Will Public Mobile follow

[Lemony_Snicket]

Let's hope so.  Maybe with enough feedback, the price increase will be rolled back.  

https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/03/09/koodo-reverts-canada-wide-calling-provincial-calling-change/

[Korth]

Data speed affects everything, of course. But the overwhelming demand is from video streaming. 3mbps is enough bit rate to sustain streaming video (with audio) at 720p@30fps or 1080p@24fps. (Especially with the built-in Telus/Openwave "optimizations".)

I doubt there'll be any need to upgrade the bit rate until a mainstream percentage of smartphones support higher display resolutions - and mainstream consumer expectations match pace - and the streaming services (youtube, netflix, etc) standardize these higher display resolution options into their embedded formats. I think this is gonna take a long, long time. Even the fanciest latest-and-greatest iPhones/Galaxies don't push things too far too quickly.

I don't know how they implement the bandwidth limit across the network. But I suspect that changing it isn't as easy as just replacing a number in software. The 3Mbps bottleneck is probably at least partly imposed by component hardware/scale limitations - judging by how prevalent the exact value is across Canadian, American, and European carriers - which suggests that increasing it will involve hardware upgrade costs and network-wide deployments.

So I'm guessing we'll be stuck with 3Mbps for a long, long time. Especially if it is a limit built into core hardware - because that will just embed it deeper into the networks every year.

They don't upgrade their networks to maintain technological supremacy at the cutting edge (this isn't some futuristic tech society from Star Trek or from Japan).

They upgrade their networks when it's a necessary business investment to maximize profits. At some point the upgrade is actually forced upon them because maintaining compatibility with obsolete gear becomes too expensive ... so maybe that 3Mbps will double up when they start phasing in some kind of "5.5G" upgrade, lol.

[WoozyPolarBear]

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@BearFBI wrote:

Also FULL SPEED DATA WITH KOODO. 3mbps is getting old. 

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I agree, 3 Mbps is getting very long in the tooth in 2021. Public Mobile is going to have to address this speed limitation much sooner rather than later. I personally think that the 3rd tier carriers are going to be absolved into the 2nd tier carriers before much longer, especially since Freedom Mobile will no longer exist in a year or two now that Rogers owns them. TELUS really only has Public Mobile in existence as a means to counter the offerings of Freedom Mobile.

[will13am]

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@stevenanto wrote:

@will13am It is pretty hard to switch if you have many years under the belt as well as many referrals. 

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It is like investing, you gotta be patient and stay the course with your conviction.  

[Anonymous]

 @BearFBI : Yup. Somebody else can do all that analysis if they like. I'm interested in keeping my monthly outlay low. The Telus/Bell $10 plans do that but then the features are for yet even lower usage customers. And I _really_ like the rollover of add-ons not paying for them monthly. And also no overage charges.

I threw in the old $10 plan for fun. I know it's grandfathered. I have 3 of them.

[BearFBI]

@Anonymous it may be good for BASE users that need bare minimum. But EVEN THEN the old 10$ plan is grandfatherd. Sure the 15$ plan is good too but again that's all for users that need bare minimum. Addons and rewards are the only thing making that plan top of the list. 

For the more bigger plans even the 25$ plan you can do better if you don't care about spending forever to build up rewards.

[Anonymous]

 @Korth : Indeed, I've written about that in other places here. There are few to no rewards at other carriers. I was just trying to keep Apples to Apples as a new customer might see it.

[Korth]

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@Anonymous wrote:

... Public Mobile wins in my book. The biggest kicker is the add-on rollover. And secondly no overage charges.

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We have different priorities - I would personally include and exclude some different categories and parameters.

For me, Public Mobile's biggest advantage is Rewards.

$15 or $25 or $35 gets you more or less identical outgoing, incoming, messaging, and data regardless of your choice. Variations between providers are small enough that you might need a spreadsheet to compare them. 😋

But AutoPay Reward easily makes that $15 plan cost $13.

Loyalty Reward seems to take forever. But after a typical two-year contract somewhere else you're still paying the same, while after two years with PM you've already saved $12, you're paying $2 less every month (that $15 plan costs $11), and you'll save even more each subsequent year as your Loyalty Reward counter keeps increasing.

Plus the Referral Rewards and the Community Reward. You might choose to get $0 from these but they're still discounts no other operator will provide.

[Anonymous]

So I went through as well as I reasonably could the national carriers. I'm only looking at the cheapest base cost plans.

I still gotta say, even with the changes, Public Mobile wins in my book. The biggest kicker is the add-on rollover. And secondly no overage charges. And Koodo is right there.

There are some blanks with some of them due to not being able to see prices unless logged in.

And for me, the old $10 plan kills everything 🙂

Gotta admit though that Freedom is pretty attractive. That's for a year deal per month. But... y'know... Freedom... that runs on Rogers. And it's a promo.

	Minimum cost	Area	Minutes out	Total minutes	Texts	Included data	Add-on 1gb data cost	Data speed	Add-on Canada minutes cost	Add-on Canada minutes quantity	Price per minute	Overage charges	Rollover add-ons
PM	$15.00	Provincial	100			250	$15.00	3G	$5.00	500	$0.01	No	Yes
Koodo	$15.00	Provincial		100			$30.00	4G	$30.00	600	$0.05	No	Yes
Telus	$10.00	local		50	50		$30.00		$10.00	100	$0.10	Yes	No
Lucky	$15.00	Provincial	100			250		3G
Virgin	$15.00	Provincial		100			$30.00		$20.00	250	$0.08	Yes	No
Bell	$10.00	local		50	50		$30.00		$10.00	unlimited		Yes	No
Chatr	$15.00	Canada	100			250						Yes	No
Fido	$15.00	Canada		75	75		$30.00		$5.00		$0.10	Yes	No
Rogers	$15.00	Canada		75	75		$30.00		$5.00		$0.10	Yes	No
Freedom	$8.25	Canada					$15.00						No
PM	Old $10 plan	Canada		50	50		$15.00	4G	$5.00	500	$0.01	No	Yes

[stevenanto]

@will13am It is pretty hard to switch if you have many years under the belt as well as many referrals. 

[will13am]

I switched from Wind to Public Mobile.  I did try the migration to Koodo but came back.  Now that I am locked into the rewards, I am not going anywhere.

[BearFBI]

@popping "I joined PM for the wrong reason - "want to join Koodo".  At the end, I am happy to stay with PM."

Well. I joined PM because Lucky was a bell company and meh not a fan of bell, Chatr had higher prices and you had to give money to rogers, yuck. PM was a telus company and I liked the autopay discount and the fact that they were the LOWEST prices you could even get in the cellphone industry. 

Well. Let's say that things have changed. They aren't the lowest anymore and some changes are affecting existing users negatively. 

I feel like halfway through the pandemic PM has not been the same. When I first joined something made me feel so happy about it. Even searching through the forum before they even restyled their site was just so fun. 

Idk. I can't really move from PM right now. Im happy with it but there's some things that I just hate.

[BearFBI]

@Korth That is true. Rewards are really the main thing keeping me. That's why I won't go to Koodo. 

I just have other people in my household that don't really take advantage of rewards. It takes wayy to much time to build them up. All of our plan costs combined aren't anything close to free if that's what your thinking about getting near for rewards. 

Simply put it. If you don't take advantage of PM's rewards go elsewhere. I could bring my whole family elsewhere but only thing is it would be more expensive for ME therefore making all the total cost more expensive. 

Really the only thing I can hope for is dotmobile. If it's cheaper than PM and if I can get my whole family on it we'll be saving even though they don't have a reward system. 

You are right. I like the online only model too. Prepaied is easy to get setup and use. 

It just boils my blood when I see koodo plans from a carrier a TEIR UP offering better plans that they won't offer here so I can take advantage of it with my rewards. Oh well. Typical big carrier move. 

Public is still usless to new customers not willing to spend hours and months collecting rewards. Even if your into prepaied, go to PC mobile and take advantage of their prepaied plans with full speed data, or go to lucky with unlimited data (throttled of course but still EXTREMELY useful). 

[popping]

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@BearFBI wrote:

@Korth because koodo will steal all the activations from PM. PM is basically useless to Telus. 

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Telus will be happy as long as subscribers are moving within Telus family.

At least, we know that you are not leaving PM to Koodo.

Do you remember the great PM to Koodo migration lottery 2.5 years ago?

People said "if you don't get a ticket, you will not win".

So, I got my ticket by activated a $45 PM plan and I did not win the lottery because I got the wrong plan(ticket).  Telus was targeting the PM $40 plan subscribers.  I am glad that I did not win the the great migration lottery.  After trying PM, I stayed with PM and now I have total of 8 PM plans - 3 numbers from Zoomer, 2 numbers from Telus prepaid, 1 number from Speakolut and 2 numbers from Chatr.

I joined PM for the wrong reason - "want to join Koodo".  At the end, I am happy to stay with PM.

[Korth]

@BearFBI 

I think I understand what you're saying. I don't understand why.

I'm still with Public. Because it costs less than Koodo (or anyone else) for what I need, especially with Rewards and gifts. And I actually like Public's online-only service/support model - I don't have to drive out to some retail location, wait in line, interact with sales reps - I get to see all the plans and prices and details upfront, nothing hidden or spoonfed or misrepresented to influence my decisions into something I don't really want to buy.

Why are a half million other people still with Public instead of with Koodo?

Why are you still with Public instead of with Koodo?

Seems like Public isn't that useless. Also seems like Public doesn't need to change anything, regardless of what Koodo/others are offering. Each one of us can abandon Public and jump onto a Koodo plan right now ... so why isn't that happening, why should Public be worried, why should Public fix what's not broken?

[BearFBI]

@Korth I'm just saying Telus dosent care about us. 

This whole teir thing isint working. Most of the time Koodo has better plans than PM. 

[Korth]

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@BearFBI wrote:

... because koodo will steal all the activations from PM. PM is basically useless to Telus. 

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PM needs to match Koodo because PM is basically useless to Telus?

[BearFBI]

@Korth because koodo will steal all the activations from PM. PM is basically useless to Telus. 

[ShawnC13]

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@BearFBI wrote:

@popping I disagree. If PM keeps 5$ extra for Canada wide for us and not have it for Koodo PM's plans will look TERRIBLE compared to koodo. 

First of all Koodo's 45$ plan is 6GB. The plan includes CANADA WIDE CALLING, 6GB of data, and ulimited text. That plan KILLS PM'S considering Koodo is a fully functioning carrier with 4G speeds, Actual support, VoLTE, ESIM, And more. 

Now koodo's plan is on "sale". The thing is Koodo sales last FOREVER. If you go signup now or later I bet you 90% there gonna still have a sale going. Even if the sale ends a week later they push another one. I wouldn't go off the base price or data rate on koodo's plans. Oh and the extra 3GB lats forever. 

Let's face it. PM's plan's suck. 

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@BearFBI, Koodo only removed it from Post Paid plans.  If you are getting prepaid with Koodo they are also Provincial only calling or $5 more for Canada wide calling

[Korth]

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@BearFBI wrote:

PM has to follow. 

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Why?

Do you think Public Mobile competes vs Koodo Mobile?

Do you think there's something wrong with Public Mobile's plans and prices?

[BearFBI]

@Anonymous Rewards are keeping me. Really the only thing I'm waiting for is possibly dotmobile. 

Yeah I don't really care about a call center but if your in an emergency for example your payment is glitched and you have no service a call center would be really helpful. 

But all I'm saying is that for the same price you can go with the better carrier and more features. Why go with PM. Sure rewards but those take forever to accumulate. 

Also FULL SPEED DATA WITH KOODO. 3mbps is getting old. 

[Anonymous]

 @BearFBI : Are you going to join Leaving exiting out? What are you waiting for?

I, for one, don't care about a call centre. VoLTE is really just voip. eSIM might be useful for expanding device usage like a watch. It is a puzzler why the bottom tier doesn't support it. Beyond that? meh I prefer to keep the monthly outlay as minimal as needs require.

[BearFBI]

@popping I disagree. If PM keeps 5$ extra for Canada wide for us and not have it for Koodo PM's plans will look TERRIBLE compared to koodo. 

First of all Koodo's 45$ plan is 6GB. The plan includes CANADA WIDE CALLING, 6GB of data, and ulimited text. That plan KILLS PM'S considering Koodo is a fully functioning carrier with 4G speeds, Actual support, VoLTE, ESIM, And more. 

Now koodo's plan is on "sale". The thing is Koodo sales last FOREVER. If you go signup now or later I bet you 90% there gonna still have a sale going. Even if the sale ends a week later they push another one. I wouldn't go off the base price or data rate on koodo's plans. Oh and the extra 3GB lats forever. 

Let's face it. PM's plan's suck. 

[popping]

Comparing the Koodo $45 postpaid 3GB + 3GB plan with the PM $43 6.5GB with autopay enabled before the $5 increase, PM $43 plan is still a good price.  After the $5 increase, the same PM plan will cost $48 for 6.5 GB + Canada wide calling.  Extra $3 for extra 500MB data.

When I see 3GB + 3GB, is there any expiry date on the extra 3GB data?  I have not been keeping up with the postpaid plan with contract since I activated my first PM plan 2.5 years ago.

I prefer month-to-month and no contract especially I don't know how long COVID-19 will be around.  Media is talking about the third wave if we are not careful.  Flexibility is king ATM.

[stevenanto]

no way!!

[BearFBI]

WHATT. 

PM has to follow. 

[Anonymous]

I don't know what all Koodo did in February but all post-paid plans are Canada-wide.

They offer both provincial and Canada-wide in pre-paid. The Canada-wide's are more expensive than here.

Here, they increased the Canada-wide price (after the promo) and added provincial. The $50 plan is a ridiculous anomaly to that.