[chconline]

Quote

With Public Mobile letting loose on some non-branded “unlimited” advertising last week. More news today as we’ve been tipped that they’ll be soft launching their stores
on March 15th. That alone is good news but even better is that their network will officially go live on May 15th.

So here’s the deal… if you buy a device before the live network launch day on May 15th you’ll be given free Canadian long distance for life (as long as your account is in good standing). Remember, the phone will not actually work until the network is put live. Public Mobile will offer a flat rate $40 unlimited talk and text plan and have their service available in Ontario and Quebec.

We’ll see how everything pans out as this is still a rumour… the offer sounds like it would fit with what Public Mobile has to offer. The May 15th launch date is actually a Saturday – but anything is possible. Is the offer of free Canadian long distance for life tempting you to give them a go?

http://mobilesyrup.c...tance-for-life/

Here's a link to their website:
http://publicmobile....home/home.xhtml

Quote

Public Mobile makes it easy and affordable to stay connected,and signing up is simple.

Say hello to Public Mobile.
We want more people to be able to afford a mobile phone. So we are introducing a $40 flat-rate unlimited plan that lets you talk and text all you want. And there are no contracts, no credit checks and no surprises.

Join now and get free unlimited Canadian long distance for life.

Here's a long distance relationship that everyone will love. Become one of the very first Public Mobile subscribers before the big network launch and you'll instantly get free unlimited Canadian long distance - for life.

All you have to do is purchase a phone and subscribe to our monthly service and you are in. This is a special limited time network pre-launch offer. Please ask in-store for details.

You will continue to receive free unlimited Canadian long distance for life as long as your account remains in good standing. If at any time before your phone is set up, you feel this offer isn't for you, simply return your phone and original packaging to the store to get all your money back.

Visit a Public Mobile store near you today and ask about this limited time offer of free unlimited long distance.

Quite a generic name for a carrier But basically what it is is $40 for:

Unlimited local calling
Unlimited Canadian and U.S. text messaging
Call waiting
Call forwarding
3-way calling

Voice mail + call display, and North America long distance is $5 and $10, respectively. No information on data plans and looks like they're pulling one of those "one plan does all" kind of thing.

Coverage is very limited, since they're still new: http://publicmobile..../coverage.xhtml

But generally speaking, other than the unlimited calling I've still yet to see a truly good carrier in Canada that offers competitive pricing. For what it's worth when you add up everything together WIND Mobile is not AS competitive as they'd like you to think (Seriously the latest Telus and Rogers/Fido plans are barely more expensive on a net scale with everything in mind, that's not to mention that you can probably score some great deals with retention). There's also a very limited selection of phones, and Public is on old school CDMA phones when everyone's already on HSPA+ with SIM cards.

[Big Bang]

So thats what those UNLIMITED banner ads with random people on it is about when I was in canada last week.....

[chconline]

Yep, viral marketing.

[TL6MT]

$40 a month for ****ty CDMA phones and no CallerID? What is this 2000? Id be ashamed to advertise that and they dont even cover half of Toronto according to the map.

[chconline]

Not only that -- there are no roaming capabilities like WIND. Basically if you are out of the two zones (Partial Toronto and Montreal) your phone goes dead. $40 is way too much to ask IMO.

[shc-boomer]

Wow, with all that for $40, that is a terrible, terrible deal. Even the regular carriers can offer that type of plan for about the same price.

[TL6MT]

chconline, on 22 March 2010 - 10:23 PM, said:

Not only that -- there are no roaming capabilities like WIND. Basically if you are out of the two zones (Partial Toronto and Montreal) your phone goes dead. $40 is way too much to ask IMO.

Basically its a useless carrier.

[shift]

Reminds me of Koodoo over here, except minus the roaming.

[chconline]

Koodoo is Telus though, so you're still part of the big 3 carriers.

[shc-boomer]

Koodoo is just fail, CDMA and plans aren't that good. Also the company I was going to talk about was Dave Wireless or Mobilicity.

[chconline]

They are more competitive than Public in question especially with regards to the phone selection. Regardless going Fido or Telus is probably most economically justifiable in relation to the kind of service you are getting at the moment. Competition is good, but these guys aren't really competitive. It does make Rogers, Bell, and Telus more alert though.

[shc-boomer]

Well, maybe if they get some more time into the market, they can matures and put some pressure on the big three right now. At this point in time they are barely making them even sweat.

[shift]

I'm still not 100% convinced to go with Telus right now, despite the changes they've made it's going to take a LITTLE BIT more than that to convince me.

[TL6MT]

shift, on 25 March 2010 - 11:54 AM, said:

I'm still not 100% convinced to go with Telus right now, despite the changes they've made it's going to take a LITTLE BIT more than that to convince me.

Whats missing? They got 21mbps which is faster than any **** we have in usa.

[Big Bang]

No roaming and barely any coverage is epic Fail.

[chconline]

Big Bang, on 25 March 2010 - 06:15 PM, said:

No roaming and barely any coverage is epic Fail.

It's excusable if it has SIM cards and works for $10 a month.

[shc-boomer]

Interesting offer from WIND here: http://www.windmobil...ntracts-thanks/

$150 to port over phone number no questions asked. Might be good to move from a prepaid deal for $150 in credit. First month is also free, this offer for the $150 is up until the end of March.

This post has been edited by shc-boomer: 28 March 2010 - 10:28 PM

[chconline]

It's been up for a while, but thanks for bringing that up -- WIND offers a lot more flexible plans. Again the big issue is you'll get charged big out of your home zone and the net cost in the end is quite similar to Telus once you slap on voice and data. Additionally it is frequency limited and therefore many phones won't run on their network. It's a lot better than Public Mobile in question though, especially for a new company that wants $40 a month for a cell phone plan that does not have data and an array of absolutely pathetic phones.

The thing about WIND is that it still offers pretty bad coverage, but at least they got some roaming (That WILL cost you though, especially if you're going on a road trip). The thing is they don't even cover the entire city, as in my entire neighborhood is somehow out of the entire WIND home zone. And I don't live in some weird place outside the city.

[shc-boomer]

chconline, on 29 March 2010 - 08:30 AM, said:

The thing about WIND is that it still offers pretty bad coverage, but at least they got some roaming (That WILL cost you though, especially if you're going on a road trip). The thing is they don't even cover the entire city, as in my entire neighborhood is somehow out of the entire WIND home zone. And I don't live in some weird place outside the city.

I guess the best way for WIND to be a better competitor is to increase the coverage. This is fairly obviously and I am sure they are working on it. If they did increase their coverage enough, I might switch over because they use the same band for 3G as T-Mobile meaning I can grab a phone Stateside and bring it back up. With an actual phone that does not such eh?

[chconline]

There's not a lot of phones on the 1700MHz band.

http://www.gsmarena....me=0&sFreeText=