Well, I guess this is Videotron’s ‘FAFO’ message to Canada’s ‘Big 3’ wireless carriers. The company’s subsidiary Freedom Mobile has launched a new $50 Canada-US plan that includes talk, text and data, at a far cheaper price than incumbents.
With marketing that also touts it as “two countries, one sweet deal”, Freedom Mobile includes 40GB of LTE data, available nationwide and in the U.S. Yes, that means the 40GB of LTE data works outside of your home zone.
This Canada-US 40GB plan is priced at $50 with Digital Discount (after pre-authorized credit card payments) and includes unlimited calling to and from both countries and unlimited text.
If you need a Canada/US plan from Rogers, Telus or Bell? You’ll need to fork out $105/month for a 5G plan that includes 150GB of data. If you can control your data needs, paying $50 for a Canada/US plan seems more economical.
For existing Freedom Mobile customers paying $50 per month for a phone plan, you should switch over to this 40GB plan, as the US addition makes it easy for travelling down south. You won’t have to worry about any extra roaming charges.
Freedom Mobile still charges a $45 one-time connection fee for all new lines or device activations and upgrades. If you ask for it, you might have luck getting this fee waived at retail locations.
Back in April, Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau said if the ‘Big 3’ don’t react to Freedom Mobile price cuts, “they are going to lose significant market share.” Rogers has already stated they will “not be undersold” in response to price drops from Freedom Mobile.
Who’s switching to this $50/40GB Freedom Mobile Canada/US plan?
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Finally a plan worth switching away from my Promo Everywhere 50. All switched now.
I’m keeping my Promo Everywhere 50, as I don’t want to lose my 35% F&F discount.
Same here on Promo Everywhere 50, plus with extra lifetime data bonus offered and lifetime F&F discount, I am at 35GB of data for $35.
I can’t say as I blame you! $35/mo is hard to beat. I would have kept my Promo Everywhere if I was only paying $35 for it. Having said that, I dumped my Promo Everywhere 50 last month for the $39 20gb deal. I just upgraded to this today…it was a no brainer for me!
This is by far the best phone plan I have ever seen, and I switched my two phone lines to this new plan this morning.
Freedom Mobile changed their Fair Use policy alongside this new plan ↓
From
https://www.freedommobile.ca/docs/default-source/default-document-library/data-fair-usage-policy.pdf?origin_team=TBM9Z4PQU:So, if you’re outside the main Freedom coverage area, you’ll probably be cut off? Not much of a deal, until they get broader national coverage on the home network. This will be good for GTA/Golden Horseshoe dwellers.
If it’s over multiple billing periods with little to no home network usage (you can easily avoid this by regularly using WiFi Calling since that’s considered home network usage), they can restrict or terminate at their discretion.
Vidéotron/Freedom do need to abide by their roaming agreements with these third party providers, which adding these terms into the policy is mostly appeasing, while simultaneously providing them grounds to get rid of accounts that abuse Terms of Service (the Data Fair Usage Policy is an extension of that).
this plan is amazing, i will switch all 3 of my plans over, i will lose a few gb here and there but the roaming is worth it. untill the standard is usa/canada data
FYI, I’m adding this via eSIM and the agent online told me I can’t get Visual Voicemail on this plan. But they did waive my connection fee.
Could have been referred to get a $25 credit.
What did you say to request activation fee waiver? I tried through chat but rep denied, store rep said she was also out of waivers.
PS: I was trying to add a 2nd line on an existing account.
I didn’t ask for it. I did request visual voicemail after they were mostly done setting up the line and they said “no problem.” Then a few minutes later said it’s not allowed on this plan, likely because of the roaming capabilities, and that they would waive the fee.
What did you say to request activation fee waiver? I tried through chat but rep denied, store rep said she was also out of waivers.
PS: I was trying to add a 2nd line on an existing account.
Is there any charge for data overage ?
No, it’s throttled afterwards as detailed @
https://www.freedommobile.ca/docs/default-source/default-document-library/data-fair-usage-policy.pdf?origin_team=TBM9Z4PQUNow if they just extended the deal to cover Mexico….where I pay $10 Can per mo for unlimited calls and text throughout North America, but with only 3GB data. Add Mexico and I’m a Freedom subscriber
It’s funny… Do you know that plans from Mexico get free US and Canada roaming, including data and even while on prepaid? It would not only be much cheaper but also more convenient by a factor of 3 to just use and buy a Mexican sim from Telcel.
It’s hard to believe how badly we get hosed in Canada. This Freedom $50 plan is a phenomenal deal, especially if you live in somewhere like Windsor or travel to the US a lot. Having said that, it is still expensive compared to what you would pay in Europe for the same data bucket with pan-European roaming. This is a step in the right direction. Competition is good for consumers, just look how quickly the big three matched the Freedom $39 20gb plan. I’m interested to see if they will match this as well!
It’s funny… Do you know that plans from Mexico get free US and Canada roaming, including data and even while on prepaid? It would not only be much cheaper but also more convenient by a factor of 3 to just use and buy a Mexican sim from Telcel.
Ooops, just read the fine print – if you use your plan more than 25% outside the Freedom network, you’re cut off. Bye bye Freedom
Even so, that’s 10gb of away data. Bear in mind, they are talking about consecutive billing cycles. You can use all 40gb on your trip to Disneyland as long as you don’t do that every month. If you live in a city served by Freedom and you’re not a travelling salesman, you’ll probably be okay.
I believe it is if you regularly spend at least 25% of your time in a nationwide or US zone that is a problem, not 10gb. If you use 2gb a month but spend 50% of your time out of zone, then that’s the problem.
Good point. Definitely not for everyone. If do you spend most of your time in a Freedom zone, it’s hard to argue with though.
I am trying the plan out on eSIM but disappointed with the service so far. Fido is much more reliable in Abbotsford, BC and I rarely get LTE. Often the data doesn’t even work when it says Freedom 3G with 3 or 4 bars. Bummer. Glad it’s easy to cancel. I’ll give it a few more days.
I’m in Abbotsford as well and have not had any reliability issues with Freedom for many years (was a bit spotty at times in the early Wind days).
Thanks for the comment! I’m glad to hear that. I’ll keep trying it out for a few more weeks.
It will probably also depend on where in Abbotsford you tend to be. When I used to work in Burnaby the coverage was terrible in the area I worked in. If you don’t need the US coverage (used to roam to AT&T at Costco a few years back, but calling in would usually get that cleared) then the new Fido plan might be worth looking at, or there might even be other good deals soon based on what we are seeing right now.
I checked with Freedom today and unfortunately they say they can’t port my Fido number to them… So I’ll have to ponder on that one for a while. I’ve been reading on Reddit that they only provide numbers from Vancouver, Abbotsford and one other city in BC that I forget at the moment. Since my number is registered in Aldergrove their system said it can’t be ported. That’s no fun.
Still no service in Manitoba in 2023. RIP
So it’s 40GB Freedom “Nationwide” and 0 “Freedom” Network? Just switched mid month and it says I’m at my max 7GB for Freedom Network.
I currently have the TELUS 150 GB US/Canada plan, but I’ve signed up for the Freedom plan and am waiting for my SIM card to arrive. I have been with them all at one point, so I don’t have any loyalties to any of them as they’ve all screwed me one way or another over time. The best customer service was with Clearnet but they were gobbled up by Telus years ago. I will chirp in on the service and speed of this new product after a month or two, or sooner if it is a dud.