Launch is official today!

[lunarworks]

Absolutely no roaming. If you're outside of Public's limited coverage area, your phone simply doesn't work.

This isn't the '80s. I don't see how this will work.

[computergeek541]

My opinion is that porting involve more than just Public Mobile and it needs to verify the identity of those who want to port out from other carriers.

You are right that it is more secure. However, it just doesn't seem to be a match with the idea of prepaid service. Here's the possible problem I see with this policy. Many of the people who will be interested in this no credit check policy will be students or those who are minors. Many of these people will not have drivers licenses and I know that Rogers corporate stores absolutely refuse to deal with you unless you have one (or other government ID). Many of these potential customers will only have a provincial health card with a picture which means that they can't legally be used as ID. If Public mobile is too strict on this picture ID policy, it could act as a barrier to customers who wish to port in their existing numbers.

[HC - NO "i"]

computergeek541,

Sure, your points are all valid. After all, 7-Eleven SpeakOut Wireless can do the same without picture ID. The only piece of crucial, sensitive information is the PIN of the current account elsewhere. I am hopeful Public Mobile will deal with discretion whenever necessary, like in the situations you mentioned.

[Shoephone]

I'm not convinced this is a good landline replacement. At $40 (or $45 with caller ID and voice mail -- or $50 with "unlimited" Canadian LD), it's considerably more expensive than a landline. In Toronto, you can get VM, CID, 500 North American LD, from Rogers Cable for under $35/mth. And you can buy a set of 3 cordless phones for about the price of PM's cheapest handset. That means you can have multiple phones in your home -- so more than one user.

If two people live in the household, and one is out, there is no phone at home and no way to open the front door in an apartment. (You know what I mean ....)

I do think the no commitments, basic phone and plan has a market, esp. for folks who don't travel much -- and there are lots of urban folks who don't drive and therefore probably don't travel outside the zone much. This is a product that can extend the category.

The problem is you could make the same case for Wind. Always Shout is actually $5 cheaper at $45 for Canadian LD, VM and local calling. Since the Huawei is a dog, it's only the $150 Samsung that competes with Public Mobile and it has four phones under $180. I can see the price of the phone being the thing that hooks PM folk.

[HC - NO "i"]

Shoephone,

Stiff competition from all side, of course. For now, $40 comes with the lifetime unlimited Canadian LD as a special "pre-launch" offer. As for Rogers Home Phone, I wonder if the same argument of a single leaving home without the "basic" mobility.

Anyway, the targeted market is not a broad one like others. At least, it is not viable for me. But launching a carrier is no small business. No matter how much ca$h they could burn, it still requires a market demand.

Talking of the handset, I wonder why bother with Kyocera G2GO? I mean, there is no data service available and no WiFi capability.

[kEiThZ]

All Wind and Mobilicity need to compete with these guys are a sub-$100 handset. And that'll be the end of PM. More than ever now, it's starting to become clear to me that these guys are just looking to cash in on the bandwidth.

[callmejim]

What a smart idea to do a preliminary launch. All serious and honest businesses I know do this in order to work out the bugs in the system. So far so good I hope people will post any feedback on the network soon.

[Smoove-E]

Fido started out like this back in the days...look at where Fido stands now.

Who knows, maybe Telus or Bell will buy them out one day since they are the Big 2 on CDMA just like what Rogers did with Fido.

[kEiThZ]

What a smart idea to do a preliminary launch. All serious and honest businesses I know do this in order to work out the bugs in the system. So far so good I hope people will post any feedback on the network soon.

It'd be a smart idea if the network was operational. Who's going to buy a phone in March when you can't use it till May?

[darkside flow]

It's very refreshing to see a company come out onto the scene that KNOWS THEIR MARKET and doesn't aim higher just for the sake of it.

I won't be switching, but if I am ever in the market for another line (maybe for a business?) I would seriously consider signing up.

[Arbalister]

$10 extra for unlimited US-Canada calls. Sucks no Hawaii Guess the people who are looking to this network dont have enough money to go to Hawaii.

My bad I thought there was 6 phones but its 4.

Unlimited local calls, Canada-US texting and Call display + Voicemail for $45 / month pretty good. All it really needs is some sort of data plan and it could be Canada's version of MetroPCS.

They won't have a data plan, they don't plan on having smartphones...and they're CDMA only so, really, what choice is there?

[Arbalister]

Fido started out like this back in the days...look at where Fido stands now.

Who knows, maybe Telus or Bell will buy them out one day since they are the Big 2 on CDMA just like what Rogers did with Fido.

Yeah...owned by Rogers. That's exactly the business plan of PM - get bought out by the big 3 before they lose too much.

[geronimos87]

This is soooo exciting, I saw it in the newspaper (Toronto Star) today and then just went on their website now that I'm home.

I think they have done an excellent job for their desired target market and I know some people who would love to switch. It I weren't so tied to my iPhone I would be tempted too.

[cmstlist]

I think this would be ideal for downtown/central university students in residence - U of T, Ryerson, McGill, Concordia, UQAM, UdeM. Not so much York because it's too close to Steeles. When I was in 1st year residence (crap, 9 years ago!) I had a landline with Bell. For maybe $10-15 more, Public Mobile can offer unlimited everything *and* local portability... take it to class, to work, to your friend's place, etc.

The trouble is, if other carriers with more coverage can match this plan, Public won't have much of a leg to stand on.

Regarding roaming, I know that nowhere else in Canada are these frequencies in use... but don't these handsets also support the same frequencies as Belus CDMA? Aren't they mandated to allow 5 years of roaming on the legacy network? I wonder why it wouldn't have been possible to set that up.

[jesteraver]

They won't have a data plan, they don't plan on having smartphones...and they're CDMA only so, really, what choice is there?

I don't even thing they have a smartphone that can run on their network.

Guess were stuck waiting until 2011/12 when they launch LTE