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Public Mobile introduces U.S. Roaming
Public Mobile – once a grand new entrant underdog in Canadian wireless – has come through in many fashions. When they first launched they released sub-par handsets that that had limited coverage, only in the core Toronto and Montreal areas. Now a year and half later they have established a customer base of over 150,000, expanded coverage to include Canadian roaming, and recently introduced 2 Android smartphones, which are both available for well under $200.
Today Public went south. The über entry level cost conscious carrier has introduced U.S roaming. In an internal doc we received it states that their “roaming coverage has expanded with the addition of a new US roaming partner. Customers can now talk and text in the continental United States, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands (Alaska and Montana are not included). Looks like data roaming is not set up yet. As for the rates, impressive as they are the same as the Canadian roaming. $0.15/minute for incoming and outgoing calls, plus sending a text is also $0.15 each, incoming texts are free.
Update: A press release reveals that their U.S. roaming partner is Sprint and that “with the introduction of our 3G Smartphones we also look forward to introducing data roaming in Canada and the U.S. in the coming months”.
You can check out the full US roaming here at Public
(Thanks tipster!)
Discussion
32 comments for “Public Mobile introduces U.S. Roaming”
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Finally! Wow, that’s cheap. O.o
Now, it would be wonderful if they expanded to other metropolitan regions, besides Montréal and Toronto.
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$0.15/minute for incoming and outgoing calls, plus sending a text is also $0.15 each, incoming texts are free.
And this is from a carrier with only 150,000 subs!
Just another wake up call as to how hard we are getting it from the big 3 absolutely pathetic.
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So who’s network are they roaming on? Doesn’t PM use a CDMA network on AWS frequencies?
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It has to be either Verizon or Sprint… the other smaller guys dont have a network that large
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Public is not on AWS
They are on a PCS block which isn’t supported by many phones. However, all phones supporting public can also roam on Bell/Telus/Verizon/Sprint CDMA2000 networks.
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While Public’s CDMA 1x (EV-DO now?) network uses G band, their phones support other bands such as Bell’s, Telus’, Verizon’s and Sprint’s.
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Also Sprint and Verizon are much larger than this.
This must be a small player like Cricket.
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I think Cricket gets national coverage by roaming on one of the other big guys do they not?
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The ‘preferred’ US rate ($10/month) at wind is still 1cent more – this is an awesome deal. If I was a biz that had robellus phones but had employees that roamed alot, I would purchase PM phones on the $15 plan and just use them for cutting US roaming costs.
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Yeah, it’s either pay 50¢/minute on Pay Your Way WIND, 25¢/minute with a WIND monthly plan ($15 or more), or 15¢/minute with a Public Mobile monthly plan ($15 or more). That’s a cheap roaming pass, and for $50 pre-tax total, that gives me 233 roaming minutes.
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This includes the LD rate base on the store in my mall… Isn’t this like $1 cheaper vs Robelus and their sub brands… WOW, please increase the footprint… I can’t wait to be able to drive up to Ottawa with my Public phone
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Wow this is great, Lets see if any other companies follow them to avoid loosing customers? Hope to see Public in more cities across Canada soon then I might switch!
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That coverage map looks like Sprint’s network
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Roaming is slightly cheaper than Mobilicity then
Mobi: 20c voice and 10 cent text
PM: 15 c voice and 15c outgoing/0c incoming, so text averages out with mobi if you send and receive texts. (5c less to get a text and 5c more to send one).
Why the HELL does robelus charge $1.6+40c “long distance” when people roam in US??? I mean… thats like 10x the profit for them!
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Because they can. This is why we need the smaller players to force change in the big guys. There is a word for this: profiteering.
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10 times the profit. With 8 to 9 million subs vs. 150K subs so its really WAY BEYOND 10 times the profit.
Its actually disgusting to think that some people defend these companies like they are their friend looking out for them.
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While the price of the calling is mighty cheap (compared to Mobilicity’s 20 cents/min), it’s still more expensive in terms of text (10 cents per text at Mobilicity).
So it’s alright, good to see that Public Mobile now has US roaming.
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And the sad part is public probaly makes a profit still. At $0.15 a minute public can still turn a profit, the markup robelus charges is absurd.
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Looks like I’ll switch to public once Mobi goes bankrupt.
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If they would only fix the problem with dropped calls i might stay with them?
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Their phones are kind of garbage though – does any of them support tethering?
I wish they’d let people port over Sprint phones, or just offer some themselves.
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if a small company like Public Mobile can offer these rates, imagine the cost that the Big 3 pay to their rooming partners versus what they charge to us. it’s a crazy profit!
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general T1MB1T has posted that rogers has 8 cents roaming and overages. Tl now he has not offered any details.. seems one of his co-workers outed himself and said he was paied by wind to lie in the forums. Discredit dissatisfied customers and spread wind propaganda.. sounds just like what uncle swarie does daily. Bribe and spread lies.
Outsourced jabronied contracted and still for sale!
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Apparently, that’s not the real T1MB1T. These posts are from a troll impersonator, so it seems.
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Rocco, what the hell does this have to do with WIND? Stick to the topic moron. Maybe you should learn to read. This is about Public Mobile!
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So now they have more network in the US than in Canada lol
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That is incorrect. Do a bit of research before making your stupid comments.
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Awesome roaming rates. The 15c/text is more expensive than Mobi’s outgoing (at 10c/text). But you get FREE incoming text whereas an incoming text is 10c with Mobi. So I’d say Public Mobile’s roaming rates are the best unless your outgoing texts outnumber incoming texts by a ratio of 2:1 or more when roaming.
Hopefully Public Mobile gets data roaming up and running and offers a more competitive rate and/or data add-on than Mobilicity ($1.50/MB) and WIND ($4/MB or $1/MB if you get a $10/month roaming add-on). If possible. Depends on how much Bell, Telus and Sprint charge Public.
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In the press release it says that roaming is supported by Sprint and that Data roaming in Canada and US is coming… Google it…
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one question. Where’s phone guy?
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yooooooooooooo just bought the max android from public mobile, this thing is decent! for the price u pay a month and what u get its awesome, i had an older phone with them on the 1x network and signal was s**t in my house but with the 3g its flawless now such a step up
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Any word on data roaming? Mainly in the US. Thanks
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