Share Your 3G Real World Experience

[mtfolks]

Wondering if anyone that has signed up on a 3G plan is able to share their experience so far? Maybe share some real world speed tests?

The 3G offering still doesn't make sense to me. All PM has done is remove one of their biggest competitive advantages (having a nationwide 4g network) so they can jack up prices.

[srlawren]

@szymon247 not a bad plan.  With or without additional speed tier(s), PM could potentially even adopt the speed in the name, like Shaw cable (for example, there are probably other ISPs that do this too!) does in their plan names.

So something like:

• Internet 3
• <possible additional tier(s) named Internet X ... Internet Z>
• Internet Max / Internet Full Speed (harder to peg an expected "max" speed from a mobile connection)

[szymon247]

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@computergeek541 wrote:

That's the case only when on a 3g data plan.  If on an LTE plan, LTE is usually much, much, much faster.

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For sure - it's standard, unthrottled LTE with denser areas also with LTE-A coverage, so I could hit close to 300Mbps speeds before the throttle applied to me. But it is also much more expensive.
 
The marketing for sure is very confusing, and even the fine print does not explain it. I think at this point, since all plans are delivered through LTE, I think it would be much more reasonable to just advertise them by their speeds. For instance - LTE Lite 3Mbps, LTE Medium 20-25Mbps, LTE High Speed / Unlimited, with price in the self-serve relative to the speed tier. You would know exactly what you are about to be paying for and it would be easier to make the appropriate choice.
 
Not only would it be MUCH more clear than the current system (lots of people only find out the data is delivered through LTE with a 'slower-than-3G' speed cap AFTER they sign up) but also it would be plain better marketing that is also much easier to sell, as the competing Rogers brands have completely no access to their LTE network (meaning higher latency, poorer service in dense areas and being denied the latest emergency warning service that delivers emergency messages only over LTE). Finding out that PM has full access to the LTE network was one of the key reasons I signed up, but I had to dig deeper to find that information.
 
Adding a new Mid-tier would also lure people who want a lower price LTE service (20Mbps is good enough for a much bigger crowd than mislabeled 3Mpbs) while at peak still not being much of a burden on the network infrastructure. Then the highest plan can also be marketed in a more premium way. Hitting 300Mbps on modern phones while downtown is no joke for people who need that speed, not even realizing they could be getting it on PM.
 
I lived in Thailand for a while, where all pre-paid services are exclusively grouped by dozens of speed tiers. These are also usually unlimited data services, except speed-capped to protect the infrastructure. But you can get plans ranging from 1Mbps all the way till full LTE-A, with many tiers in between on different packages with different prices.

[JL9]

No..just basically impatient lol

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@srlawren wrote:

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@JL9 wrote:

Just would like every review about the PM 3G to be glowing lol 

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@JL9 LOL well to some extend "you get what you pay for".  Do you have specific usage patterns that demand high bandwitdth?  Or are you just impatient like me?  LOL

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[srlawren]

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@JL9 wrote:

Just would like every review about the PM 3G to be glowing lol 

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@JL9 LOL well to some extend "you get what you pay for".  Do you have specific usage patterns that demand high bandwitdth?  Or are you just impatient like me?  LOL

[computergeek541]

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@szymon247 wrote:

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@Effort wrote:

TL:DR, network speeds basically the same as when I was with Chatr but a lot more stable as you can actually play games without it dropping you.

My experience has been EXACTLY the same, also coming from Chatr. Also, PM is faster when on 3G.

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That's the case only when on a 3g data plan.  If on an LTE plan, LTE is usually much, much, much faster.

[szymon247]

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@Effort wrote:

TL:DR, network speeds basically the same as when I was with Chatr but a lot more stable as you can actually play games without it dropping you.

My experience has been EXACTLY the same, also coming from Chatr. Also, PM is faster when on 3G.

[JL9]

Just would like every review about the PM 3G to be glowing lol 

[Effort]

Now that my honeymoon phase has ended and have actual 3Mbit throttle now, I can safely say that speedtest app isn't accurate. My phone has on display network use, I can see that it was downloading at 400KB/s yet the app insists it was downloading at 175KB/s. Same with the upload speed.

As for real world usage. I intentionally downloaded some online android games to test. I went with Shadowgun Legends and after a few tutorial missions, I joined into a PVP session where I didn't notice any hiccup. I did notice my phone heating up but that's what you get when you don't want to play on anything lower than max settings and 60FPS.

When loading up higher quality gifs and images off reddit, it definitely takes a few seconds. Sometimes the gif will freeze and need to buffer or the image will either be blank or load in like the dialup days where you have you slowly load the lady line by line before you see everything. Happened when I was with Chatr also, I believe it's just a bandwidth speed situation.

For general browsing, I didn't notice any issue nor difference compared to Chatr's 3G.

TL:DR, network speeds basically the same as when I was with Chatr but a lot more stable as you can actually play games without it dropping you.

[Dunkman]

@brokestudent Also, don't test your speeds too often.  You do you use up your data also.  Then you are wasting your data.  Just use it for everyday purposes and see how everything goes.  

[brokestudent]

Booo 😞

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@srlawren wrote:

@brokestudent don't get too used to that speed--that is definitely not  the throttled "3G" plan speeds.  It's possible they haven't gotten to you quite yet in applying the throttle, but will.  It normally takes about 72 hours after signing up for the throttle to apply, but they have been very busy with popular promos recently so they may be slower than usual.  I'm guessing it's coming to you soon.

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[srlawren]

@brokestudent don't get too used to that speed--that is definitely not  the throttled "3G" plan speeds.  It's possible they haven't gotten to you quite yet in applying the throttle, but will.  It normally takes about 72 hours after signing up for the throttle to apply, but they have been very busy with popular promos recently so they may be slower than usual.  I'm guessing it's coming to you soon.

[brokestudent]

I'm on the 4.5GB 3G plan. Got the account set up a week ago. The speed is even faster than my home internet speed of 170MB/s. I live in Vancouver

[srlawren]

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@JL9 wrote:

I was going to switch but dont like some of these responses 😖

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@JL9 what are your concerns, specifically?

[srlawren]

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@szymon247 wrote:

Since some people asked around the forums, below is the same location as above, but with the phone set to "3G/2G only". The throttle doesn't seem to apply then, and the maximum speed is only limited by the physical 3G connection's bandwidth. Makes me wonder whether the cap for the "3G speed" that Public Mobile applies when connected to their LTE towers should be closer to this rather than the 3Mbps that we are currently limited to. 3Mbps is significantly lower than actual average 3G speeds.

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@szymon247 yes....  this is why many of us have been pleading with PM to change the name to something less confusing, like LTE Lite, rather than calling it "3G", which is isn't in two key ways:  1) it's actually delivered over 4G LTE with fallback to 3G HSPA+ when LTE is not available, exactly like the "LTE" speed data plans, and 2) the throttled speed over the LTE network is actually much slower than you would typically get on an unthrottled HSPA+ network, meaning the name really is quite misleading and meaningless.  

You have discovered a poorly kept secret in the community where if you turn off LTE on a "3G"-speed data plan, the throttling is not applied and you are left with full-speed HSPA+, which may or may not be an advantage (probably yes if you mostly download, probably no if you mostly upload).  Also, we have no way to know if PM will eventually close this loophole, so enjoy it while you can.  Personally I can't see them bothering any time soon since even the full-speed HSPA+ speeds really aren't a significant drain on the network capacity.

[JL9]

I was going to switch but dont like some of these responses 😖

[mtfolks]

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@szymon247 wrote:

Since some people asked around the forums, below is the same location as above, but with the phone set to "3G/2G only". The throttle doesn't seem to apply then, and the maximum speed is only limited by the physical 3G connection's bandwidth. Makes me wonder whether the cap for the "3G speed" that Public Mobile applies when connected to their LTE towers should be closer to this rather than the 3Mbps that we are currently limited to. 3Mbps is significantly lower than actual average 3G speeds.

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Nice! Thanks for sharing! 🍻

[szymon247]

Since some people asked around the forums, below is the same location as above, but with the phone set to "3G/2G only". The throttle doesn't seem to apply then, and the maximum speed is only limited by the physical 3G connection's bandwidth. Makes me wonder whether the cap for the "3G speed" that Public Mobile applies when connected to their LTE towers should be closer to this rather than the 3Mbps that we are currently limited to. 3Mbps is significantly lower than actual average 3G speeds.

[szymon247]

@mtfolksJust bumped into your question. Here is my Speedtest done near Vancouver on the "3G Speed" after the throttle went into full effect (the lowest I sometimes see is DL at ~2.9 and UL as low as 0.5Mbps, maybe we get lower priority at towers when they get crowded?):

[mtfolks]

Resurrecting in hopes that some people on the 3G plans might post some up to date speedtest screenshots. 

Thinking of switching to the $40 3G promo but curious what people are getting these days on these plans. 

Thank you thank you!

[pakmode]

Good thread.

Admittedly I've thought about switiching to 3G for the higher data allowances.

[Luddite]

OR initially sign up for a 30 day 3G plan and upgrade if you don't like it.

[srlawren]

@mtfolks it's definitely fairly usable now for most things.  I think if I were a new customer not already on a grandfathered plan and given the most recent pricing, I would probably have to at least give solid consideration to the "3G" plan offerings. In the end I'd probably end up springing for a 4G plan, or looking elsewhere, to be completely honest.  I'm very thankful to be on my grandfathered pricing with full 4G data speeds!

[mtfolks]

Just wanted to bump this up and get some follow up feedback now that more people have likely had a chance to play around with the throttled 3G packages. Especially since I've seen that PM has apparently bumped up the UL to 2.5mbps. Is the DL still 2.5mbps as well?

What are people getting these days in terms of download and upload speeds? How's it working for them in real world applications? Do you miss having LTE?

Thumbs up? Thumbs down?

[jeffster1970]

If you're on the LTE plan but decide to do 3G via the phone settings, you're still getting good speed and may not notice much degradation.

If tho, you choose the 3G plan from PM, your speed is throttled to the speed they want you to have.

[mtfolks]

I think if they even throttled it to a more reasonable speed, say 5-7mbps down, it would be more palatable. 2.5mbps is just insulting. And the upload is borderline useless.

[ute1978]

I've been with PM for 15 months now and I use only 3G on my iPhone 5 (LTE is disabled on purpose as it will consume more data and drain my battery faster). Being a noob I wouldn't even notice the speed difference between  3G or LTE and I am very satisfied with what I use right now as I am not a heavy surfer.

[srlawren]

@jeffster1970 it's quite consistent, more so than the non-throttled "4G LTE" data offerings.  The reasoning is simple--it's being delivered over the 4G LTE network at nowhere near it's maximum throughput, so there is much less variability (peaks and valleys in the speeds) due to network load or other reasons.

EDIT: @NDesai you beat me by 37 seconds to that reply!  Ugh if only I'd typed a little QUICKER!

[NDesai]

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@jeffster1970 wrote:

Would you say that the 3G speed is pretty consistent? Is coverage an issue? 

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Yes, its consistent since its actually on LTE but throttled to 2.5mbps.

[jeffster1970]

Would you say that the 3G speed is pretty consistent? Is coverage an issue? 

[makkahn28]

My opinion, the Time difference between 3G and the 4G in the areas that matter are fairly significant