Public Mobile: Unlimited calls, texts, 1GB $23/5GB $38/8.5GB $48

[computergeek541]

Public Mobile has the following plans available nation-wide
https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/bc/plans

$13 (with Autopay) for 100 Canada-wide outgoing calling minutes, unlimited incoming calls, unlimited text messaging, and 250MB of Autopay data bonus at 3g speed

$23 (with Autopay) for Unlimited Canada-wide calling, unlimited text messaging, and 500MB +500MB (autopay data bonus) at 3g speeds

$33 (with Autopay) for Unlimited Canada-wide calling, unlimited text messaging, and 1.0GB +500MB (autopay data bonus) at 3g speeds

$38 (with Autopay) for Unlimited Canada-wide calling, unlimited text messaging, and 4.5GB +500MB (autopay data bonus) at 3g speeds

$48 (with Autopay) for Unlimited Canada-wide calling and Calling to the U.S. (while you are in Canada), unlimited text messaging, and 8GB +500MB (autopay data bonus) at 3g speeds



Plans include call display, voicemail, call forward, and 3-way calling. No credit checks required. All Public Mobile services are on a prepaid basis.

Public Mobile is owned by and runs on the Telus Mobility network. There are no zones. All plans listed above are Canada-wide plans. Any phone from Telus or Koodo that accepts a sim card will work. Also, any phone from Bell Mobility that is unlocked, and any phone that is from Rogers that is "3g" network compatible and is unlocked will work. Public Mobile is purely a bring-your-own-phone service.

Sim cards are $10 and can be purchased from the Public Mobile website. https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/bc/get-started .
Sim cards can also be purchased from Walmart, The Mobile Shop, London Drugs, Wow! Mobile, and K Mobile.

There is a $10 bonus credit for the new customer to offset the cost of the sim card if referred to Public Mobile by an existing customer. You simply need to specify the existing customer's referral code during activation.

[endi2000]

Man- that is a good deal. I was worried that it would be different in Ontario. We still have our other province number because we couldn’t find a decent cost unlimited calling plan - but this is even better. I see they are taking a couple of pages out of Virgin’s setup

Thank you!


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[computergeek541]

Man- that is a good deal. I was worried that it would be different in Ontario. We still have our other province number because we couldn’t find a decent cost unlimited calling plan - but this is even better. I see they are taking a couple of pages out of Virgin’s setup

Thank you!


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Public Mobile's plans are availabe in all provinces, and the plans are the same in each. The website address only shows "bc" because the link doesn't work without a province being set (although it doesn't matter which).

[computergeek541]

I know it's 11 days away, but the deadline for being referred for online activation and the $25 credit is near (March 31, 2019) if you want to mail order your sim card. You must have the sim card in-hand to activate before the deadline. Public Mobile says that sim cards usually arrive within 7 days, but it often is quicker than that as they ship by Xpresspost.

Additionally, some of the retail locations who sell Public Mobile sim cards try to force you to activate on the spot. In-store activations do not qualify for this $25 credit for being referred as a new customer, despite anything that the store employee might say.

These plans themselves are being offered on an on-going basis (currently no set expiry dates).

[mulock]

I was with Public Mobile, and then Koodo offered me $100 to switch ($25 off per month for 4 months), plus I earned a $50 credit because a friend referred me, and then I referred someone else. With Koodo I have 1GB data (more than enough for me since I used WiFi everywhere), UNLIMITED Talk Canada-wide, UNLIMITED International Text and Picture Messaging, and VOICEMAIL & Call Display for $30/month. This same plan with PM would be $25/month at 3G. I've thought about switching back, but haven't bit yet since Koodo has been fine for me.....but who knows....

[computergeek541]

I was with Public Mobile, and then Koodo offered me $100 to switch ($25 off per month for 4 months), plus I earned a $50 credit because a friend referred me, and then I referred someone else. With Koodo I have 1GB data (more than enough for me since I used WiFi everywhere), UNLIMITED Talk Canada-wide, UNLIMITED International Text and Picture Messaging, and VOICEMAIL & Call Display for $30/month. This same plan with PM would be $25/month at 3G. I've thought about switching back, but haven't bit yet since Koodo has been fine for me.....but who knows....

The main downside is obviously Public Mobile not having a call centre. This is a cost savings measure. Customer service is contacted by sending them a mesaage on their website.

With Public Mobile, a large incentive is their rewards program. If enable autopay, that $25 plan immediately goes down to $23 per 30 days and data gets bumped from 500MB up to 1GB.

After being with Public Mobile for 5 years, there will also be a $5 per 30 days loyalty reward. That brings this plan down to $18 per 30 days, for doing nothing more than using automatic payments an remaining a long term customer.

There are additional savings that you can work towards as well. Public Mobile has a community message board, and it's not too difficult to earn some discounts there by helping to answer the questions of other customers. It isn't too difficult to get a $5 or even $10 discount during a 30 day period by participating there.

Lastly, there are referral rewards. You'll gain an additional $1 discount per 30 days for each new customer who you refer.

As for the 3g speeds, most people are going to be fine with it. Service is still available on the LTE network, but just throtttle to 3Mbps. You'll still get the improved ping times of LTE, and web browsing is more than fine. Video even works fine, although it's sometimes take a few seconds for a full length tv sho episode to do some buffering before playback starts.

[bhlombardy]

The prices for Public Mobile indeed are good for the budget-minded, but unfortunately, you lost me at the "3G speeds".
I'm a heavy data user and I'd swallow a bullet if I had to step backward and deal with 3G speeds.


I am on Eastlink (available to customers in Atlantic Canada and portions of Ontario -- not yet nationwide*) and for $60 I was able to get 8gb** of LTE Data, and unlimited everything else for $60/mo
Note: The 8gb came from their 3gb + 5gb 'forever' bonus during a promo, which they offer every few months -- it was on last August, and also during Christmas, wouldnt be surprised if it comes back soon. The current offer is 6gb (3gb+3gb forever bonus) for $60

*While only available to residents in Atlantic Canada and portions of Ontario, Eastlink customers CAN use their phone nationwide if they travel.

Unfortunately, the closest comparable plan on Public was 6gb for $77 (for LTE)


Also, with Eastlink, I get roaming in the US for $6/day (using my regular quotas) -- and I DO travel to the US a fair bit, so this is practically a necessity for me.
-- but no mention of US roaming on Public.

Eastlink will ALSO buy out your current contract up to $200... Now, I was NOT on a contract when I switched, but *I* was offered an equal incentive in the form of credits by the in-store sales person. (YMMV)

Yes, I realize that Eastlink won't be available to everyone reading this thread... I also know that not everyone needs LTE speeds nor US roaming.

As I said at the top, the prices for Public Mobile ARE indeed good for the budget-minded. I'm just throwing my 2-cents in for comparison.

.

[computergeek541]

The prices for Public Mobile indeed are good for the budget-minded, but unfortunately, you lost me at the "3G speeds".
.

LTE connection is available on these plans. So, you still end up getting the same improved latency/pings over the 3g network. As such, I can tell people that you're likely to notice virtually no difference with standard websites.

In addition, only the LTE network is throttled to 3Mbps. If you disable LTE, there is no speed restriction on the 3g network that has a theoretical maxumum of 42Mbps. On that 3g/dc-hspa network, I've been as high as 33 Mbps on one of Public Mobile's "3g" plans, although speeds of between 10 and 20Mbps are probably more common for most people. That should be more than fast enough to satisfy most mobile users, even those who wish to stream video.

[mulock]

Did the math....I'm going to switch back to Public Mobile. I've only been with Koodo for 12 months, but switching back will save me $100 a year, and I never had a problem with PM when I was with them (18 months).

[computergeek541]

Did the math....I'm going to switch back to Public Mobile. I've only been with Koodo for 12 months, but switching back will save me $100 a year, and I never had a problem with PM when I was with them (18 months).

Welcome back! These plans are great, as long as you're okay with the "3g" data speed and the fact that there's no call centre. But how often to do people usually need to contact customer service? I've only had to once in 2.5 years, and that was only to get a device unlock code.

[will13am]

These are nice deals! Thanks for posting them OP!

[computergeek541]

These are nice deals! Thanks for posting them OP!

Public Mobile also has a $35 plan ($33 on Autopay and comes with 1.5GB), but I didn't mention that one earlier because quite honestly, it's not a great plan because of the way the way it compares to the others. The $23 Autopay 1GB and $38 Autopay 5GB plans are likely what most people will be interested in.

There also is a $10 plan that includes 50 minutes of Canada wide calling and 50 text messages, but that's really only for very light users. The price gets discounted to $8/30 days for customers who enable Autopay.

[endi2000]

Does anyone know if you can use the dial around for 5cents/minute to the states?


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[computergeek541]

Does anyone know if you can use the dial around for 5cents/minute to the states?


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Do you mean the long distance service offered by Worldline called Dial Around? If so, Worldline says that service is only available to Bell Canada landline customers in Ontario and Quebec. Things like 10-11-295 wouldn't work because Public doesn't bill people for usage, nor are there any pay-per-use charges.

Services such as keepcalling.ca or Goldline d-call would work because they are using standard call-in telephone numbers for access, and because minutes are prepaid for to those companies. Calling cards from a retail store that provide regular Canadian phone numbers as access points would also work.

Using Google Hangouts Dialer would be free to call U.S. phone numbers. It would just use a standard internet connection or use your cellular data services.

Public Mobile also does offer direct dial calling to the U.S. You have to prepay for either an $8 for 200 minutes or $15 for 400 minutes add-on package.
The add-on doesn't expire as long as your Public Mobile account stays active, and as long as you still have long distance minutes remaining.

Out of the plans mentioned earlier, the $50 Public Mobile plan with 8GB of 3g data ($48 and 8.5GB of 3g data if autopay is enabled) includes calls to U.S. numbers while you are in Canada.

[barbis9]

Thanks for posting everyone. I'm with Telus prepaid but public mobile sounds like a better deal but unfortunately I still have an $80 balance to use up first.