Dipping My Toes Into This

[IronRaptor]

Hello PM Community, allow me to introduce myself.  

My name's Justin, though I tend to go by my online nickname at times.  I've beem digging through several places trying to hunt down a decent priced phone plan.  Right now, I'm being Rogered, and my rear is very sore from having been Rogered for years.  I've been testing the waters of several different carriers, recently went into a Wind store and I'm testing out a loaner SIM card lent me (with a cash deposit required), to see if their speeds and reception are up to snuff.  So far, they are... alright, but I've noticed spotty reception that's...  like a rat's maze, because certain areas will be blocked, either by geography of the land, or trees in the way that block their fairly weak signal strength.

I've been doing some research, and so far, it SEEMS that Public Mobile offers things that I'd be interested in.  In particular a relatively decent data plan.  However, I am a bit dubious about service, and I'm a bit... hestiant to jump in completely without first testing the waters.  Do you guys have some way of allowing me to "sample the network" as it were, before I dive right in?

Thanks a bunch for reading this.

P.S.  The hardware I have right now is a OnePlus 3 and I'd like to port that over to PM if possible, s'il vous plait. 😛

[srlawren]

@IronRaptor welcome!  I'm late to reply and you've already got some awesome responses, so I'll just briefly add that I can personally confirm that the North American OnePlus 3 (A3000) works wonderfully on the Public Mobile network!  I've been using mine since I recieved it on Tuesday June 21st, without incident.  

I hope that you do decide to give PM a try.  As already mentioned, you can order a SIM card, and then activate on a 10-day plan with a temporary phone number just to try things out.  With the OnePlus 3 being dual SIM, I'd actually suggest you move your wind SIM to slot 2 so you can continue to receive calls and texts on your wind phone number, then put PM SIM in slot 1 so you can get PM data and make and send calls and texts on either SIM as desired.  (A great multi-SIM SMS app is Textra SMS, you can easily swap between the SIM slots when sending messages.).  

Once you're happy with the PM service, you can go into PM self-service portal, and port your Wind mobile number over to PM.  Doing so will automatically close your Wind account once the port is complete, and at that point you can toss your Wind SIM, deactive slot 2 (unless you have another use for it--a Roam Mobility SIM sits in mine for my occasional trips to the USA), and continue to enjoy.

[PBForMe]

I too was hesitant, but since I've ported in a month and a half ago everything has been excellent. The service has been great and I see that the PM staff are extremely active on the forums whenever people have difficulties. 

I would wholeheartedly recommend it. 

[BrrMcGrr]

Hey Justin,

 I tested One Plus One on the network for 10 days before switching from Wind ( 2 years ) and Rogers ( from 2001 on, *yes texting was not a thing back then haha)

I posted my experience on the forms last week when i finally made the comitment. and i can tell you from my honest opinion you will like it.

Good luck! and join us! we have cookies**... also may or may not be the dark side.

**No Purchase required, PM Staff will not give you cookies 😞

[IronRaptor]

Yep they're all unlocked since you're buying them outright

[Luddite]

Are all Oneplus phones unlocked? Remember it's a requirement for PM.

[JaK]

As @imm1304 mentions, yes you can pay 90 day plan (or anything else) with vouchers. The thing about vouchers is that I don't think there is any way to get the "autopay" reward ($2 reduction per 30 day) with them. And, of course, since PM is pre-paid, if you don't use autopay then you need to make sure that you have sufficient funds in your account before your next cycle is due in order to avoid service interruption.

[dcolb566]

Just my 2 cents worth but. I used to be a telus customer for years and I changed to Public Mobie. So happy I went with PM. So, if you are interested in trying a new company I recommend PM. As for paying each month Visa Debit is accepted as payment, along with credit cards.Dip your toes into this company !!

[imm1304]

If you have a credit card from Mastercard, it should work fine.  Its just the Debit Mastercard that I am not sure about.  

Also, if thats not a typo then the Debit Visa should work just fine as well.

And yes, the Vouchers can be used to pay for everything in your PM account.  

You can find out where to buy voucher by scrolling to the bottom of this page: https://publicmobile.ca/en/on/how-to-pay

[IronRaptor]

 Was hoping I might be able to use a debit Visa.  OK. But if I choose to pay using vouchers, for the 90 day allotment, I can do that?

[imm1304]

Just realised I wasnt very clear in the previous post.

You can use the following credit cards:  Visa, Mastercard, American Express

You can use Debit Visa

But I am not aware of Debit Mastercard being accepted, I would assume that its not because I didn't come across it in the accepted payment methods over the last year.  

[imm1304]

@IronRaptor, you can use credit cards, or debit visa.  Or you can purchase top up vouchers from various stores/gas stations across the country.  

[IronRaptor]

Ok, another dumb question, because, paranoid n00b.  If say I wanted to do the 90 day thingamajigger, what payment options are accepted?  I see on your site it says debit Visa, what about debit Mastercard?  Seeing as I'm with a bank that uses Mastercard over Visa.  Or maybe even credit card?

[JaK]

Hi @IronRaptor/Justin;

Public Mobile is now owned by Telus so uses Telus' nationwide network, which has a very good LTE footprint, so generally pretty good data, (and data is available across Canada without extra fees).

PM is a bring your own phone company, believe the OnePlus 3 is compatible so no issues bringing it as long as it is unlocked.

As for "sampling the network", the best would be to buy a 10 day plan, the cheapest for data is $15 for 150MB. To do this you would need to order a PM sim card, which are free. No stores, so you would need to order online. Normally they are mailed to you for free, but with the possible postal strike they are being shipped via Purlaltor for $10, which you can get refunded once you activate the sim. Once you have the sim, activation is online as well.

Good luck with your testing, hope you find the right network for you.

[imm1304]

I am not aware of any upcoming promotions.  But then I am just another PM customer.  Maybe one of the PM staff will comment here tomorrow to answer that.  

Generally, the 90-day plans have the best value.  Rewards add up as well.  Autopay $2 per 30 days or $6 off your 90 day plan.  Being mildly active on this community forum can also get you similar rewards as well.  

I do hope they have a back to school promotion.  

[imm1304]

Must add that Wind is notorious for poor coverage.  Many of my friends moved from wind to other carriers because majority of their calls were missed and data was either too slow in busy areas or didnt work despite showing good signal strength.  I am talking about the GTA. 

PM is more comparable to the major national networks with full speed LTE data.  Think Telus, Koodo, Virgin, Bell etc.  

[IronRaptor]

Well is there any hint if there are going to be any back to school type specials and promotions going on?  Or am I waaay to early to be asking that?

[imm1304]

Hi Justin!

You should start by ordering a sim card from here:  https://store.publicmobile.ca

There are no loaner sim cards like Wind but the PM sim cards are free.  Recently, they have been charging $10 to ship via Purolator due to uncertainty of a Canadapost strike.  The money is refunded when you activate the sim card.  

There are 10 day plans which you can use to test PM network/service.  I would like to mention here that PM operates on the Telus network and you can expect the same level of coverage as the parent company Telus.  

What you must know about PM is that there are no retail stores and there is no call center that you can call for customer service.  All customer support is via this Community forum or by webmail from the "Get Help" page.  

If something goes wrong, preferred/better way to get help is from one of the moderators on this forum.  

Your oneplus 3 phone should work just fine with the PM networks.  Feel free to ask any specific questions.