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Public Mobile: “Today we have 25 stores open for business”
Last week we let you know that new entrant Public Mobile was set to make an announcement that would see them open stores and offer customers free Unlimited Canadian long distance for life.
Well today is the big day as Alek Krstajic, CEO of Public Mobile said “Today we have 25 stores open for business. Customers can visit us in person, call us or go to www.publicmobile.ca. And by mid-May, we expect to have twice the number of locations. Now that our stores are open and ready to go, we want to give our customers the same opportunity. We are excited to offer unlimited talk and text and we want people to have the chance to use our service as soon as it’s available.”
There are 15 stores located in Toronto and 10 stores located in Montreal. Public Mobile offers a $40 flat rate unlimited Talk and Text plan. Who’s going to sign up with Public Mobile?
Update: Public Mobile has updated their website and shows they will offer the following devices:
ZTE C78 – $70
Kyocera Tomo – $110
Samsung R312 – $130
Kyocera G2G0 – $180
In addition, here are a few important this as we are working through the fine details:
Return Policy: “The phone must be returned within 7 days of purchase and have no more than 30 minutes of talk time.”
“Question: Why am I charged $2 when I make a monthly payment at a store?
Answer A $2 fee is applied for monthly payments made at a store. We don’t like it either but it costs us more when customers pay in store. We cover part of that cost but have to pass some of it on to you.”
“Question: Does Public Mobile charge a late payment fee?
Answer: No, Public Mobile does not charge a late payment fee. However, Public Mobile customers who do not pay for their service by their payment due date will have their service temporarily suspended and could be subject to a $25 reactivation fee.”
“Question : Can I access my email, the internet or use instant messenger (IM) on a Public Mobile phone?
Answer: Public Mobile at this time, does not provide mobile data services such as email, web browsing and instant messenger.”
“Question: What happens when I travel outside the Public Mobile coverage area?
Answer Your phone will be out of service when you leave the Public Mobile coverage area. You will not be able to make or receive calls.”
Question: Can I call 411 from my Public Mobile phone?
Answer: Public Mobile does not currently support 411 calls.”
Discussion
51 comments for “Public Mobile: “Today we have 25 stores open for business””
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Me
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There website isn’t the greatest. Do they only have one phone available right now?
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Public Mobile should let folks know where their stores are. Might help to drive sales…just a thought.
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The website shows nothing new, where can we get details?
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I saw one location at the northwest corner of Midland and Sheppard Ave East in scarborough.
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Well, I’d *like* to at least look at their offerings, but if you go by their website, they haven’t launched; as Hellodolly pointed out, there is no information on their site about how to buy a phone or where their stores are!
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I really am confused which direction this company wants to take. pointless website, no phones and a crappy plan – Goodluck Public!
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If you check out their website you can see where their stores are.
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Not too impressive that the media release isn’t on the PM website and the site hasn’t been updated to reflect the development.
I’ve been told there is a store on Wellesley St East opposite St James Town (Toronto) for anyone wanting to explore.
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one phone? I’ve heard there are 4….
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Their website is pretty bad, there is not enough information, no contract details, etc. They still have a long way to go.
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I wond sign up! They are CDMA!!! WHYYY THE F**K would they choose the OLDEST phone technology.. They won’t have any data or anything! Pfft I wish wind was going to go into Quebec like they are =( I travel there a lot!
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The Wellesley store is open and ready…..225 Wellesley….see you there.
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Website has changed, shows 4 phones and plan details. I’m not sure why theyre charging $5 for CID/Vmail, it should be free so they can undercut WIND. Oh well.
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First phone in Ontario was sold in Eglinton Square!!!
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you need to go to http://publicmobile.ca not http://www.publicmobile.ca
Whoever manages their webservers/dns sucks…
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Hey Dereck!! Public has gone with CDMA because its TALK and TEXT only yeah baby YEAH!!! Oh and don’t forget that CDMA is the easiest to upgrade to LT when its here!! CHECK YOUR FACTS PUBLIC MOBILE ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Their web site says they are charging extra for Caller ID and Voicemail. How much market research did these guys do?
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So let me get this right… I buy a phone now, that I can’t use, and you give me unlimited long distance for life?
Whose life? the life of Public Mobile? I don’t think that will be a long one.
Crappy plans. Worse website, the least they could have done is list where their shops are. I thought they were trying to increase competition? How can you do this if no one knows where you are?
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There isn’t anything better then CDMA when it comes to unlimited talk and text. CDMA allows for low priced phones and plans and the best talk quality!! Maybe some people don’t want to pay 100 bucks a mounth for data plans. Oh and dont forget that CDMA is the easiest to upgrade to LTE when its ready! GO PUBLIC MOBILE!! Everyone has the right to wireless phones!!!
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Nato> there is no contracts nor credit evaluation with them…
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Anybody looking at this really needs to look at a few things;
1) Their coverage absolutely SUCKS — toronto only to steeles in the north until 2011? Won’t even be hitting hwy9 until 2012?
2) Their “free canada long distance for life” is nonsense — you still need to pay your $40/month.
3) wind mobile offers for only $5 more, same canada long distance + answering machine + callid + ability to roam anywhere in north america + WAY better coverage.
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There’s 4 phones, only one is a QWERTY. I just thought that most would be considering unlimited text is part of their big selling point.
Not very appealing to me personally, especially considering the travel limitations of it being CDMA.
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When they have coverage at my house I may consider them, but looking at their coverage map that won’t happen until 2011. In the mean time WIND works great for me, as unusual as that may sound.
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A $2 charge for paying a Public Mobile bill in store?
http://www.publicmobile.ca/portal/consumer/support/supportDetails.xhtml?conversationId=887
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It looks like they updated the site a bit since this morning, has some more information on it.
The only thing that concerns me is the fact that they are using CDMA, and I feel that those phones are going to be hard to come by in the future when everyone starts moving away from it. The only phones available will be basic low price phones, but maybe that is the market they are going after.
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so $50 for everything minus long distance charges I assume.
$45 on Wind gets you everything too only thing is that you dish out more for a phone…
Right now
WIND > PM
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I think it’s really shitty they aren’t including voicemail and call display in their $40 unlimited plan. Also no international text messaging? Big mistake considering Koodo, Solo and Fido offer it.
The four phones they have listed on the websites are just ok, but those prices need to be severely marked down. I don’t see anyone spending $180 for a cdma phone. Especially for the budget conscious consumer, $70 to $180 up front for a network that isn’t even up and running yet is beyond comprehension.
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From the Public Website:
>Question: What happens when I travel outside the Public Mobile coverage area?
>Answer: Your phone will be out of service when you leave the Public Mobile coverage area. You will not be able to make or receive calls. If you are out of the Public Mobile coverage area for an extended period of time you can power off your phone to conserve battery power (phones use extra battery power when continuously searching for network).
That’s just friggin’ horrible! And as I’m outside of their coverage area right now, by the time they get to me in 2011(!), I will have to pay $45 if I want the $5 Canada long distance add on.
By that point WIND and Mobilicity will be up here and why the hell would I want CDMA for the same or more when I could get new Smartphones with HSPA?
Public Mobile = Doomed.
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uhh.. really? This is garbage. Weren’t these the guys bitching about WIND? Good to know they’re a complete fail.
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They bitched so much about WIND. Awww now i wonder if WIND is planing to buy them soon lol
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Reese Mullins , clearly a public employee who knows nothing abou the global cell market. GSM, GLOBAL STANDARD FOR MOBILE.
If CDMA is SOOO amazing then why doesn’t the rest of the world use it? Oh right, because they know better.
And having zero abilty to make a phone call when out of a current Public coverage area? Great, have fun calling 911 at your friends house.
$2 to pay a bill in store? Rogers may charge for CID/VM but at least they let you pay your bill without having to pay a ridiculous fee.
Between WIND and Public I am horribly unimpressed with the new carriers. WIND still can’t match my $75 (after tax) Rogers smartphone bill that suits my needs perfectly.
Not to mention both companies have completely ignored the west coast. We know all the big companies only care about TO and Quebec, but at least fake an interest in the west.
Maybe DAVE/Moblicity will be different. Here’s hoping.
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These guys seem horrible! CDMA, no coverage outside the zone; perhaps even in the zone! If you’re in the Greater Montreal Area I would wait to see what Videotron’s offerings are before jumping on this boat. Videotron has many advantages over PubMob at this point, 3G HSPA+ on the AWS band and DATA! And I bet once Videotron launches they’ll have plans that undercut everybody and especially PubMob.
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CDMA is the easiest to LTE? lol. Thanks for the launch. It was so easy, Bell and Telus decided to launch a HSPA+ network because CDMA was not hard enough.
Lets go through the list:
1. better phones, NOPE
2. larger coverage, NOPE
3. low price plans, NOPE
4. fast data connections, NOPE
5. new technology, NOPE
6. lower roaming rates. EVEN BETTER, NO ROAMING AT ALL
A perfect score.
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If I didn’t have 13 months left on my fido contract I’d get this plan in a second. Look at it this way. It’s about the same price as a home phone but you get unlimited long distance and a mobile phone that works in Montreal and Toronto with more cities to come. Dam that fido contract!
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Hey All… some funny comments up there… people got no clue WTF they are talking about.
First of all, Public Mobile made it clear to everyone that uses data, YOU ARE NOT THEIR TARGET CUSTOMER. Have fun paying an extra 40$ on data with the big 3. (Home internet is even cheaper than $40).
2. If you don’t know, BELL and TELUS, more than 50% of their phones are still CDMA. The only reason they got the HSPA network was to be able to sell the “I Phone”. This is something Public Mobile’s target customer doesn’t need.
3. The reason Public Mobile went on CDMA is that FYI, in less than 4 years, everyone will be switching to a new Technology called “LTE Network”. Which is even better and faster than the HSPA or GSM. and it’s easier and cheaper for any company to go from CDMA to LTE than GSM/HSPA to LTE. You don’t believe me, read around, http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/public-mobiles-network-is-lte-ready/140243-pg2
4. The reason Public Mobile isn’t offering high end phones (BlackBerry, I phone..Etc) because they don’t offer contracts (which is what everyone dreams of, NO-CONTRACT). So PM doesn’t want the customer spending $400+ on just the device. That will defeat the whole purpose of being affordable. And everyone knows that this was one of Wind’s biggest problems, other than the network. Otherwise they wouldn’t be trying to make deals to bring in more cheap phones that are less than $100.
5. Remember, if you only text and talk you don’t need Canada’s fastest network. That’s only for data usage to connect to the net faster. For text and talk, CDMA is more reliable, and basic phones are all what you need. No need for a blackberry to just talk and text.
6. last but not least, if it’s not for you, don’t be upset and don’t trash talk, IT’S NOT FOR EVERYONE. Have fun spending over $70 + SAF + 911fee + paper bill fee + Activation fee + over minutes charges + tax.
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People – more competition is a good thing. It drives better deals across the board!
Anyone thinking otherwise is either silly or works for the competition…
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why is everybody bashing public mobile, look at the phones they are offering, look at where the majority of their stores are, its obvious who their target audience is people who want a basic phone, so smartphone is not needed and/or may not be able to qualify for a contract.
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Its funny because the people that are complaining are the people that wanted smart phones because they are all stuck with over priced contracts they cant get out of. HA HA Ha. I cant wait I can talk to anyone in north america as much as i want for 45 bucks a month with no contract, no fees, and no stupid rogers person telling me i have to call the call center to add a feature to my phone. CHEERS PUBLIC. AND MAY THE BEST CARRIER WIN!!!
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I was just at a public store and the people there were awsome. Sucks we have to wait a few more weeks but its worth it! Free CDN LD for life and unlimited talk and text on a kyrocera good2go phone. SWEET!! I got a phone, month service, coffee and donut and i can canncel anytime for free. WIND can blow away!!!!!
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PM is not in the business to compete with WIND or other carriers with smartphones and high end phones that can “roam”. Why is it only WIND people complaining about others services? Since you are with WIND already, who cares what you think… unless you work for WIND?! Instead of bashing others, how about putting some effort to improving WIND services instead. After spending a Billion$$$, I expected better service. BTW, thanks WIND for selling the phone at cost – I’ll take it to the big 3 now for reliable and better coverage!!
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So wait no roaming coverage? So if I’m out of their coverage zone and someone was injured… I can’t even call 9-11? LAME
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I’m sorry but when a company like this has worst phones than Solo, your expected to fail. Sorry but more and more smartphones are being made and traditional phones are being phased out, no point to come out with dated techonology when the majority of the population looking for somthing new. I can understand people wanting to make calls and text only but with crappy phones like that, and only 1 of them has a full keyboard, dont expect to make any impact. As for competition, they are only competing by themselves cause like i said before, if you can’t beat Solo your not in it for the long haul.
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I just bought a phone at public. Sadly im stuck on a contract at rogers for another 2 yrs so I used my public phone to replace my crapy bell home phone. Did you know that bell charges for touch tone now? and there is $1.95 connection fee for your first LD phone call a month. I was paying 34.99 a month plus tax and LD FUCK! Now i pay 40 bucks a month to tlak to anyone in canada for as long as I want when I want!! No conection fees, nothing. SICK. Thanks Public!!!!
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To Reese who clearly works for Public, you got fired from WIND, so of course you’re going to say Public rocks! Just my two cents
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TO Mekong,
You clearly do not understand that you can make 9-1-1 calls out of PM network. I visited there store and asked.
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By law, any carrier MUST provide an access to 911. So do PM..Even if you are not in the coverage, you can call 911.
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From the comments, it’s easy to read into that most of you have never ever worked in any telecom industry and just blabbing about things you know absolutely nothing about because you were brain washed by the snake oil marketers to pay big bucks for “better” technology and “fancier” phones that quickly go obsolete… Like women buying hand bags and shoes, price doesn’t dictate comfort and practicality… Thank God there’s lot’s of you out there willing to pay for it. Please keep up the buying… I need you to support my investment retirement plan of RIM, Bell, & Rogers stock!! In the mean time, I’ll enjoy my cheap phone & unlimited plan and easily dispose of if I decide I don’t like it.
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Seems that Public Mobile is only gearing up to be bought out, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but even with their network being LTE ready, they’d need more spectrum to prevent their network becoming overwhelmed by the technology.
Combine this with word that PM plans over the long term to set itself up to be bought out, and we have a new entrant that is almost doomed to fail, which even if they don’t, their planned coverage area (Toronto to Quebec City) will make them a blatant non-threat to the big 3 (which appears to be the point), while not having much impact on other comers, aside from the fact that they’ll be able to go into Quebec with their offering, something that Wind and Mobilicity cannot.
The big wildcard in this appears to be Videotron. They’ve already got an established brand and they’ve got spectrum all over Quebec, so it’s a matter of seeing what they do and how attractive it will be to people in comparison to PM (even in PM’s target market).
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It’s May 16, 2010: Public Mobile was supposed to have its network running yesterday in both Toronto and Montreal. Now they say it’ll be working in Toronto on May 26th, and in Montreal on June 25th!!!! ??? This is very disappointing – they now have many angry new customers. The guy at the kiosk in Montreal told me that this was due to a delayed licensing permission for their network so it’s not Public Mobile’s fault it’s the government’s fault! Yeah, right! I don’t believe that. This sounds like a financing issue that Public Mobile is having. Are we ever going to get proper service from this company? Is this company publicly traded? Is it a scam?
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They were approved before Mobilicity. How did they let Mobilicity launch before them? Government approval delay is just a convenient excuse.
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