When it comes to prepaid wireless brands in Canada, the biggest are from the nation’s ‘Big 3’ telecoms. Lucky Mobile belongs to Bell, Chatr is run by Rogers and Public Mobile is owned by Telus.
All of these prepaid brands offer 3G and 4G mobile download speeds. Today, we saw a change from Bell-owned Lucky Mobile to now match the 3G speeds of Rogers’ Chatr.
A Lucky Mobile text message sent out to customers today and seen by iPhone in Canada reader, Steven, says, “We’ve improved your 3G data speeds from 3 Mbps to 10 Mbps. Now, you can stream and video call from your phone in HD without the need for Wi-Fi! Please restart your phone to enable increased speeds. There are no extra charges and no other changes to your account.”
The changes have now been reflected in the fine print on Lucky Mobile’s website for 3G plans.
A move from 3 Mbps to 10 Mbps seems like a joke, but for those on 3G plans, that’s going to make a difference when it comes to streaming video.
As it stands, both Lucky Mobile and Chatr have matching 3G and 4G download speeds at 10 Mbps and 150 Mbps, respectively. Both prepaid brands also let you use data past your data bucket, but at throttled speeds of 128 Kbps.
Lagging behind? That’s Telus-owned Public Mobile, as their 3G speeds are “up to 3 Mbps” and 4G speeds “may reach download speeds up to 100 Mbps.” It’s likely Public Mobile will match its competitors soon. We’ve reached out for comment and will update accordingly.
A Chatr spokesperson told iPhone in Canada they upped 3G speeds to up to 10 Mbps last year, a move made to “improve the customer experience.”
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It’s amazing that Chatr and Lucky are fast enough to view videos at HD quality yet Bell offers some plans at 5G that are throttled to only SD quality lol. Watching videos at HD quality is one of the only benefits of fast internet – and all you need is 3G speeds for it. Bell is a joke.