experience with public mobile (good? bad? ugly?)

Does anyone have any experience with Public Mobile? I'm looking to join the modern world and give up my landline. I have had a cell in the past, so I'm not completely useless. :P I rarely travel (well, I don't use a phone when I travel, I believe in being unplugged when on vacation), so the phone would only be used in Toronto & GTA, but mostly downtown Toronto (not sure if that makes a difference in terms of coverage). I have a moto g (will likely upgrade at some point).

This is the plan I'm thinking of:

https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/bc/pr...ns/35for1GB-3G

Or if anyone has any recommendations on other providers, I'd love to hear suggestions. Just a note, I'm not too keen on Rogers or Koodo (too many billing errors for my taste).

Thoughts?


Thanks for any help. :)

Well, I'm on Public and I love it. It uses the Telus/Bell Network, so there is always coverage for me wherever I go. You should have no lack of coverage in downtown Toronto so that's nothing to worry about. I would personally only suggest Public or Freedom (Which I have heard has gotten much better since their Wind days).

I'm currently on a $99/ 90 day plan with Unl. Province Talk, Int. Text, and 12GB of data (Over 90 days = 4GB/month average) (NO LONGER AVAILABLE). And I will never give up this plan unless they pry if from my cold, dead hands. (After 5 years it will go down to $87/90 days OR $29/month average)

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Originally Posted by Andit

Does anyone have any experience with Public Mobile? I'm looking to join the modern world and give up my landline. I have had a cell in the past, so I'm not completely useless. :P I rarely travel (well, I don't use a phone when I travel, I believe in being unplugged when on vacation), so the phone would only be used in Toronto & GTA, but mostly downtown Toronto (not sure if that makes a difference in terms of coverage). I have a moto g (will likely upgrade at some point).

This is the plan I'm thinking of:

https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/bc/pr...ns/35for1GB-3G

Or if anyone has any recommendations on other providers, I'd love to hear suggestions. Just a note, I'm not too keen on Rogers or Koodo (too many billing errors for my taste).

Thoughts?


Thanks for any help. :)

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They are pretty good. Same coverage as TELUS. But all their support will be via chat or community forum. NO call centre, NO person to speak to or physical locations to go to. If you are fine with ONLY Online support in case of trouble, PM is very good.

Better to make your own plan for 90 days as opposed to the ready made plan they give you, it will be more flexible. I don't know if they have a post paid option, but if pre-paid is the same price, try to keep it pre-paid as far as possible to avoid overage charges, especially on data.

3G data will be a bit slow, but 4G/LTE data is faster but also more expensive. 1 GB/month is not lot of data, so carefully use it so that you don't exceed it, use Wi-Fi data at most places as opposed to cellular data and keep Cellular data turned off.

I was with Telus from 2007 until 2010 on a $50/month plan, and then I switched to Koodo in 2010 for a better plan with more data and unlimited texting and unlimited long distance for just $40/month. Then in November 2017 a coworker introduced me to Public Mobile. I did all my research (being a SmartCanuck, that's what we do) and ended up joining Public Mobile (using my coworkers as the refererer). One thing with Public Mobile is you need to fully own your own cellphone and it must be unlocked, so I recommend that whatever carrier you are with now, have them unlock the phone before you leave them for Public Mobile. Public Mobile does not sell phones, but then I never buy phones from carriers anyhow (I always buy from Kijiji to get relatively new phones for far less).

Public Mobile's pre-built plans (like the one you mentioned) are great, but if you scroll down the page a bit you will see "Build Your Own Plan" which gives you greater control over what you'd like in terms of payment (30 vs 90 days), long distance calling (Canada wide, none, or just the province), texting (none, or global), and then of course the amount of data you want and the speed.

It's impossible to ever exceed the data you choose.....for example, I have 3GB, so once I hit 3GB it stops. At that point I would need to buy an AddOn with extra data to tide me over to the next billing cycle. Like I said, I don't use much mobile data so this has never happened to me.

You can order the Public Mobile SIM card through their website....it's $10 plus tax, and free shipping (comes very quickly). I was unable to find the SIM cards in any of the Walmarts near me.

My first built plan was:-

• - 3GB at 3G Speed /90 Days
• - Unlimited International Text
• - Unlimited Provincial Talk
• $105 per 90 days plus tax.

I'm coming up on my renewal on February 18th, I am changing my plan to one with less data (since I rarely exceed 500MB per month, and WiFi is everywhere I go so I end up using WiFi far more).

New plan will be:

• - 1.5GB at 3G Speed /90 Days
• - Unlimited International Text
• - Unlimited Provincial Talk
• $90 per 90 days plus tax.

I also have the renewal setup as a reoccuring/autopay with my Tangerine Mastercard (so I earn 2% back since it's a reoccuring bill), and then I get $2 off per month with Public Mobile as a result of having it autopay every 90 days. This will bring my Public Mobile bill down to $84 every 90 days, or basically $28 per month plus tax.

I have had ZERO problems in terms of data speeds (even at 3G) but I am only using it for looking up prices online when I am in-stores shopping....but it has no problem playing YouTube, Spotify, etc. In terms of texting, absolutely no problems....all go through instantly. In terms of long distance, no problems again. The call quality is perfect with no delays, etc.

I occasionally have to travel to the USA for business, so in those cases I just pay for an AddOn at that time for calling and data (and my company reimburses me). No problems calling or accessing data in the USA either through Public Mobile.

In all, I HIGHLY recommend Public Mobile and only wish I would have know about them sooner. Since I joined I have recruited 2 others to Public Mobile, and had several coworkers ask me about it and how to join.

If you are interested in Public Mobile, you can PM me with any specific questions you have and I will be more than happy to answer them for you :)

I recently went with Zoomer which uses the Rogers network. They had an unpublished promo $36 a month on a 2-year contract:
400 Canada-Wide Minutes (unlimited after 6 months as a loyalty bonus)2GB of LTE DataUNLIMITED Text, Picture and Video Messages (Canada & International)Unlimited Evenings and Weekends 6PM-7AM
Free phone from about 5 choices (I took the LG G4)

I also got a $25 credit from being referred.

To leave before the 2 years, I can pay $250 for the phone minus $250 / 24 for each month I've completed.

Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions.

One thing I do not like about PM is there is not phone to call customer support, must use their forum which is slow to respond

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Originally Posted by michaeldesbiens

One thing I do not like about PM is there is not phone to call customer support, must use their forum which is slow to respond

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By removing call center phone support and replacing it with an online forum-based approach (available 24/7), Public Mobile is able to offer significant savings in their mobile phone service costs. I find the users (who are also Public Mobile users) quick to respond since they are offered incentives (i.e. discounts off their phone bill) to answer questions accurately.