# Public Mobile Any Good ?



## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

i have an emergency iphone and a traditional home phone and am thinking about switching to a cellphone as my main phone

here in bc we don't have very good options if you want to get data (and i have had some bad experiences with overrunning data on my emergency phone so i want to have enough data)

public offers 4.5gb of 3g data (unlimited usa/canada, unlimited text and 4.5gb data for $50) which should be ok for me as i have shaw internet and won't be doing much large file downloading on my iphone and probably can get by ok without 4g

i would like to hear feedback from people on public especially in bc if possible

are you guys happy with public ?

ps. i guess it uses telus' network which is what i use on my current phone and also is the only telco whose stock i own


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Public was much better and more popular before Telus bought them. It still might work for you but note that everything is done online on their forums, no call center unless that has changed. I don't see the value in that deal when you can get better deals on LTE elsewhere. The going comparable deals seem to be around 6GB for ~$50 but you will have to peruse the Howard forums or RFD to find them and they are usually some hoops to jump through

Telus rebranded Public into some kind of discount brand for millennials but they failed miserably, or rather they successfully drove the only competition into the ground but kept it alive to satisfy CRTC requirements of competition. I had one of their grandfathered plans and they would text deals to switch to Koodo (Telus other discount brand) Eventually they offered a comparable deal with $100 signup bonus and I added a $100 referral bonus from a member here.


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

thanks, i can't seem to find any deals for say 50 or less that include more than 2 gigs of data ... i do want a call centre so perhaps i better wait 

it appears that those in the east are getting better deals than those of us in the west


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Yea sucks to live in any province other than the 2 remaining with competition outside of the big 3 (and didn't Bell buy MTS already so 1) Lots of sketchy discussion online about how to get the deals in the remaining province - buy a plan on kijiji.. tell them you're moving there.. swap your number etc

I did it back in the day but I was actually in the province and I can obtain mailing addresses pretty much anywhere.. then I just ported my number and updated the address online. Watch RFD or reddit for promos there have been some good ones in recent years in Canada that compete with US rates imo


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Koodo out of province plans..



> 1. Sign up under AB plan
> 2. Switch to QC phone number
> 3. Switch to QC plan
> 4. Transfer my current AB phone number over to this new Koodo plan


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

m3s said:


> Koodo out of province plans..


thanks m3s, i have heard about this manuever but there is no way i can keep my current bc number right ?

looks like chatr offers 6gb for $50 but its 3G not 4G, my understanding is that for most regular non-large-file stuff you can't really tell the difference between 3 and 4G


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

In my experience you leave your old number active and then port it over the new number after (step 4 in the above list) Koodo you can do this online yourself. Just make sure to google how to port your number with x provider before signing up

I can tell the difference between 3G and 4G/LTE but I'm a heavy data user. LTE is faster than most home internet. This is probably more for streaming video than pics, but why else would you want 5GB of data?


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

m3s said:


> In my experience you leave your old number active and then port it over the new number after (step 4 in the above list) Koodo you can do this online yourself. Just make sure to google how to port your number with x provider before signing up
> 
> I can tell the difference between 3G and 4G/LTE but I'm a heavy data user. LTE is faster than most home internet. This is probably more for streaming video than pics, but why else would you want 5GB of data?


well, i have run over my data caps so many times, of course thats on 100mb so perhaps i am overshooting a bit :cocksure: ... i will research the "koodoo" switch a little more and see what i can get ... thanks for the replies


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Maybe I should have offered to sell my Koodo plan that I just closed. I didn't think it was that unusual nowadays

$40 6GB Unlimited minutes
Shock-free Data 6GB Unlimited SMS and MMS
Total monthly and other charges ............................................................. $40.00

The only time I used that much data was when in the field without wifi access, otherwise 2GB is usually lots


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

m3s said:


> Maybe I should have offered to sell my Koodo plan that I just closed. I didn't think it was that unusual nowadays
> 
> $40 6GB Unlimited minutes
> Shock-free Data 6GB Unlimited SMS and MMS
> ...


wow, great plan, we have nothing like that out here even close ... maybe i should think about a 2gb plan which i think i can get for 45, sounds like that would be plenty since i have wifi at home


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

fatcat said:


> wow, great plan, we have nothing like that out here even close ... maybe i should think about a 2gb plan which i think i can get for 45, sounds like that would be plenty since i have wifi at home


I think 2gb will do you plenty. I am in the same boat as you, wifi at home so I don't use the data on my phone at home. I have a 3gb plan and I use my data as much as I want, whenever I want. I don't generally stream videos or music because I'm not that type of person, but I do sometimes download a podcast and I browse the net, use it for directions, etc. Last month, I used <1gb (907mb to be precise). The only time I went over my 3gb allowance was when my home internet was down for 2 months and I had to use the phone for all my internet needs. Also, it used to be 2gb before I got an upgrade, and I never went over then either. Never even got close. I have my phone set up to notify me when I am getting close to the data cap but it's literally never happened except for when my home internet was down.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

I've used the 6GB and even 12GB with the old Public Mobile plan but never when I have access to wifi.

Sometimes I hotspot shared the data to friends or my laptop and that is where you use up data

Unless I'm travelling, camping or working in the field, free wifi is usually readily available


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

thanks spudd and m3s, that is helpful, i do have wifi and i know the phone will prefer wifi, sounds like 2gb would be enough ... even plenty

the public plan does also offer more stuff than koodoo like: unlimited calling vs 500 minutes on koodoo and the calls can be to canada or the usa on public whereas koodoo requires a usa add-on (i guess, i don't see it in their brochure)

if i don't do videos it looks like 3g will suffice instead of 4g

i am tempted to roll the dice on public and see what happens

both are owned by telus so thats good, i am paying myself


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Yea I preferred the fine print with Public Mobile which is why I ignored the offers to switch back to Koodo so long

Roaming:
I preferred the public roaming deal but I forget the details now
Koodo you activate "easy roam" online then you pay $7/day you roam (uses existing plan limits). This was handy for the days I arrived/departed US before I got a local SIM or if I was just careful to keep roaming off unless I needed it - inevitably paid some $7 fees when I forgot roaming was on and left wifi etc

Add-ons and fees
I also preferred the Public add-ons for minutes and data because *they didn't expire *which is very rare. So I would buy US data or minutes and they would be there until I used them
Koodo is post-paid which means I inevitably get hit with the "gotcha" fees like $30 for short calls to USA when I desperately needed parts and forgot US isn't included like it was with Public.
Koodo 1GB add-on is $20 vs Public Mobile 1GB add-on was $10 and didn't expire IIRC

I use voip.ms and Bria mobile app for making international calls now. Also lets me have numbers from various countries which is very handy to me (Bria app is $13.50/year and voip.ms is dirt cheap)

There was actually a huge outcry online when Telus started messing with the original Public fine print. Telus actually back peddled a bit and restored some of them because the backlash on reddit (one of the largest websites now) was so bad.

Then Telus offered deals that were too good to give up to silence the remaining Public fans

*Also owns T


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

M3S, why pay per year for a VOIP app? I have been happy with Zoiper's free version up until now. Today voip.ms rolled out SMS over SIP which requires Zoiper Gold so I upgraded with a one-time fee of $10-ish bucks. I know you're tech-savvy so maybe there's something I'm missing.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

I'll check out Zoiper. I saw it along with Media5 but was hesitant to try random apps without a reliable review

I was recently looking for a new SIP phone app and the quick research I did pointed to Bria as one of the top, albeit expensive for an app. Bria is what I used when I was in Germany except it used to be free.. More familiarity than anything and I like their app/interface

I already paid the $13 for this year so I can call/receive Cdn calls from Alaska which is well worth paying for a reliable app


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Just realized that Bria released this new subscription based app as Bria Mobile so I couldn't sync previous purchases

I paid $3.99 for Bria in 2010 and I can still install the original Bria from iCloud. They have also offered me a free year of Bria Mobile


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