CDMA or GSM for public mobile ?

[pmtu]

Hello Im thinking on buying a phone from the states, but I was wondering if Public mobile works with  CDMA or GSM?

or both?

[popping]

Agree with @computergeek541 that PM does not support CDMA and GSM. Period.

A brief of history why Telus does not support CDMA and GSM phones:

Two different mobile phone system were used in Canada at the early days.  Rogers was using GSM with SIM card.  Bell and Telus were using CDMA system.  CDMA does not use SIM card.  Therefore, Telus CDMA phone cannot be used in Bell network and vice versa even Bell and Telus were using CDMA system.  

Bell and Telus realized that their CDMA system is getting outdated as the world was switching to system with SIM card.  They needed to switch to SIM card system in order to compete.  Bell is a Eastern Canada company and Telus is a Western Canada company.  They decided to share their new network to cut cost in order to compete with Rogers.  The GSM system is getting old too.  Bell and Telus decided to support the 3G system and not GSM on their new network.  Bell and Telus turned off the CDMA network a few years ago. 

My sister was on the Telus prepaid using CDMA phone and was forced to get a 3G phone a few years ago.  I was able to purchase $10 3G flip phone by price matching at BestBuy.  She was able to use the same flip phone after I switched her to PM over 2 years ago.

[Yummy]

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@CountyDownIeUk wrote:

Don’t. 

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Why not?

[WoozyPolarBear]

CDMA??? I haven't heard someone mention that since around 2009

[hTideGnow]

HI @pmtu   Likely wont work.  CDMA and GSM usually refers to 2G phone. There is no more 2G in Canada

What kind of phone you are looking for?  Try to avoid those smaller brand phones, they tends to be hard to setup.  

Before you decide, maybe post the link , model here and we can check for you to see if it is compatible.

[computergeek541]

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@pmtu wrote:

Hello Im thinking on buying a phone from the states, but I was wondering if Public mobile works with  CDMA or GSM?

or both?

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Although there's some debates what those two terms really mean, don't look for either of the above. The first isn't used anywhere in the country, and most people consider GSM to be the 2g GSM network type that only Rogers uses in Canada (but won't be for much longer). With that said, phone's compatible with the above network types could also be compatible with the network types used in Canada, but the frequencies listed as compatible for "CDMA" and "GSM" have no relevance to Public Mobile customers.

[BKNS27]

@pmtu 

What phone were you thinking of purchasing from USA?

Amazon.com?

[VIP_Tech]

Hi @pmtu 

Check your phone's compatibility frequency bands (publicmobile.ca)

[esjliv]

@pmtu - ensure phone is unlocked and not blacklisted.

Public Mobile uses the following frequency bands:

• 4G LTE and LTE Advanced: 700 MHz, 850 MHz (band 5), 1900 MHz (band 2) and 2100 MHz downlink and 1700 MHz uplink (AWS).
• HSPA: 850 MHz, 1900 MHz (UMTS).

Use more than one source to be sure what is compatible:

https://www.kimovil.com/en/frequency-checker/CA

https://willmyphonework.net

• 3G or WCDMA 2 (1900 MHz ) and 5 (850 MHz) bands  makes the phone compatible, which is needed for phone calls, and can also be used for text messaging and data.
• LTE can be used for text messaging and data.

@CountyDownIeUk  - LOL

[CountyDownIeUk]

Don’t.