WIND Mobile announced at a news conference this morning it has now rebranded to Freedom Mobile, and is set to launch its new LTE network in Toronto and Vancouver on November 27, with other markets to come in 2017.
“As WIND Mobile, we built a strong foundation of more than a million customers,” said CEO Alek Krstajic. “And as Freedom Mobile, we are reaffirming our commitment to them and to the core principles of our business – value, transparency and fairness.”
The company’s vision now has four values: Freedom to connect and communicate, freedom from excessive and unfair prices.
LTE will expand to the Greater Toronto Area and Greater Vancouver by Spring 2017, while Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton will go live by the summer. Existing 3G coverage areas (including southwestern Ontario, the Hamilton-Niagara corridor, Barrie, Kingston and Peterborough) will see the LTE network live in the fall. Freedom Mobile says LTE roaming will be available in the U.S. and Canada in early 2017.
The company’s LTE network will be on its new AWS-3 spectrum band, which will allow for increased speed and coverage.
Update: iPhone 5 or later models support LTE, but only Band 4 AWS, which means they won’t work on this new Freedom Mobile LTE network.
WIND Mobile’s existing 1 million customers will be automatically transitioned to the new company with no action needed on their part. The company will rebrand all its advertising this week and will see the new Freedom Mobile Halftime Show starring One Republic at the 104th Grey Cup in Toronto, presented by Shaw, their parent company.
Freedom Mobile has launched some aggressive LTE plans, some with promo pricing for 12 months that surely will put pressure on Rogers, Telus and Bell.
There is one $40/month plan (for 12 months; save $5/month) which offers 6GB of 3G data (updated), along with unlimited calls in Canada and the US, plus global SMS/MMS:
Other plans are as follows, with promo savings already applied to listed prices:
As for LTE smartphones for their LTE network, Freedom Mobile will have the LG V20 (available now) and the ZTE Grand X 4 (coming early December).
Unfortunately, there is no iPhone available yet, but the company says their hardware line up will “expand substantially and quickly in 2017”. Now that they have an LTE network, the iPhone is inevitable so stay tuned if you’re into contracts.
Maybe Telus anticipated these plans were coming with their recent Public Mobile $38/4GB promo (which Fido and Virgin have matched; check out these crazy Fido line ups in Vancouver).
What do you think of these plans and Freedom Mobile? This is great news for wireless consumers–bring on the competition.
Update: a Freedom Mobile spokesperson clarified to us via email “For launch, the plan that supports LTE data is our new $45 Smartphone LTE plan, with 3GB of data. Our Black Friday offer is $40 with double your data with 3 GB of data and 3 GB of bonus data.”
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I am not willing to move to windmobile unless these roaming stupidity is gone. I refuse to pay extra for any roaming withint canada. Its should be all included in plan. They need to expand there coverage otherwise no sense in just bringing LTE
But you want lower price plans too … can’t have your cake and eat it too.
It kills the concept of lower price plan when you end up paying charges for out of wind network even in your home city. That also kills LTE option. They need more towers to expand their network and be self dependant.
Sure, but that cost
$$$$
everything costs money. That’s no longer are an excuse
Exactly. That’s why there’s roaming.
I had horrible experience with Wind’s reception before. I am definitely sticking with my Fido special plan for now.
There is a trade-off for the price. No network has 100% coverage. You get more data for less, with less coverage.
only the $40 plan has LTE. The other plans are stuck on 3G.
LTE isn’t even out yet, they’ll slowly make the switch, don’t worry.
Wind/Freedom probably just in a rush to grab some of the $40 hype before it’s old news, labelling it as LTE, hoping to take advantage of people who don’t realize they don’t have LTE yet.
And that their iPhone isn’t capable on their network
Wife uses iPhone on wind everyday for the last year or so without issues. No restriction, iMessage and FaceTime activate and work properly too. No need to do that activation trick anymore. Just have to set the APN yourself which takes 2 minutes.
So it isn’t officially supported, but it works just fine.
How can you say the iPhone works fine on Wind when you wrote yourself that LTE isn’t even available :p
Makes calls, sends texts, uses data, has iMessage, FaceTime all work 😛
Data speed is about 7Mbps DL which is average for 3G. Everything works.
They won’t work on the LTE plans, but they will work fine on 3G.
It works on 3G.
$40 3+3 GB I believe that promo is in 3G speed only.
I just switched to PM from Virgin. So not looking to switch again to Wind so soon, maybe in 6-12 months. I hope by that time they will support iPhone on their new LTE network. Bell/Rogers will see massive customer exodus.
The problem is whether next generation iPhone will support WIND’s network, Wind can do nothing to support all current and old iPhones.
These offers won’t gain much traction until people can use their current iPhones on the network.
My wife uses wind on her iPhone without issues. The only thing you have to do is setup your APN settings yourself which takes 2 minutes and you’re done. iMessage and FaceTime work properly without that silly activation trick you had to do in the past.
My biggest question is will the currently latest iPhones be able to use the LTE data or not. I’ll have to check the bands and do a little home work.
They won’t. Current iPhones don have AWS3 band support. That WIND / FREEDOM is launching LTE ON.
Thanks for that info bud 🙂
So I doubt it will get the same buzz the PM deal just received.
And how many people realize they can’t get full capability from their iPhone on winds network? Of Apple hasn’t implemented bands too work on wind by now., how likely will they anytime soon?
It’s going to be interesting to see if WIND has improved their network capacity and coverage beyond just adding LTE — I spent about six months on WIND about two years ago, and it was a horrible experience in terms of getting decent signal and performance even around downtown Toronto, and it seemed that whenever there was a rain storm, I lost signal at home entirely — and I was well on the beaten path in uptown Toronto, so it’s not like I was in an obscure coverage area. At Taste of the Danforth, the towers were so saturated I had “No Service” for the entire day.
After six months of that I came to the conclusion that you get what you pay for, and went crawling back to Bell and begging them to take me back.
Public Mobile is still better.
I’m with PM and have been for over a year. The only way I’ll switch is if they offer a LTE $35/ monthly with 6GB unlimited Canada?USA calling, unlimited global texts, call display and Voicemail.
Even then, with the loyalty discount from PM I might just stay.
I suggest staying with Pm. Wind is becoming really sketchy.
Of course. 1$/month off after a year is one heck of a deal ????
$2 for 2nd, $3 for 3rd up to $5 for 5th year…. and what does Rogers or Bell give you? NADA.
Rogers and Bell do give you something… a price increase
Please inform yourself. Thanks.
Well answer the question? What do they give you? Or will we have to wait another 4 months for you to post a reply?
You haven’t answered the question? Or is it going to take you another 4 months?
I won’t do you that favor =)
Are you going to make another irrelevant, uninformed post?
Do yourself a favor and stop trolling people on the internet. It’s not a good look. Don’t bother to respond because I won’t *clap* back.
You have been BLOCKED! Gurl bye!
Boohoo..
Update: a Freedom Mobile spokesperson clarified to us via email “For launch, the plan that supports LTE data is our new $45 Smartphone LTE plan, with 3GB of data. Our Black Friday offer is $40 with double your data with 3 GB of data and 3 GB of bonus data.”
#HellToTheNo!
It’s a good news for wireless competition and a good day for Canadians. Hope their LTE will be better in terms of connectivity and hope Apple makes next iPhone AWS 3 compatible cause Apple started using 2 different LTE MODEMS in the latest iPhone. Qualcomm And Intel. Qualcomm LTE chips are integrated with more LTE bands used worldwide than Intel. hope Apple puts Qualcomm chips in Canadian iPhones. Fingers crossed. I can’t switch to wind unless iphone becomes usable in its network and looks like it’s gonna be this time next year, if it at all happens.
Umm. Whatever
The Canadian SIM-Free iPhone 7 is the same variant as Verizon, which has Qualcomm.
And the iPhone works on Freedome Mobile (aka Roam Mobile) network.
Actually, no, it’s not. The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus that are sold in Canada are the A1778/A1774 models (you can look on the back of your iPhone to confirm this), which are the Intel versions.
Only the U.S. SIM-free models are the A1660/A1661 Qualcomm models, which of course work on Verizon.
(Apple doesn’t actually sell a specific “SIM-free” model in Canada, per se anyway… ALL of the iPhones sold by Apple in Canada are “SIM-free” — the distinction is only made in the U.S. as you can also order your iPhone on a carrier contract directly from Apple)
In a Canadian Apple Store, you can buy your iPhone either factory unlocked OR get it on a plan with the carrier of your choice (although, the phone is locked to that carrier).
True. I was thinking in terms of the online store. In the U.S., Apple sells carrier contract iPhones online as well as in-store, and therefore specifically advertises a “SIM-Free” model.
Regardless, to the best of my knowledge, all of the iPhone 7 models sold by Apple in Canada are the A1778/A1774 Intel modem versions — which makes sense as there are no major CDMA networks in Canada.
I think the 6s/6s Plus were CDMA compatible.
Yup, that’s right. As were the 6 and 6 Plus.
The only other models were one designed specifically for China Mobile, and a version designed specifically for AT&T and its regional partner networks that added LTE Band 30 support.
Apple will certainly make their next phones compatible with Band 66 on AWS-3 because a few US Carriers are launching it too.
This is pure c ra p. You can clearly see Shaw promotions/marketing department is running with this promo. It’s confusing and misleading at best. If this is the new Wind, people should be very versatile scared.
Can you elaborate?
I think what I noticed right away is how there is basically a hidden price (kind of).
In Alberta Shaw regularly runs promos where its like $50 for super fast internet or something. But what they put in smaller print is that that price is for only the first 3 months.
In the case of FM we have 6Gb, but only for a limited time, where afterwards it will drop down to 3GB.
Its similar is all.
IMO, Data plans are a waste of money anyhow. I have WIFI at home, I have WIFI at work, and there’s literally hundreds if not thousands of free WIFI hot spots around the city that I can use in a pinch if I have to. Until the big four networks start charging a far more reasonable price for data access, I will simply go with only talk and text as my cellular plan. If we don’t buy the BS in the first place, then they won’t be able to gouge us so much.
It only works on LTE band 66. Most phones don’t run on band 66. So basically to use it you would need to buy a new phone.
That’s a limitation of the spectrum available, not an intentional money grab or anything. The government needs to make spectrum affordable.
H O R R I B L E Offer folks:
Note 3GB bonus is only good until January 31, 2018; roughly 12 months.
After 12 months, you are looking at 3GB/mo for $45……. Unless you have dire need for lots of Canada-Wide calling there isn’t much value in their LTE plans. Especially if you jumped onto Public mobile plan for $38
On top of that, you have to buy phone for $1000 (ZTE seems garbage).
In addition, coverage will be inferior for years to come
You can bring your own unlocked phone.
Wonder How this will play out. One tip toe in the right direction towards lower prices for Canadians. Something needs to give, Canadians need a break on their bill.
Hence why offering a ‘Home’ coverage network as big as my purse won’t help that.
I left Roger’s because they wouldn’t let me activate a new device unless I changed plans. Forced. Now I’m being forced to use 3g for my service because again I don’t want to change my plan. I stuck it out with Wind because I knew they would get better service. Turns out I rooted for the the new addition now to become the “Big 4”. So much for the little guy eh?
I’m in that boat now. I was told by a rogers rep that I could switch from fido to them and upgrade to iPhone 7 on contract when it came it without changing my promo plan. Now they tell me I have no choice but to change my planned I want the phone contract. We’re switching companies because of this.
Oh man….. they finally launch their LTE network and practically no current phones support it.
Erm.. almost every phone on the market nowadays support LTE.
Unfortunately, not on the AWS-3 band that WIND is using….
Yes. There are very few phones that support Band 66.
Wow. They could’ve used a more common band..
Lol somebody didn’t read the article!
Their ‘Home’ coverage is ridiculous. My kitchen is bigger than that.
I mean, what other carrier offers roaming OUTSIDE of your town or province? (Beside long-distance feels for plans that aren’t ‘province-wide’ (almost inexistant, anymore)).
None.
They should’ve renamed to ‘Roam Mobile’ (their plans offer plenty of data for cheap but hey, if you go pee and end up roaming, what’s the point?).
Their only other option would be to privately build out the network for a decade before offering any service. And even then they would not please everyone, everywhere.
If you want an unlimited plan and live in the city, it’s a great deal.
The “roaming” is not terribly priced anyway.
Remember when Wind, I mean Freedom Mobile had unlimited everything, data included (although throttled to slowdown after reaching a certain bandwidth cap).
Pepridge Farms remembers lol
I tried Wind 2-3 years ago when I needed data on my iPad. Even though the plan was 3G speed with no cap, reception was friggin terrible to the max. I could barely use it indoor, 20th floor up with no nearby obstruction downtown Vancouver. Hope they’re doing better now.
I know its just branding, but renaming it ‘Freedom’ frankly gives me the willies, much like the term ‘Homeland Security’ does. Because of how its been used by others in the past – and recently, in these increasingly Interesting Times – there’s a slightly xenophobic, militaristic bend to the term.
Meanwhile, I’m not sure what was wrong with Wind – while the above specs on the new service suggests anything but ‘Freedom’. Irony R Us.
Their LTE network won’t work with iPhones? That’s a bummer. In any case, I’ve heard very mixed reviews regarding WIND’s coverage in Toronto, so I would be prepared to jump in regardless.
The only phone for now that will work with wind LTE is lg-v20 that you can get at wind.
The Blackberry Passport should work with Wind LTE.
I just got Koodo 5GB unlimited canada wide for 48$. Thanks Gary!!
Nice! Cheers. You in BC or AB?
Cool! That’s a nice plan ????
None of these “discount” networks are really any competition for the big four networks, because they are all owned by the big four anyhow. Koodo is Telus. Mobilicity, Fido and Chatr are Rodgers. Wind/Freedom is Shaw, Virgin is Bell. This is why Canadians get screwed over in the cellular market, because the market is an oligopoly that is completely controlled by these four companies, who collude to keep cellular prices artificially high.
FOR PRE-PAID WIND MOBILE SERVICE WHEN YOU PAY YOUR MONTHLY FEE SAY FOR EXAMPLE $30 THEN IMMEDIATELY AFTER PAYMENT A TEXT-MESSAGE USE TO COME TO YOUR MOBILE THAT $30 HAS BEEN RECEIVED AND HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR ACCOUNT BUT AFTER WIND MOBILE BECAME “FREEDOM MOBILE ” THISA TEXT-MESSAGE NEVER COMES INSTEAD JUST SAYS ,IN THE TEXT-MESSAGE THAT YOUR CONFIRMATION NUMBER IS —————–.
FREEDOM MOBILE APPEARS TO BE NOW WIND MOBILE WITHOUT ANY FREEDOM TO RECEIVE THE LEGITIMATE RECEIPT/ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE RECEIPT OF YOUR PAYMENT AND UTTERLY VIOLATED CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT OF CANADA .
THIS APPEARS TO BE A BIG SCAM ALREADY HAS BEEN STARTED BY WIND MOBILE (FRWEEDOM MOBILE).
Thanks for yelling it. It’s a lot more clear and full of sense, now.
I changed to LTE and there is no LTE on my Samsung Note 5, ever (If it’s due to the band issue, well that’s just horrible). Half the time it’s so slow on 4g I just give up using my phone when I’m out. Freedom mobile is the worst and slowest service ever and the LTE doesn’t even work?! Btw, I just came from Thailand, $20 for unlimited everything for 1 month and they have cellular LTE responsiveness and speeds blow Canada out of the water (even on remote islands).. and that’s a third world country… Come on Canada!!! Catch up already…
do you know if the iphone 6 is compatible with Freedom/Wind?
Roaming charges are not my problem, I find the administration is the problem. They are rude, and they don’t care about helping their customers, instead the would rather pass the problem along to someone else. I strongly dislike having to deal with the administration when they are focusing on other things, rather than the issue(s) at hand. All they want is their money, and have no time explaining/helping you with the issue of the bill. If you sign up for $45 unlimited plan, it is misleading you into believing that the $45 plus tax is it, until you get a bill that is almost double what signed up for, but don’t give a good reason as to why your bill has changed, I think that called double talk! Or the time when I paid my bill, less than $1 and they disconnected my service until I paid the bill in full. That was my first time dealing with Freedom Mobile