Telus-owned prepaid brand, Public Mobile, announced on Tuesday the introduction of plans with province-wide only minutes, to go with plans that have unlimited Canada-wide minutes.
“Effective February 16, 2021, we will offer two types of plans: plans that include Province-wide minutes, and plans that include unlimited Canada-wide minutes,” explained Public Mobile this morning.
Public Mobile says plans with Canada-wide minutes will cost an extra $5 per month. All plans will still have nationwide-data and unlimited international texting.
The wireless carrier says, “We never take the decision of changing our plans lightly. That’s why, for a limited time, we’re offering our Canada-wide plans at a $5 discount. That means customers who value Canada-wide calling can still access these plans at the original prices before they change.”
Province-wide calling plans start at $15 per month with 100 minutes and 250MB of data.
Province-wide talk means you can only call numbers with area codes within your home province. If you want to call outside your home province, you’ll need to buy a Long Distance Add-On.
If you are travelling, province-wide talk means you can only call numbers within that province. So if you visit Alberta, you can only call numbers within that province, unless you have a Long Distance Add-On.
“The introduction of a Province-wide calling plan comes as a result of our commitment to give you more options on features and provide savings to help you create and customize the plan that’s right for you,” concluded Public Mobile.
Early consensus on this change in the Public Mobile forums appears to be negative, with many expressing disappointment in the change.
Other prepaid competitors from rival incumbents, Chatr (Rogers) and Lucky Mobile (Bell), have yet to adopt province-wide calling plans, and it’s unclear if they may follow suit like Public Mobile.
