Public Mobile Changes Pricing and Data on Popular Plans

By Stephen Clark

Last updated 23 April 2019

Article Summary

Public Mobile has made changes reducing value to three of their most popular plans offering some of the cheapest talk, text and data in Canada. Two plans offer less data while a WhistleOut Editor's Choice for Prepaid Plan has increased by $5/month.

Prepaid plans are one of the best way to keep your budget under control. Public Mobile lets mobile users customize their monthly plans, but the best deals come from their pre-packaged offers. Following a post last week on their support forum, Public Mobile has made changes to three popular plans. One plan was a WhistleOut Editor's Choice for Best Prepaid Plan in Canada.

Public Mobile alerted their customers that they would be ending three plans. Instead of removing them from the lineup, the following changes have taken effect:

Unlimited Talk, Text and 1GB for $25/30 days is now $30/30 days
Unlimited Talk, Text and 5GB for $40/30 days is now 2.5GB
Unlimited Talk, Text and 6.5GB for $45/30 days is now 4.5GB

All three plans include data on the Telus LTE network, but slowed down to "3G speed" (about 3Mbps). Public Mobile competes directly with Chatr cell phone plans and Lucky Mobile plans, who both use 3G and 3G-speed data to offer lower prices. Changes to Public Mobile's plans bring them more in-line with offerings from those two competing carriers.

All plans listed include an extra 500MB (or 0.5GB) of data if users sign up for AutoPay with a credit card. Customers who have signed up with AutoPay also get a $2 credit. The monthly credit makes plans like the formerly-priced $25 plan effectively $23 every 30 days.

WhistleOut Canada previously featured the Unlimited Talk, Text and 1GB of 3G speed data for $23/30 days as our Editor's Choice for best prepaid plan in Canada. The only other nationwide plan that came close was from Freedom Mobile. That plan offered 1.5GB of LTE data, unlimited nationwide talk and text for a dollar more at $24/month with Digital Discount (authorized prepay).

The 1.5GB prepaid plan from Freedom Mobile is a limited time deal. Even after it's over then a 1GB, unlimited nationwide talk and text for $24 would still be Canada's best prepaid plan. Although Freedom Mobile prepaid data works nationwide, customers must live in and sign up in a "Freedom Network" zone located in most cities throughout Ontario, BC, and Alberta. Once on the plan, if more than 50% of your data is outside the Freedom Network for three months then they will terminate your plan.

For Canadians who don't live in a Freedom Network zone, the unlimited talk, text and 1GB of 3G data from Public Mobile is still one of Canada's lowest prices on a complete mobile plan. Add the $2 credit on every bill with AutoPay (and even more ways to earn credit) and it remains one of the best options for Canadians.

If you are a heavy data user but don't need high-speed LTE, Public Mobile continues to have some of Canada's best cell phone plans. Now that they've removed at least 2GB of data from the $40 and $45 plans, your best deal would be the $50/30 days plan which includes unlimited talk, text and 8.5GB of data.

Other Ways To Save With Public Mobile

Refer a Friend: Public Mobile offers additional ways to save money. Refer a friend to sign up, and you'll get a $10 credit plus Public Mobile will reduce your bill by $1 every 30 days for each friend you send their way.

Pre-authorized Payments: Set up pre-authorized payments and you'll save $2 every 30 days and never miss a payment again.

Public Mobile Community: Consider yourself an expert? Answer questions and provide help in the Public Mobile online forum and you can earn up to $20 off your next 30-day bill.

Loyalty: Being loyal pays. After being a customer of Public Mobile for 1 year you'll save $1 every 30 days. The deal increases to $2 after your second year, and so on.