Cell Phone Plans

[PepsiFree]

If you don’t need an actual line and just want data (good for imessage, facetime, whatsapp, etc) then Airalo is quite a bit cheaper at around $4 for a gig. They also have sales sometimes on bigger packages (10GB/30 Days for $12 right now).

[cheevers]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

Currently a customer of Koodo, have been for years. Decided to look at Freedom today and was impressed with some of their BYOD plans. For the same price I'm paying with Koodo, I can also get USA and Mexico roaming included, for the next 2 yrs anyways. On top of that, the 5G speeds with Koodo have been underwhelming. Think I was doing better with the LTE plan with speedboost.


I recall the knock against Freedom was coverage not being so good, I assume that's improved these days? Anything to be concerned about with Freedom?


One thing I liked about Koodo was the ability to log into my account and change my plan easily online if something better popped up, I assume you can do that with Freedom as well?

I have found the coverage has gotten better since they have gone to the Rogers (was it Rogers?) 5g. Never have a problem in Calgary, when I go to Canmore the coverage is not great, but has improved since the switchover.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by cheevers

I have found the coverage has gotten better since they have gone to the Rogers (was it Rogers?) 5g. Never have a problem in Calgary, when I go to Canmore the coverage is not great, but has improved since the switchover.

Videotron.

[bizaro86]

I switched to a second line on my wife's Fido account, and got my first bill. It has $20 for a 20 minute call to the US. That's pretty typical for the US for me, but adding a $15/month unlimited USA, or even their $6/month for "preferred international" rates seems ridiculous. With my previous public mobile plan I had paid $10 for like 1000 minutes once 5 years ago and hadn't run out yet, so to pay double that for one call annoys me quite a bit.

Maybe I should just switch back as I don't think I really need 5g data anyway...

[Aegypticus]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

If you don’t need an actual line and just want data (good for imessage, facetime, whatsapp, etc) then Airalo is quite a bit cheaper at around $4 for a gig. They also have sales sometimes on bigger packages (10GB/30 Days for $12 right now).

I just got back from the Palm Springs area and used Airalo. Highly recommended. Easy to setup since it uses an eSIM and it’s all done with their app, cost me $10 US for 10 gigs of data with a sale and a referral code.

I just disabled my Rogers sim for the duration of my trip since well over 99% of my usage is pure data anyways, but my understanding is there is a way to keep your main line active and not incur roaming charges so long as you don’t make or receive any phone calls.

I just loved being able to use my phone totally normally while knowing I wasn’t getting raked for $16 a day or whatever it is Roger’s charges these days, and without having to mess around with swapping physical sims like I’ve done in the past.

Edit: and they have data plans for many countries, not just the US.

[Jacks]

Anyone have any experience with PC Mobile?
https://www.pcmobile.ca/en/
It appears to use the Bell 5G network.
$29/month for 25gigs, unlimited talk/text Can/US plus you get 10% of each payment back PC points.

Seems too good to be true?

[keratosis]

Bell in Alberta piggybacks off of Telus, or at least they used to so you should be okay there. As for PC? Maybe look into public mobile, some pretty good plans there. Right now I'm grandfathered in to a 150gb a month plan with Koodo with rollover data for $50 a month so no intentions of moving anywhere for the time being. Also 5G in Alberta really doesn't give a substantial bump in speed over 4g lte+. Also uses a bit more battery as it's always looking for 5g.
By the way my plan is 5g but I have my phone set to 4g only because of where I live.

[Jacks]

Public Mobile has similar rate plans but from what I've heard you're out of luck if you have problems because they don't have support.

[PepsiFree]

If you ever see a great plan on an absolutely crap provider (and assuming you’re already with one of the big established ones), just switch and wait for them to call you to get you back and offer you the same plan.

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by Aegypticus

I just got back from the Palm Springs area and used Airalo. Highly recommended. Easy to setup since it uses an eSIM and it’s all done with their app, cost me $10 US for 10 gigs of data with a sale and a referral code.

I just disabled my Rogers sim for the duration of my trip since well over 99% of my usage is pure data anyways, but my understanding is there is a way to keep your main line active and not incur roaming charges so long as you don’t make or receive any phone calls.

I just loved being able to use my phone totally normally while knowing I wasn’t getting raked for $16 a day or whatever it is Roger’s charges these days, and without having to mess around with swapping physical sims like I’ve done in the past.

Edit: and they have data plans for many countries, not just the US.

You can leave the primary phone number active with eSim. Just turn off roaming. Phone calls can still come in just not data and text. You’ll pay if you answer but I am sure it would be a special call to pick up.

I used airalo in Japan and kept my primary phone on. No charges

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by keratosis

Bell in Alberta piggybacks off of Telus, or at least they used to so you should be okay there. As for PC? Maybe look into public mobile, some pretty good plans there. Right now I'm grandfathered in to a 150gb a month plan with Koodo with rollover data for $50 a month so no intentions of moving anywhere for the time being. Also 5G in Alberta really doesn't give a substantial bump in speed over 4g lte+. Also uses a bit more battery as it's always looking for 5g.
By the way my plan is 5g but I have my phone set to 4g only because of where I live.

Yup 5G is LTE more/less. 5G+ is the step up and for someone on it, can tell you its useless extra bandwidth. Most things can not serve you at 600mbs for example

[cam_wmh]

Anyone jumped on one of the new MVNO’s, since thr CRTC ruling last year allowing them?
https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2023/2023-133.htm

https://crtc.gc.ca/otf/eng/2020/8160/8160_20.htm


I’m stuck in a mountain town, where Roger’s connectivity is significantly better than TELUS. Plus I have an Apple Watch, that many of the low cost operators don’t have licensing for.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by Jacks

Anyone have any experience with PC Mobile?
https://www.pcmobile.ca/en/
It appears to use the Bell 5G network.
$29/month for 25gigs, unlimited talk/text Can/US plus you get 10% of each payment back PC points.

Seems too good to be true?

Seems like you can't use data in the USA.

[Cheese]

always check these guys for best deals...
https://www.cellphoneman.ca/scarlet-unlocked

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by Jacks

Anyone have any experience with PC Mobile?
https://www.pcmobile.ca/en/
It appears to use the Bell 5G network.
$29/month for 25gigs, unlimited talk/text Can/US plus you get 10% of each payment back PC points.

Seems too good to be true?

Just as a follow up, the PC Mobile plan is a bit of a bait and switch. The $29 plan is a prepaid and apparently (according to the desk jockey) inferior service, the real plan is $34. Anyway, was ready to switch, called Telus to cancel and they gave me 50GB/unlimited talk text/etc for $40 + a new phone for another $25/month. Good enough for me, hate going through the whole routine every bloody time though.

[ken0042]

Get that Telus deal in writing. My wife had switched to Telus at one point and it took us 8 months of phoning them every month to get them to honour the deal they offered.

[Jacks]

I had them send me a confirmation email of the deal, which they did. Also checked the website the next day and my plan had been updated already, phone should be arriving today.

[edslunch]

I’m using eSIM on my European holiday and it works great, for cheap. Makes me think about downgrading my Telus plan to voice only and going with eSIM for data. Has anyone done this?

[ken0042]

What eSIM provider are you looking at that has data that cheap in Canada? The ones I have looked at have been comparable to Canadian data plans, but certainly not better.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by ken0042

What eSIM provider are you looking at that has data that cheap in Canada? The ones I have looked at have been comparable to Canadian data plans, but certainly not better.

I wonder if they mean they'll just do call and text and then basically load a data e-sim in a sort of pay as you go situation. Some people are used to not having data, and usually have access to regular wifi.

But now that you can basically get a <10GB plan for like <$35 and a phone only plan is like $25-30, it seems like a pain to toggle with that for $60-100 a year.