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What is 3G actually like?

publicsteve
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

I'm trying to assess what it would actually mean to move from Telus's LTE to Public's 3G. I have an iphone 8. I am trying to understand when I would notice the difference having a 3G service  versus what I have now. Can you tell me:

 - is there any effect on calling / texting?

- Can you still do video and voice calls using WhatsApp or Skype?

- Would you be waiting while surfing and reading news from sites like BBC, Globe & Mail or CBC?

- Can you play Youtube videos without interuptions?

- Are data quantities comparable (if you have been using about a gig of 4G data, would doing the same things use the same amount on a 3G network?)

- Any difference in battery life?

- Is the coverage exactly the same as with Telus and the signal strength just as good? I only get two bars at my home, so it would not be good if I didn't get equal voice and text connectivity on Public's 3G network.(or is 3G just a data related concept?).

- Any performance downsides I haven't thought to ask about?

The fact is that I am on a WIFI network most of the time I am using data, so I'm thinking the change would not be that noticeable providing the voice and text performance was identical.

Lots of questions, Thanks for your help.

 

24 REPLIES 24

farhanshariar72
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

Its slow in terms of watching videos etc compare to LTE plus loading and stuff. Ive used 3g for a while until.i switched to public mobile and its awesome now


@computergeek541 wrote:

Much higher speeds are possible if in a DC-HSPA serviced area. I've tested as high as 35Mbps, but that requires almost perfect network conditions.


Interesting, although likelihood of seeing DC-HSPA speeds is probably going to become less and less as spectrum is refarmed for LTE use.


@Nezgar wrote:

 

Often, with your phone forced to (unthrottled) 3G, you will get a faster speed test than (throttled LTE). LTE is throttled to 3Mbits up & down. 3G/HSPA+ is unthrottled, you might get anywhere from 6-12Mbps down.


Much higher speeds are possible if in a DC-HSPA serviced area. I've tested as high as 35Mbps, but that requires almost perfect network conditions.


@will13am wrote:

 

Data on 3G is not throttled and potentially much faster.  @computergeek541 (aka king of 3G speed testing) can attest to that.  This brings up an interesting thought.  If all customers were to stay on 3G in hopes of getting faster data speeds, they could clog up the network and create an unintended consequence.  I maintain that it is not in the carrier or customers interest to see tech hindered/crippled intentionally. 


While speed testing can be fun, I'm not going to post screenshots of such tests. In no time, there could possibly be a few users wasting data and then there will be people who have unknowingly use of much of their data.  In some cases, the speed tests can use data even faster than watching video.


@publicsteve wrote:

@NezgarSo PM is throttled LTE then? Throttled to 3 Mbps?


Yes, exactly.

 

Full LTE "functionality" and low latency, but throttled to 3Mbps up & down. You can force your phone to 3G if you really want to see if it's faster for specific purposes (maybe battery life), but you do inedeed have full access to both networks, so the phone can automatically switch as needed if LTE signal is not available.

 

Public Mobile does not support Voice-over-LTE, so you will always drop to 3G/HSPA regardless during phone calls.


@publicsteve wrote:

@NezgarSo PM is thottled LTE then? Throttled to 3 Mbs?


Yes correct.

 

There will be no capping of download speeds for the first few days.
After initial activation, it will take up to 72 hours for the speed throttling to kick in.

publicsteve
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

@NezgarSo PM is thottled LTE then? Throttled to 3 Mbs?


@publicsteve wrote:

Just to confirm, does changing the phone to 3g make it as poor as the real thing, or is the PM 3G service somehow worse than that?

Often, with your phone forced to (unthrottled) 3G, you will get a faster speed test than (throttled LTE). LTE is throttled to 3Mbits up & down. 3G/HSPA+ is unthrottled, you might get anywhere from 6-12Mbps down.

geopublic
Mayor / Maire

@publicsteve wrote:

I'm trying to assess what it would actually mean to move from Telus's LTE to Public's 3G. I have an iphone 8. I am trying to understand when I would notice the difference having a 3G service  versus what I have now. Can you tell me:

 

 - is there any effect on calling / texting?

 

@publicsteve Texting no but calling yes because Public Mobile uses 3G for calls where Telus uses both 3G and VoLTE (voice over LTE) so Telus would have the better coverage.

 

For texts and data in addition to 3G Public uses the LTE network but throttles the data to 3Mbps thus the term LTE Lite.

 

- Can you still do video and voice calls using WhatsApp or Skype?

Yes, you shouldn't notice any difference.

 

- Would you be waiting while surfing and reading news from sites like BBC, Globe & Mail or CBC?  

No.

 

- Can you play Youtube videos without interuptions?

Yes.

 

- Are data quantities comparable (if you have been using about a gig of 4G data, would doing the same things use the same amount on a 3G network?)

 

You will probably use less with Public Mobile since your will be saving some data because of youtube will use less data over LTE Lite (throttled).

 

- Any difference in battery life? Same or better with Public.

 

- Is the coverage exactly the same as with Telus and the signal strength just as good? I only get two bars at my home, so it would not be good if I didn't get equal voice and text connectivity on Public's 3G network.(or is 3G just a data related concept?).

Should  be the same. Just put your current phone in 3G and test by making a call.

 

- Any performance downsides I haven't thought to ask about?

As others have mentioned downloading will be a bit slower but since you are mostly on WiFi the it shouldn't be an issue.

 

The fact is that I am on a WIFI network most of the time I am using data, so I'm thinking the change would not be that noticeable providing the voice and text performance was identical. Correct.

 

Lots of questions, Thanks for your help. We like questions. Smiley Happy

 


 

@publicsteve 

If you set your phone to 3G network while on Telus, you will get similar results with PM using the same network setting. So yes you will get the same experience. 

publicsteve
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

@GRI have tried my phone set on 3G and wifi off, and everything seems perfectly acceptable. I actually get more bars on 3G. a speed test on 3G was 3.5 / 1.6, while it was 11.4 / 1.7 on LTE, but I didn't really notice the difference in use. Even Netflix seemed Ok.

One of the responses was talking about speed limiting apps vs changing the setting on the phone, and throttled LTE vs 3G, and it left me a little confused. Just to confirm, does changing the phone to 3g make it as poor as the real thing, or is the PM 3G service somehow worse than that? Because I don't find the phone setting at 3G to be a problem, hopefully that is an accurate representation of the PM experience.

LovesToPM
Mayor / Maire

@publicsteve 

You may find this article on VoLTE to be of interest:
https://mobilesyrup.com/2017/11/13/canada-volte-guide/

 

As mentioned, all calls with PM are done on 3G network.

 

Regarding mobile data, there will be no capping of download speeds for the first few days.
After initial activation, it will take up to 72 hours for the speed throttling to kick in.

I wouldn't suggest to test 3g since you will be on lte that is slowed down to lower speeds than 3g can attain. The feeling will be different. 3g is much more luggy when starring stuff. I prefer throttled lte to 3g as it's much smoother and i don't see any difference in speed as i'm not downloading large files on my phone.

Apps would be better choice 

totalUser
Mayor / Maire

I heard there are some apps that will limit your speed for you so that you can gage it.

Were are you located? If you are in Hamilton area i could let you test it with my sim, i had to upgrade for one cycle so i have more data than i really need for another 2 weeks.

Welcome to public mobile

@publicsteve whatsapp would just use data,  your calls used volte which is voice over lte.  By losing that you would just use 3g for calls which is what everyone used before volte came out 3 or 4 years ago.  Once on public mobile you would leave your phone to LTE on and the phone would decide what's best to use for data and text and it would fall back to 3g when you make or receive a call! 

darlicious
Mayor / Maire

@publicsteve  Lets see most of your questions have been answered but there are a few that haven't.

 

  1. There will be no difference on the battery use on your phone.
  2. You may actually use less data when watching videos on YouTube as they adjust to a slightly lower quality video but you likely won't notice the difference when watching them.
  3. There will be no difference in texting and as suggested you can test signal strength ahead of time but there will probably see no difference in calling either.
  4.  Your cross country coverage will be the same as you are on the exact same network but there may be the odd place where the 3G signal strength is not as good as the 4G VoLTE  but that would be a very rare occurrence.

I suggest you take advantage of the promotion and activate soon. Welcome to public mobile.

publicsteve
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Thanks GR and others - I didn't realize I could set phone to 3G. I have changed my phone to 3G and turned WiFi off, I will see how that works. I noticed that it was previously set to "LTE, VoLTE On". Would I have been making use of VoLTE without knowing it? Is that what WhatsApp uses if you are not on Wifi? So what will I loose when i loose VoLTE?)


@GR wrote:

@publicsteve if you want to check how calls would be at your house on 3g just go in your cellular settings and turn off LTE and make a few calls and you'll be on the telus 3g network just like public mobile uses.  With the new promotion of 10$ off for 8 months now's the time to switch and don't forget a refferal code to get an extra 10$ credit! 


Data on 3G is not throttled and potentially much faster.  @computergeek541 (aka king of 3G speed testing) can attest to that.  This brings up an interesting thought.  If all customers were to stay on 3G in hopes of getting faster data speeds, they could clog up the network and create an unintended consequence.  I maintain that it is not in the carrier or customers interest to see tech hindered/crippled intentionally. 

Triguy
Mayor / Maire

For daily use, you probably will not notice a difference.  Websites and checking mail should be accessed without any delay.  If you stream 4k video or high quality music there maybe buffering.


@GR wrote:

@computergeek541   because he's on Telus and using volte he was asking how 3g calls would be on public mobile so if he shuts off LTE while on Telus and makes a call he will be using the 3g network so he can see how many bars he has and call clarity 


Sorry. I realized that and deleted my message but you had already started to type up a reply.

GR
Mayor / Maire

@publicsteve if you want to check how calls would be at your house on 3g just go in your cellular settings and turn off LTE and make a few calls and you'll be on the telus 3g network just like public mobile uses.  With the new promotion of 10$ off for 8 months now's the time to switch and don't forget a refferal code to get an extra 10$ credit! 

will13am
Oracle
Oracle

About the only time the throttled LTE is felt is in pure downloads. It could take 10 times longer to complete which is noticeable.  Things like YouTube video are tuned to bandwidth.  Worse case, video quality is downgraded to match bandwidth so that the stream isn't choppy.  Chat apps use very little bandwidth but are sensitive to latency when doing video chat.  Public Mobile throttled LTE has the same latency as Telus unthrottled LTE; both operate on the same network with no priority of one service over the other.  Overall the only way to tell the connection is Public Mobile is by the notification on the phone.  

cellphoneuser1
Mayor / Maire

@publicsteve Public doesn't have VoLte. The network is not only 3g. It is LTE too with speed at 3Mbps on the existing plans.

 

3Mbps with LTE is good for most activity.  The 3g network doesn't have a speed limit.

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