# Lounge > Computers, Consoles, and other Electronics >  What's the deal with Public Mobile?

## ExtraSlow

All of this has been discussed a few times, but the questions keep coming up, and I think I'd like to point people to a cleaner thread to answer the questions. 

So, here's some info, hopefully laid out clearly and simply. Public Mobile is NOT PERFECT FOR EVERYONE. There are some drawbacks.

- Public Mobile is a sub-brand of Telus. Owned by Telus, uses Telus network, exact same reception as Telus. If your phone works on Telus or Koodo, it works on Public. 

- They ONLY have prepaid BYOD (Bring-Your-Own-Device) plans. You CANNOT buy a phone through them. This means no contract, no "tab" or anything like that.

- Because it's a prepaid plan, you also CANNOT have any kind of overage charges of any kind. For example, if you run out of data, your phone stops using data. You need to buy more in the form of a top-up or a large plan if you want to use more, or wait for the next month to start. It's important that you purchase the plan that has the features you need. 

- Public plans are pretty cheap, but not always cheapest. Some of the retention plans from other carriers are better. You'll never get any kind of retention plan from Public, and you can't negotiate with them on the plan costs. They do change plans from time to time, but the posted plan price on the day you sign up is the price you'll pay, minus the few incentives. 

- You get incentives for referring people, having auto-pay set up, and for posting in the support forums. I get $4/mo off and my wife is getting $7/mo off right now. These are a good deal. Sometimes there are bonus incentives for referrals. 

- Most of the plans are "3G speed", which means that the data speed is throttled down. The network is still 4G or whatever Telus currently runs, but this could be a problem for some people. It's not a problem for me. 

- There are no "family share" type plans. All plans for for a single user. 

- There's virtually zero customer service. No phone line to call, no email address, no stores you can walk into. If you can't solve your problem on the self-serve site, you need to post in the support forum and hope someone answers. There are a few employees in the forum, who act as moderators, but most of the answers come from regular users. Making a request through the forums is also how you get your invoice if you need it for business expense tracking purposes. That's a hassle, but it hasn't been problematic for me. I can see some people would hate it.

- - - Updated - - -

Current plans are posted at : https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/ab/plans
You get $2/mo off for having autopay set up, which everyone should do. 

I think the $40/mo (really $38) is probably good for most people:

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## roopi

I thought you worked in oil and gas?

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## ExtraSlow

Yessir I do.

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## ercchry

3G data?! Nooooo

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## Tik-Tok

ExtraSlow? Phht. ExtraShill.

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## The_Rural_Juror

3G works for people who still procures risque magazines from the convenience store.

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## AndyL

Streams 720p pornhub just fine  :Angel:  :Pimpin':

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## ExtraSlow

> ExtraSlow? Phht. ExtraShill.



I'm pretty transparent that I get my $1/mo when people sign up with my code, but also, seriously trying to be helpful here. 

The 3g thing hasn't been an issue for me. I have wifi most places, and even when I don't, I can watch YouTube without any lag or anything, so that's plenty fast for me. Others may choose differently, which is why I highlight this issue so prominently in my aummary

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## EmJay

I've been with Public Mobile for around 3 years now and so far its been working really well for my needs and don't see myself switching anytime soon. I'm on the $120 / 90 day plan which gives me 12 GB of data, unlimited international text and unlimited provincial talk. I was previously with Rogers and was paying double that and don't feel like I was getting twice the service. The 3G data concerned me at first, however, in practice it's quick enough to stream a high def youtube video, stream my Apple music at the highest bitrate or even facetime with family and friends without issue.

It's definitely not for everyone, though. One of my friends travels quite a bit and his provider (think it's Bell) has a feature where an international data plan would automatically kick in when he's abroad which was something that Public Mobile didn't offer which was a deal breaker for him. The only international options that are available are for the US and you do have to go into the Public Mobile self serve portal and manually add that add-on. This hasn't really been a concern for me since I usually just add that add-on for the US or pick up a sim card from a local provider and use that if I'm overseas.

Also, for anyone that's currently on Public Mobile they are running a promo where you can add an additional 1 GB and 400 min of international calling for no additional cost in the add-ons section of their portal.

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## ExtraSlow

New sign-ups get thier second month free for a limited time.

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## pheoxs

> 3G data?! Nooooo



The LTE throttled to 3g on public mobile still typically gives you 2 megabits per second. Plenty for day to day life

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## Mitsu3000gt

IMHO 3G speeds are worse than what is being describe here - there is a pretty huge difference. Depends on your expectations/usage though. I personally find 3G boarderline unusable, and when my pocketwifi dips to 3G speed while traveling abroad, it pretty well slows to a standstill and we have to walk around searching for 'real' WiFi. 2Mbps is 0.25MB/s which barely meets the recommended speed for 480P YouTube videos or the minimum for 720P, just as one example. It's also not enough to keep vehicle navigation constantly updated, at least in my experience.

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## Xtrema

> IMHO 3G speeds are worse than what is being describe here - there is a pretty huge difference. Depends on your expectations/usage though. I personally find 3G boarderline unusable, and when my pocketwifi dips to 3G speed while traveling abroad, it pretty well slows to a standstill and we have to walk around searching for 'real' WiFi. 2Mbps is 0.25MB/s which barely meets the recommended speed for 480P YouTube videos or the minimum for 720P, just as one example. It's also not enough to keep vehicle navigation constantly updated, at least in my experience.



The difference is Public is throttled 4G instead of real 3G. 3G is totally not usable for today's apps. Especially if you are hotspoting off your device.

The problem is that there are 4G plans from the Big 3 that has the same feature and same price if you catch them are the right time. My friend's family is on some unicorn 5GB plan from Fido for $40/month. And some how they STILL get device subsidization and just got S10/XR for $240 up front for staying on that cheap contract for 2 more years. Render them to be $20/month 4G 5GB plans.

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## pheoxs

> IMHO 3G speeds are worse than what is being describe here - there is a pretty huge difference. Depends on your expectations/usage though. I personally find 3G boarderline unusable, and when my pocketwifi dips to 3G speed while traveling abroad, it pretty well slows to a standstill and we have to walk around searching for 'real' WiFi. 2Mbps is 0.25MB/s which barely meets the recommended speed for 480P YouTube videos or the minimum for 720P, just as one example. It's also not enough to keep vehicle navigation constantly updated, at least in my experience.



Again, it's not 3g network. It's still LTE and they just throttle it to 3g. Which means you almost always keep your 2mbps (or more), I posted that on the low end of what people do speed tests on the public mobile forums.

Edit: This thread says public mobile is actually a 3mbps cap on the LTE network. So enough for 720p streams

https://productioncommunity.publicmo...ng/td-p/229034

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## Mitsu3000gt

> The difference is Public is throttled 4G instead of real 3G. 3G is totally not usable for today's apps. Especially if you are hotspoting off your device.



I didn't say otherwise - the problem is with the the "up to" 2.5Mbps which is a best case scenario, not with how they get there. 

Typical real-world 4G/LTE speeds are around 60Mbps in Canada (still much lower than the theoretical maximum), or ~24 times faster than what Public Mobile is offering as a best case scenario.

I also said it depends on your expectations and usage, but I don't think everyone understands just how slow that is which is why I commented.

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## ExtraSlow

Clearly there was a need for this thread. The trade-off is real, but for many of us, no big deal.

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## Tik-Tok

Considering there's no term contract and it's BYOD, I'd recommend anyone try it at least. Worse case is you just use it until a good deal shows up with the bigger networks.

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## rage2

> I didn't say otherwise - the problem is with the the "up to" 2.5Mbps which is a best case scenario, not with how they get there. 
> 
> Typical real-world 4G/LTE speeds are around 60Mbps in Canada (still much lower than the theoretical maximum), or ~24 times faster than what Public Mobile is offering as a best case scenario.
> 
> I also said it depends on your expectations and usage, but I don't think everyone understands just how slow that is which is why I commented.



It's not that bad. In laws are on it, and it's good enough for quick web searches, iMessages, Google Maps, etc. It's perfect for retirees.

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## Tik-Tok

Just switched over today, getting 13'ish Mbps speeds.

Not sure why 
@ExtraSlow
, but I couldn't get my account to activate with your referral code. No dollar from me. I tried a few times and it kept saying "Sim Invalid" until I deleted your code, then it worked fine.

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## ExtraSlow

> Just switched over today, getting 13'ish Mbps speeds.
> 
> Not sure why 
> @ExtraSlow
> , but I couldn't get my account to activate with your referral code. No dollar from me. I tried a few times and it kept saying "Sim Invalid" until I deleted your code, then it worked fine.



I'll check it out. Sorry for any confusion or inconvenience.

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## raceman6135

> Just switched over today, getting 13'ish Mbps speeds.
> 
> Not sure why 
> @ExtraSlow
> , but I couldn't get my account to activate with your referral code. No dollar from me. I tried a few times and it kept saying "Sim Invalid" until I deleted your code, then it worked fine.



If you're still having issues, you can try my referral code: 7220O8 NOTE: it is seven-two-two-zero-letterO-eight or use link https://activate.publicmobile.ca/?raf=7220O8

I'm not trying to steal ExtraSlow's referral -- simply offering a way to troubleshoot if it's a referral code problem or a Public Mobile system / website problem.

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## ExtraSlow

Did anyone else have problems with my code? Not sure what's up with that.

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## Tik-Tok

> Did anyone else have problems with my code? Not sure what's up with that.



It might have been a website issue. It didn't say your code was bad, but the sim card number was. Might have been a fluke that erasing your referral allowed it to work.

After a day of testing, the speeds are so random, lol. Ive gotten as low as 3 Mbps, and as high as 25 Mbps. Even at 3 though, it satisfies my needs. Im not a heavy mobile user anymore.

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## ExtraSlow

I think for short bursts you can get those higher speeds. I suspect people should count on 2-3 for any larger files, so they won't be dissapointed.

Enjoy it.

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## ExtraSlow

if anyone has been on the fence about public mobile, there's an extra $20 referral credit when you us anyones referral code (and $10 for the person who referred you). My code is in my sig, but there are others. 
This promotion ends sept 23.

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## ExtraSlow

Don't know where else to put this, but it's funny to me, so...

I regularly request invoices from public Mobile so that I can expense my cellphone costs from my employer. Pm has this silly invoice process where you need to request it from the forum moderators and then, like two weeks later, they email you the pdf of it. Silly process, but I think that's on purpose to funnel business users to the higher end brands. 

So last time I requested my invoice, I don't recall doing anything different, but they couriered me an envelope with the invoice inside. Now, the funny part. The XpressPost envelope had the sender as "Koodoo Mobile" and the paper envelope inside was a Telus envelope. 

Funny stuff and shows how intertwined the three Telus brands are. 

Anyway, happy Friday everyone.

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## ExtraSlow

Hah, you CAN now buy a phone handset from public mobile. A small selection of certified pre-owned ones. Nothing compelling to me. But hey, options.
https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/ab/phone-section

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## jacky4566

I've also been on Public mobile since day 1 and locked into of their old "90 day" plans which are awesome. $114/90 days with 6GB.

For the speed thing, I usually get limited to 6mpbs on LTE latency. But I notice they only limit PER connection so any multitasking stuff on your phone will still got faster. Streaming a podcast and updating apps will both get 6mbps. 

With 5G coming online i wonder if they will modify the policy. Since i have a Pixel 5 now it seems a little still to be limited so slow.

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## EmJay

Publicmobile has a free 2gb data and 500 intl min add on promo going on at the moment. If you login to the portal, go to the add on section you should see them there. I still have the ones from last year that I haven’t fully used up which I completely forgot about.

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## ExtraSlow

Good call, I added those to all three accounts that I administer with public mobile.

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## D'z Nutz

> Publicmobile has a free 2gb data and 500 intl min add on promo going on at the moment. If you login to the portal, go to the add on section you should see them there. I still have the ones from last year that I havent fully used up which I completely forgot about.



Haha nice. I have twice as much free data than I'm paying for now  :ROFL!:

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## The_Rural_Juror

Telus EPP $50 for 20gb is back.

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## ExtraSlow

> Telus’ flanker brand Public Mobile is currently offering a month of free service on new activations and 5GB of bonus data on select plans. “For a limited time only, get a month of free service when you enter your email below and activate on any plan by February 8. Plus, get 5GB of free data on any plan $25/mo or more,” the offer reads.
> 
> Read more at MobileSyrup.com: Public Mobile offering month of free service, 5GB bonus data with select plans



https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/01/17/p...-select-plans/
Little bonus data and a free month.

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## ExtraSlow

If ya call Asia, lunar new years deal.

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## cloud7

Thinking about going with Public Mobile and porting my work cell phone number from Bell (just left the job). From my understanding, I have to buy a sim from one of their retailers and then activate a plan online. How easy is the online process of porting a number over myself? especially when the previous Bell statements went to the administrator in the company for payment... although my name is associated with the phone number. I just don't want to lose my phone number or have it take forever to switch the number over.

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## FishPoo

> Thinking about going with Public Mobile and porting my work cell phone number from Bell (just left the job). From my understanding, I have to buy a sim from one of their retailers and then activate a plan online. How easy is the online process of porting a number over myself? especially when the previous Bell statements went to the administrator in the company for payment... although my name is associated with the phone number. I just don't want to lose my phone number or have it take forever to switch the number over.



It was pretty seamless when I did it.

You can also order the sim online, fill in your info on the public mobile registration and it will port over, mine took like a few minutes.

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## ExtraSlow

If you have access to the phone number and its in your name it should work. But it's an added wrinkle if you don't have "full control" over that bell account. 

Not sure you have any risk of losing the number. If it doesn't port over, it'll remain at Bell. Your risk is the cost of the Sim card.

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## cloud7

That's why I am a little hesitant to do it myself online as there are many community posts about phone number not porting over smoothly. I do however have the Bell account number associated with my phone number. Maybe I'll just get London Drugs to activate the sim and let them do the porting... assuming they use a different system to sign up customers than their online self activation page.

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## cdnsir

> That's why I am a little hesitant to do it myself online as there are many community posts about phone number not porting over smoothly. I do however have the Bell account number associated with my phone number. Maybe I'll just get London Drugs to activate the sim and let them do the porting... assuming they use a different system to sign up customers than their online self activation page.



It’s the same system, you might as well do it yourself. I did a port last week, the self activation site asks you if you wanted a new number or port an existing. Once you choose port, it will ask you for the IMEI and Account Number from your old account. It then texts you a verification code to enter back into the activation page to complete the port. Pretty foolproof. 

Also FYI Public’s SIM is only $5 through Amazon with 2 day shipping.

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## adamc

Been with public mobile for like 4 years now, still very satisfied. I love paying 3 months at a time and not thinking about a bill until I get a text saying renewal is coming up, they debit my credit card for another $150 and I'm good to good for another quarter. 

I really, really like not seeing a bill *EVER*, and I get charged a little less every month for loyalty rewards and referrals. You could ostensibly get your bill down to $0 permanently with referrals. 

The 1 or 2 times i've ever had small issues it is kind of annoying to have to use an online forum (ironic, I know) to get something resolved. But it's always been within hours, not days, so I remain a loyal customer.

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## ExtraSlow

Extra 1 Gb per month for 8 months promotion

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## revelations

freedom started having call quality issues - switched to PM and saved about 120$ per year. 

Nice to have caller name ID as well now (instead of just a number).

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## ExtraSlow

One of us

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## ExtraSlow

Big data users probably need better than 3.5G speed. But whatev.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/06/17/p...tarting-today/

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## jacky4566

I've been with public mobile for a while now on the 4GB at 3G Speed $30.
Honestly its pretty freaking awesome. I rarely burn that much data and you only need LTE speeds when your watching youtube or trying to hotspot. For audio streaming and looking at reddit its totally decent. 

They really F*D up the advertising calling it "3G". Its still a low latency LTE connection just throttled throughput. You only notice on large bandwidth things.

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## ExtraSlow

Telus knows what it's doing with that advertising.

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## ExtraSlow

Bonus 2gb deal right now for new activations.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/08/26/p...omo-august-31/

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## sabad66

Anyone else on public mobile notice the charge on their cc statement says koodo top up reapprov? Signed my mom up for it in December so maybe its just the first one that has a weird merchant name?

Brand new line not ported from Koodo or any other carrier.

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## pheoxs

The phone companies have given up any semblance of acting separate from their smaller carriers. Called Telus to re-negotiate my parents phone plans and Telus said flat out they don't offer anything below 80$ a month anymore and if I wanted to go cheaper I should switch their phones to koodo. Was rather surprised to hear it said outright. Told them I'd rather switch to rogers since Telus will call for a winback deal of 45$/20gb. After he disappeared on hold he came back with 70$/month / 20gb for their new Can-US plan which means no roaming at all for my parents in the US. Considering they spend the entire winter down there that was a huge win. So dumb of these games though.

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## ExtraSlow

No, mine still show as public mobile. But Telus owns Koodoo and Public both, so i could see the payment name being any of those, since it's all the same company.

- - - Updated - - -




> The phone companies have given up any semblance of acting separate from their smaller carriers. Called Telus to re-negotiate my parents phone plans and Telus said flat out they don't offer anything below 80$ a month anymore and if I wanted to go cheaper I should switch their phones to koodo. Was rather surprised to hear it said outright. Told them I'd rather switch to rogers since Telus will call for a winback deal of 45$/20gb. After he disappeared on hold he came back with 70$/month / 20gb for their new Can-US plan which means no roaming at all for my parents in the US. Considering they spend the entire winter down there that was a huge win. So dumb of these games though.



The telecoms play a lot of games, and it's brutal. Have I mentioned that the reason I love Public is because they have no customer service? That's my favourite feature of that sub-brand.

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## jacky4566

Yup. The CRTC forces them to offer "Low cost" plans. So they make Koodoo and Public with plans to meet those requirements. BUT then spend 0$ advertising it so people will still flock to the main Telus brand which is $$$. Such is life in Canadian telecom..

+1 Fucking love Public Mobile web portal lets you do ANY change. No humans or sales bullshit.

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## ExtraSlow

Extra 2gb data for first 8 months on new activations.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2022/01/24/p...022-promotion/

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## AndyL

Yeah every payment I make - shows as kodoo on my bank.statement... Never really understood why. But they also bomb me with crap about kodoo and Telus offers  :dunno:

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## ExtraSlow



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## ExtraSlow

Public Mobile has introduced 4G speeds for an increased plan cost. Good if you stream music on the go, as that's the only usegcase where I find any issues on my "sorta 3g" throttled speed. 

Haven't done a deep dive on value vs Koodo but suspect the difference is small.

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## jacky4566

> Public Mobile has introduced 4G speeds for an increased plan cost. Good if you stream music on the go, as that's the only usegcase where I find any issues on my "sorta 3g" throttled speed.



I already do this all the time with Spotify set to "High" Quality. I have yet to run into a case where the "3G like" speeds is a problem. Its still LTE latency just capped to 5-10mbps. 

These are the new plans:



All include Unlimited Canada-wide Talk & Text.

The new web portal is pretty nice though.

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## DonJuan

Ok so the Rogers fiasco has made me realize my Rogers plan from 9 years ago 5GB $50 is not a good deal anymore. I rarely use more than 4 gig of data. Been with Rogers for 18+ years

I have my own phone S10 + and happy with it, I always buy my own phone. Looking at 
@jacky4566
 chart I'm thinking I should just get the Public 6 or 10 gig 3G plan. Couldn't find the answer on their website, but do they charge data overages or just throttle back if you go over?

Wife upgraded to a Bell 4G plan through her company 25gig no overages unlimited everything. I could hop on that at $45/mo

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## jacky4566

Public mobile is pre-paid only. If you go over you just get cut off. I prefer this but some people do not.

If you use my referral credit you get $10 credit: *RYONMO*
And i get 1$ off for every month you stay. #PyramidScheme

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## ExtraSlow

Yeah, data overages cannot happen. Good for a teen
.

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## DonJuan

Gonna pull the trigger on this this week. I'll prob be part of your pyramid scheme 
@jacky4566

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## ExtraSlow

When my wife got a new phone, teenager got the old one, so since they are graduating from a flip phone to smart phone went and checked the public Mobile plan they were on. Currently on $15/mo plan, and realized I had several old promotional 2gb data bonuses on that account. Will keep them on the $15 plan for a while and see if they chew through the data or not. Can re-evaluate in the fall.

I personally am on an obsolete can-USA inclusive data and voice plan that doesn't exist. Handy because I'm spending a lot of time on the phone to people in the USA, and I'm going to visit them very soon I hope. 

Even if the youngest inherits that fliphone, the four of us will be around $116/mo total, which is miles cheaper than any family share plan I can find.

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## Tik-Tok

I upgraded last month to 4g for a whole $1.25/month. No complaints.

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## ExtraSlow

> Get a 2GB data bonus every month for 12 months.
> Seize the data. Get more today by switching to Public Mobile. For a limited time only.
> 
> Get an additional 2GB of data for free* for 12 months on plans $25/mo+ with promo code 12MONTHS2GB.



if y'all care. 
I'm setting up my youngest on Public Mobile today. Love those in-family referrals lol.

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## ExtraSlow

Promo 4g plan.

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## jacky4566

ExtraSlow. Good snipe! Im currently on 5GB $40 so this is a great upgrade.

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## D'z Nutz

> Promo 4g plan.




Oooh thanks for the heads up! I just switched over from my old 4.5GB 3G plan @ $40.

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## ExtraSlow

YeahI'm swapping my wife to that one. She doesn't need the extra data, but the speed won't hurt. 

Although I still am certain that Public Mobiles "throttled 3g plans" give much higher speeds than true 3g service. Sorta like a 3.5G kinda speed.

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## suntan

Yes, it does because there's way less latency on 4G versus 3G.

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## ExtraSlow

If I didn't spend most of my professional life dealing with people in the USA, who seem to love old-fashioned voice communication, I'd swap out to the 4g plans, but the grandfathered plan I'm on for $60 is still ridiculously good value for my use-case

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## bigboom

Do you need a referral or something for that plan? On the Public Mobile site I don't see that offer.

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## D'z Nutz

> Do you need a referral or something for that plan? On the Public Mobile site I don't see that offer.



Did you log into your account and go to change plans? It's in the 4G menu, second option.

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## bigboom

Ahhh ok, I'm currently with Telus and will switch over so I don't have an account, I just see what is on the website.

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## ExtraSlow

It's not showing as a plan on the website until you log in. SO for new activations, that happens when you activate your SIM card. 



> Normally, this plan is priced at $60 per month on the Public Mobile website. New customers can also sign up for this $40/15GB plan (use code 2EL9RO for a $10 bill credit), which is shown as a plan choice when you’re activating your SIM card.
> 
> You can find this plan by going to your account and clicking ‘Plans & Add-Ons’, then ‘Change My Plan’. Then click on ‘4G Speed’ and scroll down and you’ll see the $40/15GB plan option. You have the option to change to the plan now (but you won’t get a pro-rated refund) or at your next renewal date.



They ARE showing a bonus 12GB for new activations, and smaller discounts on 4G plans, but not showing this particularly promo until you log in.

Tip as well, anyone who wants a public mobile SIM card, you can get them from any telus stores, and often if you mention you are a loyal telus customer, you can get it for free, saving you the $10 fee that is advertised.

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## ExtraSlow

Extra 12gb a month for 12 months promo right now on $40 or larger plans.


My referral code is 88M4Y9 if ya want.

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## ExtraSlow

Bonus 2GB coming to each public mobile member by text in the next week.

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## jacky4566

My brain has been conditioned to use as little data as possible. 
How do I adapt to 12GB?! and yet another 2GB bonus. I think i still have 2GB from last year Christmas bonus!

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## ExtraSlow

I have every data bonus they've ever given me. When you have wifi at home and work, i don't know how you use enough data to ever worry about it. 
My kid has a 250 MB plan, now they do go over that most months, but they also have some data bonuses, that they haven't used up.

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## ExtraSlow

Had to bump my teen up from the 250 mb plan, lol. Now on 3 GB plan for $30 minus $4 rewards. If they use more data than that, they can buy their own plan.

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