In Montreal, we’re continuing to work on covering areas on the island of Montreal, Laval and the South Shore. Our network team was able to reinforce the following areas:

·        LaSalle: Intersection of rue Airlie and ave. Stirling

·        Mont-Royal: Intersection of chemnin St-Claire and ave. Standstead

·        Mont-Royal: Intersection of chemin Churill and ave. Montgomery

·        Saint Paul: Intersection of rue Jolicoeur and rue Mazarin

It’s a similar situation in Toronto. We’ve been working primarily in the areas that we’re expanding to in Mississauga and Brampton.

As mentioned last week, we’ll update the maps on PublicMobile.ca that show the new coverage areas as soon as we can.

That’s why we’re giving away 5,000 back to school supply kits for elementary and high school students in Toronto and Montreal.

Getting a referral credit is easy:

First, refer a friend to Public Mobile. Second, have your friend choose one of our unlimited plans. Tell your friend to mention your name and phone number when they purchase at the store. The $20 credit will appear on your account within six weeks, provided both accounts are in good standing.

So hurry up and get friendly, this offer ends on September 30th.

Here’s the list of improvements in Montreal:

• LaSalle: intersection of Vezina St. and Clement St.
• Outremont: intersection of Woodbury Ave. and Willowdale Ave., this expands coverage to Laurier

Here’s the list of improvements in Toronto:

• This week we reinforced the coverage in the Harbourfront area.

As we get closer to launching new areas we’ll update you on this blog, as well as update the map on PublicMobile.ca.

Thanks again for all your comments and feedback.

Keeping in touch with friends and family around the world is important to Jayme Rae. She recommends an unlimited long distance or overseas calling plan like the ones offered by Public Mobile so that students can stay in touch without cutting calls short.

Some of Jayme Rae’s other back to school tips include:

• Make a budget and stick to it
  • Keep costs fixed

• Keep an agenda to stay on track
  • Write down your budget, your appointments, and expenses.  Re-evaluate your budget before it gets out of control

• Eat cheap but eat well
  • Try Jayme Rae’s Power Pancake recipe: mix two egg whites with a packet of instant oatmeal.  Fry lightly in a non-stick pan, flipping once.

Jayme Rae Dailey was a top three finalist in the 2009 season of So You Think You Can Dance Canada.

Watch Jayme Rae on CTV. Go to:  http://montreal.ctv.ca and click on “Newsmaker: So You Think You Can Dance Canada’s Jayme Rae Dailey”

And check out Jayme Rae on Wow tv:

Mandarin:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW54tEc8ApM
Cantonese: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1vfXBrn59o

World Journal, August 26, 2010

Phone Models and 50% off prices

Kyocera Tomo     $55

Samsung R312     $62.50

Kyocera G2GO      $90

The Montreal network had a number of neighbourhoods and areas see improved coverage. They include:

• Dorval (east of the airport): intersection of Griffith St. and McArthur St., Onesime-Gagnon.
• Riviere-des-Prairies: on Saint-Jean-Baptiste Blvd. near Perras Blvd, and on Armand Chaput Ave. (south of RDP).
• St-Pierre City & Montreal-West: Sherbrooke St. West and Westminster Ave.
• North of Verdun: Rozel St. between Charlevoix St. and D’Hibernia St.
• Bout-de-I’lle: Notre-Dame St. East and Raoul Jobin St.
• LaSalle (south west)
• Saint-Laurent (west of Vertu): Muir St.

In Toronto, the site which experienced a minor construction delay went live earlier this week and will cover the area north of Downsview Park.

Thanks for all your blog comments in the past week – we really appreciate them.

• East of Anjou: Pierre-Bernard Blvd. and De Forbin-Janson St., Yves-Prevost Blvd. and Azilda Av.
• Eastern of Saint-Laurent: Authier St. and Bourdon St.
• LaSalle: northern part of Newman Blvd. and from Hwy 20 to De la Verendrye Blvd. (North-South) and De Monk Blvd. to Dollard Av. (East-West)
• North of Outremont: Marie-Anne St. East and Marquette St.
• Cote-des-Neiges & NDG: Mariette Av. between Fielding Av. and Somerled Av.
• NDG: from Queen Mary to Upper Lachine Road (North-South) and Cavendish to LaVerendrye Blvd. (South-West, North-East)
• Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension: Robert Blvd. and 24th Av.

In Toronto, the team has been out working on the areas east, west and north of the city as we prepare to expand our network coverage this fall. Currently we are doing everything from site acquisition to construction to testing of new sites that have been powered up.

We hope these updates are helpful to you and that you’re seeing improvements in these areas.

Please keep the comments coming, we’ll do our best to incorporate your feedback into how we build and tweak the network.

• Riviere-des-Prairies:  we expanded coverage in many areas of RDP such as: Gouin Blvd. East and Alexis Carrel Avenue, 87th Av. and 4th St., Maurice-Duplessis Blvd. and 50th Av., 3rd St. and 63rd Av., on De la Riviere des Prairies Blvd. between the 7th St. and La Martiniere St., 71th Av. between 5th St. and 6th St.
• Montreal-East: Marien Av. and De Montigny St.
• Dorval (near the airport): Saint-Francois Rd. and Vanden Abeele St.

In the upcoming 2 weeks, we’ll be adding more sites that will improve coverage in NDG, St-Pierre City and LaSalle.

As for Toronto, we are continuing to work on the sites mentioned last week. Construction issues delayed these sites from being turned on this past week, but issues are now resolved and completion of these sites is close.

We’re continuing to work to expand and improve our coverage and we hope you’re noticing a difference. Please keep the comments coming as we do forward them on to the network team.

Then, we were at the New Bloor Festival on July 24th to celebrate our local business, community, arts and culture in the middle of the street. We absolutely loved the market-feel, events, activities, exhibitions and the chance to connect, share and learn from all the locals from all the different communities.

It was so great to meet and chat with so many of you at these two festivals. Thanks for showing up and learning a little bit more about Public Mobile.

The festival attracted thousands of people and the atmosphere was amazing. It gave people the opportunity to discover young artists like Mallu Magalhaes, Rommel Ribiero and Bambara Trans (the 2010 winners of the révélation Radio-Canada Musique prize). The Festival Nuits d’Afrique also had the honour of presenting great artists like Kassav’ on the big Metropolis stage for the closing night.

We hope to see you there next year !

As for Montreal, here are the areas that we’ve added network equipment in the last week to improve reception:

• Saint-Henri: St-Jacques St. and Highway 15 – site will provide coverage up to Highway 15 south all the way to the intersection of Highway 20/720 in the east
• West of Saint-Pierre City: Boyer Ave. and Des Erables St.
• North of Hampstead: MacDonald Ave. and Plamondon Ave.
• Town of Mount Royal: Henley Ave. & Dovon Ave. and Graham Blvd.
• East of Longue-Pointe: La Fontaine St. and Emile-Legrand Ave.
• East of Pointe-aux-Trembles: Prince-Albert St. and 16th Avenue
• Southeast of Vertu: Lebeau Blvd.
• Montreal-East: Gouin Blvd. East, between Paul Dufault Ave. and Alexis Carrel Ave.
• South of Tetreaultville: De Bruxelles St. and La Fontaine St.

Next week, our work will focus on the areas of northern Boulevard Newman in LaSalle, NDG, and Montreal-West into St-Pierre City.

We have been able to include 190  countries in our unlimited international text feature, which is included in our $40 talk and text plan.

We’ll continue to work on ways we can add these countries to our overseas calling feature, but in the near future we don’t see a large decline in the costs for calling these countries, so any changes won’t be immediate.

We hope you understand. Thanks again for all your comments and suggestions, we really appreciate them.

As for Montreal, the following areas have had work done, and should see improved coverage:

• Lachine: Sherbrooke St.
• Ahunstic: intersection of Charles de la Tour St. and Antonio Barbeau St.
• Montreal-North: intersection of D’Amiens St. and Pigeon St.
• Plateau Mount Royal: near St-Denis, Rachel St., Papineau Av., St-Joseph Blvd., Saint-Laurent Blvd.
• East Downtown: McGill University, near Park Av., Saint-Laurent Blvd., St-Denis St., Rene-Levesque Blvd. West, Sherbrooke Street West
• Town of Mount Royal: Dunkirk Rd. and the intersection of Rockland Rd. and Graham Blvd.
• Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve: Hochelaga St.
• Tétreaultville; the intersection of Pierre-de-Coubertin Av. and French St.
• Anjou & Riviere-des-Prairies: Highway 40, from the Ray Lawson Blvd. (Anjou) to Saint-Jean Baptiste Blvd. And the refineries areas.
• Saint-Laurent: intersection of Grenet St. and Rochon St.

Next week’s improvements will be fewer as the construction stoppage begins to affect what is possible. Currently we are planning on adding a site at St-Jacques St. and Hwy 15, which should improve the coverage from Hwy 15  to Hwy 20/720 in the East.

If you have any questions or comments, please let us know. We forward them on to the teams here at Public Mobile as they help us improve service and be responsive to you.

Hosting some 80,000 visitors, the Village des Nuits d’Afrique at Place Émilie-Gamelin will have more than 400 artists play 53 concerts in 5 different concert halls. You’ll also be able to find our team there, and they’ll be able to answer any questions you have about Public Mobile. Here’s hoping you come see us at the Festival Nuits d’Afrique 2010!
The Festival will run from July 13-25. More details about the program and artists here at http://www.festivalnuitsdafrique.com/en.

Click here to view the embedded video.

• Bloor St E and Parliament – coverage in the St. Jamestown area, improving coverage around the intersection of Bloor Street and Parliament and the southern sections of Rosedale
• Sheppard Ave East and Kennedy Rd – the Agincourt section of Toronto, and east of Highway 404 and North of Highway 401
• Queen St and University Ave – In building coverage in downtown Toronto, and enhance the coverage at the University/Wellington intersection

The next areas we’ll be working on include the following:

• Yonge Street and Gardiner Expressway – along the Gardiner Expressway, and  in-building coverage in the commercial buildings that line Queens Quay and Yonge Street.
• Lawrence Avenue and Keele Street –Weston area, and along Keele Street

We’ll provide another update next Friday for both Montreal and Toronto. If you have any questions or comments, please let us know.

• Ahunstic-Cartierville: the intersection of Highway 40 and Highway 15, the crossing of O’Brien Blvd. and Salaberry St., as well as on Louisbourg St.
• Pointe-aux-Trembles: West of 2nd Avenue.
• Montreal-North: Fleury St. East as well as the intersection of Saint-Michel Blvd. and Henri-Bourassa Blvd. East.
• Côte-des-Neiges: Victoria Avenue on the west side, up to Côte-des-Neige on the east side, up to The Boulevard on the south and up to Côte-Ste-Catherine Rd. on the north side.

Our next update should include these sites:

• Plateau Mont-Royal: Parc La Fontaine Avenue, Rachel St., St-Denis St., Papineau Avenue, St-Joseph Blvd. and Saint-Laurent Blvd.
• East Downtown: the intersection of Sherbrooke and Saint-Urbain, McGill University, Park Avenue, Saint-Laurent Blvd., Saint-Denis, René-Lévesque Blvd. West and Sherbrooke St. West.
• Anjou & Rivière-des-Prairies: the crossing of Henri-Bourassa Blvd. and Rodolphe-Forget Blvd. as well as from the Ray Lawson Blvd. (Anjou) to Saint-Jean Baptiste Blvd. And the refineries areas.

One further update that will affect the next two weeks is the province-wide construction stoppage. This will affect our network construction through to August 2nd when the construction stoppage is lifted.

Thanks again for your comments – we read them all and provide feedback to the team here at Public Mobile.

For just $15 per month you can add the unlimited overseas long distance feature to your existing $40 plan allowing you to dial 45 countries and have unlimited talk with your family and friends.

We’ve seen the blog comments asking us to add countries such as Haiti, Jamaica, Lebanon, Pakistan, Philippines, Bangladesh,  Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Guyana, Trinidad, Algeria St. Vincent, Iraq, Bahamas, Morocco and more. We are working hard and doing our best to add more countries; we most recently added Guadeloupe to the list, as well as adding mobile phones in Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and Guam.  As much as we’d always like to be adding countries to the overseas long distance plan, sometimes conditions beyond our control necessitate removing a country. We’re sorry to let you know this past week we had to remove Jordan from the plan due to a Jordanian government tax that was implemented that affected the connection charges.  We will continue to update you as we add new countries.

In addition to launching overseas long distance, we’re also adding international text to the $40 plan tomorrow which will allow you to send texts to 190 countries around the world. For all those asking us to add additional countries to the overseas long distance feature, take a look at the list of countries we provide international texting to. Many of the countries you’ve asked for are now included, so you’ll be able to text friends and family around the world as part of our unlimited talk and text plan.

To view the complete list of available countries and check the availability of the number you want to call, click here

• Bloor Street and Bathurst Street
• Lakeshore Boulevard and Spadina Ave.
• Don Mills Road and Lawrence Avenue East
• Victoria Park and Sheppard Avenue East
• Bloor Street East and Parliament Avenue
• Highway 401 and Meadowvale Avenue

We’re continuing to build and expand the network as fast as we can, and appreciate your patience and feedback as we do so.

We’ll have an update for both Montreal and Toronto on Friday, letting you know what’s been happening in the past week.

Have you spotted the guys from www.freestylesoccer.ca at our Montreal locations yet? Carlos and Houcine have been doing a tour of various locations in Montreal for the past week showing off their amazing soccer acrobatics and tricks with a ball.  Each trick is an amazing combination of creativity, imagination and ball control. They will be at the Boulevard Shopping Centre in Montreal this Saturday, July 10th – see details below.

On Saturday, we will also be giving a free ZTE C78 phone to everyone who buys any regularly priced Public Mobile phone.  Bring a friend or family member to one of our stores and sign up to one of our unlimited plans, and you’ll both have unlimited time to talk about the big game on Sunday!

The Boulevard Shopping Centre is located at the corner of Pie IX Boulevard and Jean-Talon Boulevard East. They will be there from 9am-4pm.

• Saint-Laurent (Côte-Vertu Blvd & Cavendish Blvd)
• Ahunstic (Emile-Journault Ave and Papineau)
• Anjou (Les Galeries Anjou Blvd and Beaubien St East)
• Rivière-des-Prairies (Perras Blvd and Armand Bombardier Blvd)
• Lachine (south of Hwy 20, near 46th Ave)
• LaSalle (south of Parc Angrignon)

We also have sites scheduled to go up next week that will improve coverage in the following area:

• Côte-des-Neiges and Queen-Mary

We’re going to work to provide updates on Friday of every week in future weeks. We receive a report from the Network team late on Thursdays and this will allow us to keep you informed as to what we’ve accomplished during the week.

Please keep sending us your comments, and we’ll keep working to improve.

Thanks again for your patience.

Thameen (left) and Alex (right) help introduce customers to unlimited cell phone service in Toronto

We stopped by the Wellesley Street store the other day and spent some time with two of the guys that work there – Alex and Thameen. They are excited to be working for Public Mobile and the opportunities it presents being a new company starting out. Both are currently students studying here in Toronto – Alex studying International Business, and Thameen studying Electrical Engineering.

Thanks for all your efforts guys.

There are new sites going live in the next week, which will improve coverage in the following areas:

• Côte-Vertu
• Ahunstic
• Rivière-des-Prairies

Additionally, we are extending the remorse return period until July 13th for those customers that activated their phone prior to July 6th. This means that if you are unhappy with our service, you can return the phone with the original invoice and packaging and we’ll provide you with a full refund.

We are aware that some customers haven’t had ideal experience to date, and we apologize for that and thank you for your patience.

To see which store is nearest to you, visit our store locator.