Is PM 3G or 4G?

[Keskin]

I've been with PM for a bit now. However, I've only needed their most basic plan up until this point and didn't require great speeds or reliablity. 

Recently however, I've found courier work that will require a more extensive plan and good speed and constant reliable connection. (Unstable connection or slow speed could cause me to miss an order). 

When I browse the plan options on the website, all of them list data at 3G speeds, but when I look at the data bars on my phone, it says 4G, so what's going on there? 

And ultimately, if it is 3G, do you think it will still be fast and reliable enough considering my new needs?

Thanks in advance. 

[Luddite]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 @Luddite : I had to read that a couple times due to the wrapping. So the first line is full speed LTE and the second line is the throttled. Got it.

I don't suppose you have HSPA comparable tests? I've seen a few come and go here and there.

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Correct; only I compared LTE to the throttled LTE.

The behaviour of phones set to only 3G was not even considered, as I thought everything was going to be throttled. 

[Anonymous]

 @Luddite : I had to read that a couple times due to the wrapping. So the first line is full speed LTE and the second line is the throttled. Got it.

I don't suppose you have HSPA comparable tests? I've seen a few come and go here and there.

[Luddite]

@Keskin  More food for thought: 

3G vs LTE https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Plans-Add-Ons/Share-Your-3G-Real-World-Experience/m-p...

[srlawren]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I don't like to refer to HSPA (3G) as implying it's somehow slow. It's not. It's much faster than the throttled LTE. But yes...latency. When does that matter? Videos?

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@Anonymous video isn't really impacted by latency.  Latency is basically the delay between the time your phone starts a connection and the time it starts receiving the response data.  Once the data is flowing, it's the throughput (the most common definition of speed) that's important.  However, typically when you're interacting with say a web site, your browser is actually making dozens or even hundreds of "calls" to the web server to request all the elements: images, script files, etc.  Each of these "calls" incurs latency, so the more of them you have, the greater lag noticed and the experience will feel slower than it really is (assuming relatively high latency and relatively low throughput).  

[Anonymous]

I don't like to refer to HSPA (3G) as implying it's somehow slow. It's not. It's much faster than the throttled LTE. But yes...latency. When does that matter? Videos?

[srlawren]

@Keskin in other words: it's Telus' 4G network but artificially restricted (throttled) down to "3G-like" speeds (capped at 3Mbps in either direction).  Agree with @Anonymous that the terminology is very confusing, have disliked it since they introduced the offerings several years ago.

All currently offered plans are throttled to these 3G-like speeds.  It sounds like you would be better to look at alternatives from another provider to meet your needs.  Yes you could save a few bucks picking a plan here, but if it costs you sales, it wasn't really $ saved.

For completeness of discussion: you can force your phone to use the actual 3G (W-CDMA) network instead of the 4G (LTE) network.  Because the throttling is only applied to the 4G network, you will get unthrottled actual 3G that way, and it will usually be speedier.  However, it also comes at the expense of increased latency (which is probably as important in your case as the actual throughput), and Telus have been gradually trying to migrate some older 3G towers to 4G/5G, which means you may experience a less reliable connection that way, which you also listed as important.  I'm sticking with my recommendation that you source a full-speed plan with another provider.

[Triguy]

PM uses Bell and Telus towers which are 4G but throttles the speed to 3G.  For most daily usage, you won't notice a difference.  It is only if you stream high quality video or music that you might experience buffering.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

 @Keskin : If your phone is fully compatible with this place:

Your phone will normally be set to start connecting to towers with LTE. That LTE has been speed throttled down to what they call 3G. It's really a dumb marketing term in this case. As mentioned, it will run at 3Mbps speed which most people find is just fine up until you want to watch HD videos or downloading large files.

While on LTE, your phone can connect to the internet and do SMS and MMS.

Then when a phone call comes in or you make a call, the phone switches to UMTS or WCDMA or 3G (interchangeable names) for the duration of that call.

Then it switches back to LTE and waits for another call while leaving you still able to be on the internet or SMS or MMS.

[Anonymous]

@Keskin 

public mobile with 3G data may reach download speeds of up to 3 Mbps, with the coverage and reliability of the LTE network. Speed and signal strength may vary with your device,