phone for call only - no text. 

The person, who wants the LTE, cannot get it and

the person, who does not need the LTE, will get it.

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@BEER wrote:

Yes but the 4G plan is for Data only --- But wow!  even though I think PM plans are the best it seems that there is also some smoke and mirroring going on. But no big deal - it is what it is and I'm happy with our 4 PM  $15 less $2 each with auto pay - $13 / month for texting + voice + some data can't be beat ---


@BEER what is the smoke and mirrors, exactly?  I don't understand that comment.


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BEER
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

Yes but the 4G plan is for Data only --- But wow!  even though I think PM plans are the best it seems that there is also some smoke and mirroring going on. But no big deal - it is what it is and I'm happy with our 4 PM  $15 less $2 each with auto pay - $13 / month for texting + voice + some data can't be beat ---

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@BEER wrote:

 

For example if you look at GinYVRpost below he writes

@BeerI don't think Public Mobile offers unthrottled 4G data anymore.


@BEER it's not contradictory-- @GinYVR is wrong.  Please see my previous response.


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BEER
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

Cut and pasted below part of your explanation ---

"That course of action you proposed won't ultimately get you the 4G/LTE speed data.  Your $15 plan is defined as having 3G speed data. If you switch to the $10 plan, you'll be able to get the data add-on at 4G/Lte speed temporarily, but when you switch back, the data add-on will become throttled to 3G speed (after a delay of a couple of days)."

Your response is very much appreciated but there seems to be contradictory confussion --- are you absolutely certain of the above?   

For example if you look at GinYVRpost below he writes

@BeerI don't think Public Mobile offers unthrottled 4G data anymore.


@BEER wrote:

Have cut and pasted the following from my account page ----- 

"If you have a Talk and/or Text Plan only with no data, the Data Add-Ons available to you will be defaulted to 4G LTE speed."

Since my $15 plan includes 250 mb of data at 3G speeds it seems that a 4G data add on is not available to me. --------  Does this mean that in order to get a 4G add on I would have to switch to the $10 no data plan - then purchase 4G speed data add on and then again switch back to a $15 plan?     -----Or perhaps since my $15 plan only includes the 250mb data because I activated "auto pay" means that my data add-ons would be at 4G speeds?----What am I missing here ?




If your plan has data, the speed of any data add-on is the same as included in your plan.  Data add-ons for the $15 plan will be of the "3g" speed.  In the case of the $15 plan, the speeds of any data is preset at the account level.

 

no data in plan = full-speed LTE data add-ons

 

"3g" data in plan = "3g" data add-ons

 

full speed LTE in plan = full speed data add-ons

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@GinYVR wrote:

@BEERI don't think Public Mobile offers unthrottled 4G data anymore.


@GinYVR not true.

 

1) if you already have a plan with full-speed LTE data, it is grandfathered, or

2) you can still get this plan with full-speed LTE data:  https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/bc/plans/30for1GB-4GLTE

 


@BEER wrote:

Have cut and pasted the following from my account page ----- 

"If you have a Talk and/or Text Plan only with no data, the Data Add-Ons available to you will be defaulted to 4G LTE speed."

Since my $15 plan includes 250 mb of data at 3G speeds it seems that a 4G data add on is not available to me. --------  Does this mean that in order to get a 4G add on I would have to switch to the $10 no data plan - then purchase 4G speed data add on and then again switch back to a $15 plan?     -----Or perhaps since my $15 plan only includes the 250mb data because I activated "auto pay" means that my data add-ons would be at 4G speeds?----What am I missing here ?


@GinYVR my understanding is that it depends on your current plan at the time of purchasing the add-on, but I'm not 100% sure about your particular $15->$10->purchase add-on->$15 scenario.  In fact the more I think about it, it's probably the plan in place while you are using the add-on data that dictates the speed, rather than time of purchase.  That is to say, I think there is probably only ONE add-on, but how it's utilized depends on your plan's data speed at time of utilization.  HOWEVER, this is only a semi-educated speculation.


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SD08
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@BEER wrote:

Have cut and pasted the following from my account page ----- 

"If you have a Talk and/or Text Plan only with no data, the Data Add-Ons available to you will be defaulted to 4G LTE speed."

Since my $15 plan includes 250 mb of data at 3G speeds it seems that a 4G data add on is not available to me. --------  Does this mean that in order to get a 4G add on I would have to switch to the $10 no data plan - then purchase 4G speed data add on and then again switch back to a $15 plan?     -----Or perhaps since my $15 plan only includes the 250mb data because I activated "auto pay" means that my data add-ons would be at 4G speeds?----What am I missing here ?


@BEER 

Public does offer the purchase of 4G/LTE data as an add-on in the case where the customer's base plan is an grandfathered LTE plan -or- does not include any data.  

 

Edit:  Forgot...With monthly base plan options, there remains only one plan of $30 for 1GB monthly that will be LTE.   All other plans are 3G speed data.  The other LTE plan options were removed along with the plan builder recently.

 

Please see point #7 in the Terms & Conditions at the bottom of the Plans page:
https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/bc/plans
"Data Add-Ons to supplement a Data Plan will be provisioned at the data speed selected in your plan. If you have a Talk and/or Text Plan only with no data, the Data Add-Ons available to you will be defaulted to 4G LTE speed."

 

That course of action you proposed won't ultimately get you the 4G/LTE speed data.  Your $15 plan is defined as having 3G speed data. If you switch to the $10 plan, you'll be able to get the data add-on at 4G/Lte speed temporarily, but when you switch back, the data add-on will become throttled to 3G speed (after a delay of a couple of days).

BEER
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

@GinYVR wrote:

@BEERI don't think Public Mobile offers unthrottled 4G data anymore.


Are you saying that all data add-ons would be at 4G speeds ?

"If you have a Talk and/or Text Plan only with no data, the Data Add-Ons available to you will be defaulted to 4G LTE speed."

BEER
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

Have cut and pasted the following from my account page ----- 

"If you have a Talk and/or Text Plan only with no data, the Data Add-Ons available to you will be defaulted to 4G LTE speed."

Since my $15 plan includes 250 mb of data at 3G speeds it seems that a 4G data add on is not available to me. --------  Does this mean that in order to get a 4G add on I would have to switch to the $10 no data plan - then purchase 4G speed data add on and then again switch back to a $15 plan?     -----Or perhaps since my $15 plan only includes the 250mb data because I activated "auto pay" means that my data add-ons would be at 4G speeds?----What am I missing here ?

GinYVR
Mayor / Maire

@BEERI don't think Public Mobile offers unthrottled 4G data anymore.

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