Porting from Wind - general questions

[neo911]

Hi,

I am very keen to port to PM from Wind. It would be great if the PM community could clarify on the following points. I tried to search for these questions in the community but was still confused hence posting them here

- If I take a province wide plan i.e ontario, can I travel across Ontario and use the PM connection ? Will it be counted as roaming if I move out of GTA ? I have to travel to London/Kitchener for my office work.

- If I have a province wide plan and have to travel out of province i.e Quebec, how does the plan work ? Do I add on some roaming addon ?

- If I select 'no text' option, can I still text by paying additional ? Or would 'no text' plan mean no texts at all

- Which network does PM use ?

- If I choose 3 GB 90 day plan and after 90 days I have not yet utilized the entire data, will the remaining data be carried forward to the next plan ?

- I believe PM would work fine with Iphone and Imessage. Any problems faced by anyone with iphones  ?

- Can I add another family member to the plan and share the data or will the family member get any discount ?

It would be great if any community member or admin is able to clarify on all the points so that I can make an informed decision at the earliest.

Looking foward to be onboard PM at the earliest.

Cheers !

[srlawren]

@neo911 and further to @rodjames's note "however your calling would be subject to long distance", always keep in mind that Public Mobile is entirely pre-paid.  So you will never get a surprise bill at the end of the month with a bunch of long distance (or data overages) that you weren't expecting.  Instead, if you haven't paid for a long-distance add on, the call will just not go through.  Or, if you have exhausted your data allotment and haven't renewed early or purchased a data add-on to bridge the gap, your mobile data will just stop working.  This is both a benefit (no unexpected charges) ad a drawback at times (hey, how come my data stopped?  why won't this call go through?--can't they just bill me later?), but good to keep in mind.

[rodjames]

1) Yes, the service works across Ontario

2) You can text nationwide, however your calling would be subject to long distance

3) You can not text without paying

4) Telus

Can't answer 5 or 6

[neo911]

thanks @srlawren

[srlawren]

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@neo911 wrote:

one more query.

does PM offer caller id function like Fido, Rogers etc. If someone calls you can see the name.

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Hi @neo911,

Voicemail is not unlimited.  I believe it's 10 messages that you can save for up to 10 days (but can keep re-saving indefinitely to extend if needed).  I'm not 100% sure of these numbers as I so rarely receive any voicemails, but I believe that's right.

Caller ID for incoming calls is limited to the phone number to the best of my knowledge.  If the number matches a contact in your phone's contacts list, you phone should show you the name.  For other unknown calls, there are apps you can get that will try to look them up on the fly and give you more info, but I don't use any so can't give you a specific recommendation, unfortunately.

[neo911]

one more query.

does PM offer caller id function like Fido, Rogers etc. If someone calls you can see the name.

[neo911]

Thanks @srlawren

I also wanted to know about the voicemail options ? Does it offer unlimited voice message storage option ?

[srlawren]

@neo911 welcome to the community, and thanks for your interest in PM!  It sounds like you've gotten great information so far.  If there's anything else we can help with, please let us know.

[manelgm]

It's easy to see Public Mobile as another carrier just like Virgin, Fido, Koodo, Rogers, Telus, etc... But you musn't forget that it is prepaid.  So you pay before, and then you use.  If you chose 90 days with 6gb and realize you just waant 3gb, well you can't be refunded halfway through.

[Luddite]

No changing plans midway; everything is prepaid for the duration selected. IF you change midway, you must pay the full price for the new plan with no credit for unused time.

Data usage can only be monitored from your online account. Some customers use apps to monitor usage in real time. At 95% usage PM sends a warning text. Data services stop dead if you run out, BUT MMS continues to be available.

[NDesai]

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@neo911 wrote:

Wow.. That was amazing ! prompt replies ! Thanks @etsat and @manelgm

I guess its a no-brainer that PM is the best bet.

One more question, acutally two

- Can I monitor my data usage online ?

- If I choose 3GB 90 day plan and midway need to change my plan to 6gb, can I do it by paying the difference ?

Cheers !

---

- Yes you can, on self-serve overview page. 

- If you decide to change your plan midway, you will have to pay the full amount and no credits will be given. That's why its best to select change on renewal date. 

[neo911]

Wow.. That was amazing ! prompt replies ! Thanks @etsat and @manelgm

I guess its a no-brainer that PM is the best bet.

One more question, acutally two

- Can I monitor my data usage online ?

- If I choose 3GB 90 day plan and midway need to change my plan to 6gb, can I do it by paying the difference ?

Cheers !

[Luddite]

All unlocked, or Koodo/Telus, iPhones will work on PM. iPhones 4 and earlier that cannot be updated to iOS 9 are tricky to set up for data; but can be done.

[manelgm]

haha @etsat, you beat me by 53 seconds!

[manelgm]

Hi and welcome to Public Mobile!

- If I take a province wide plan i.e ontario, can I travel across Ontario and use the PM connection ? Will it be counted as roaming if I move out of GTA ? I have to travel to London/Kitchener for my office work. Province-wide is province-wide, no need to worry.  You will be able to make calls within Ontario regardless of where you are in Ontario.  The network used is Telus', no roaming.

- If I have a province wide plan and have to travel out of province i.e Quebec, how does the plan work ? Do I add on some roaming addon ? You can purchase an add-on (that doesn't expire until you've used it all) for long distance minutes.  If you don't, you would only be able to make calls to numbers from the province you are in, so in your example, Quebec.  You will however not be able to receive any calls.

- If I select 'no text' option, can I still text by paying additional ? Or would 'no text' plan mean no texts at all If you buy an add-on, you could text.  But you cannot text without having that as an option and be billed later.  Public Mobile is a PREPAID service, it will not charge for something after you've done it.

- Which network does PM use ? Telus, so don't worry about reception! 😉

- If I choose 3 GB 90 day plan and after 90 days I have not yet utilized the entire data, will the remaining data be carried forward to the next plan ? No, unfortunately, unused data does not get carried over.

- I believe PM would work fine with Iphone and Imessage. Any problems faced by anyone with iphones  ? I think certain (older) iPhones or operating systems could have some issues, but I have an Android so I am not fully aware.

- Can I add another family member to the plan and share the data or will the family member get any discount ? I don't think PM does family/shared plans, but if you refer a family member, you will get a discount on your plan ($1 per 30 days as long as that person remains a PM customer)

If you have any other question, feel free to ask!

[etsat · Accepted solution]

If I take a province wide plan i.e ontario, can I travel across Ontario and use the PM connection ? Will it be counted as roaming if I move out of GTA ? I have to travel to London/Kitchener for my office work.

- As long as you are inside Ontario, you can call numbers from Ontario and recieve calls from anywhere.

If I have a province wide plan and have to travel out of province i.e Quebec, how does the plan work ? Do I add on some roaming addon ?

- If you go to another province, you will only be able to call numbers from that province. You can use the addons to call outside of that province and recieve phone calls.

If I select 'no text' option, can I still text by paying additional ? Or would 'no text' plan mean no texts at all

- No, you can't do any texting without getting it as part of your plan.

Which network does PM use ?

- It runs off of the Telus network.

If I choose 3 GB 90 day plan and after 90 days I have not yet utilized the entire data, will the remaining data be carried forward to the next plan ?

- No. Only data from the add-on carries over.

I believe PM would work fine with Iphone and Imessage. Any problems faced by anyone with iphones  ?

- I think some people have had problems with iMessage and having only Canada-Wide texting, but since that option is gone, it should be fine. I don't use an iPhone though, so I'm not sure.

Can I add another family member to the plan and share the data or will the family member get any discount ?

- I don't think so. However, you can get the referral discount of $1/month.