Anybody need some cellular data?
- Thread starter mimico_polak
- Start date
And price hikes on a regular basis.
All these other carriers are now falling over themselves to match Freedom Mobile, but if you look at the fine print, well, expect price hikes.
This is why I love freedom. I'm still paying the exact same amount (to the penny) as I did when I moved 7 years ago, and my wife over 10+ years ago now.
The reception used? to be garbage. I went back to freedom twice and left promptly. Glad it's finally improved but even that unlimited data $30 plan they had wasn't worth the headache at the time.
It's pretty solid now honestly. Plus all the limits on data usage while roaming in Canada were removed so now your bucket is your bucket. Game changer for me when travelling with the camper in the summer.
Is it the Big3? No, but getting closer. But for the $34+tax I'm paying for north of 80 gigs plus unlimited USA roaming on a really old grandfathered plan with some lifetime discounts applied, they'll have to pry it from my cold dead fingers.
Is it the Big3? No, but getting closer. But for the $34+tax I'm paying for north of 80 gigs plus unlimited USA roaming on a really old grandfathered plan with some lifetime discounts applied, they'll have to pry it from my cold dead fingers.
I don't think Public Mobile has to fall all over anyone. But I do agree Freedom is the driving force behind these deals.
In the 6 years I've been with Public Mobile we have never had a price increase.. lots of price reductions though.
I need the reliability Public/Telus provides. When I'm up in Moose Puke Ontario and work calls I need it to work.
On Freedom you can roam on any 3 or the big carriers when outside the home network, so you have the best of all worlds. There's been a few times in remote areas where we had service where our friends on one of the Big3 had none.
ifiddles
Well-known member
@PrivatePilot so you're happy with Freedom then...I just increased my data with Fido and got what I thought was a good deal, however looking at Freedom's bring your own phone plans, these look amazing...we'll be camping with the new trailer now and want to make sure I can use my phone as a hotspot for my tablet without worrying about data usage...
Freedom had some growing pains, particularly back during the Wind era, however I'm the type who supports the scrappy underdog, and honestly, even back in the Wind days as long as you had realistic expectations, well, I was paying a third of what I was paying with Fido, previously Bell before that. I've saved literally tens of thousands of dollars now over the years.
Ask for data usage, once you are outside of their home network your roam on one of the big three, and like I said, your phone will switch to one of the three to ensure that you always have service. The only stipulation with roaming is that you don't spend months outside of their home zone, i.e. permanent roaming. During the summer I regularly use more than half of my monthly data allotment roaming however and I've never had any sort of problems from them over it honestly.
Our plan has had the included US roaming since forever, so whereas everybody else was paying through the nose years ago whenever we would cross the border, we always just laughed and kept using our phones without a worry in the world. Now almost all of their plans have US roaming included and then Big 3 are scurrying to catch up and stop the bleeding as a lot of people are switching.
I have Mexico and US on my freedom switched from fido in December. Service in Mexico was better with fido but 15 a day adds up over a few weeks.
Sent from the future
I don't travel truly internationally often enough to give up my sweet Freedom plan to sign on to one of the newer plans with the more international roaming options vs just the USA. When we do travel further, I just use esims instead. I paid $14 for two 1-gig esims while on a little remote island in the Bahamas a few weeks back and that did the job just fine.
The only restrictive part about our old grandfathered plans is the 1 gig high-speed limit while in the USA (phone and text unlimited) as I typically blow through that in a few days - beyond that it's still unlimited, but slows down the data. My wife never seems to care and just continues on, but it's too painful for my needs when I'm the navigator and need things like Google Maps etc to just work now vs 20 seconds from now lol...so again, I will sometimes get an esim if we're there for more than 3-4 days inside a billing period. I found one provider that has a true unlimited option for something like $12/week, so I've been using that for week+ trips.
The only restrictive part about our old grandfathered plans is the 1 gig high-speed limit while in the USA (phone and text unlimited) as I typically blow through that in a few days - beyond that it's still unlimited, but slows down the data. My wife never seems to care and just continues on, but it's too painful for my needs when I'm the navigator and need things like Google Maps etc to just work now vs 20 seconds from now lol...so again, I will sometimes get an esim if we're there for more than 3-4 days inside a billing period. I found one provider that has a true unlimited option for something like $12/week, so I've been using that for week+ trips.
I couldn't justify the extra 10 for the world wide plan myself but the Mexico option saves me enough every winter to be worth the 5 bucks a month
Sent from the future
Your fingers might come loose long before you're cold and dead.
Just in the lifetime of this thread I've gone from paying $40 for 15GB of Canada-only data to $34 for 50GB of 5G data and calling in Canada *and* the US.
All this change in less than 10 months. Thanks to @nhoj for keeping us updated!
Based on the rate of change in currently offered plans, I predict your grandfathered plan might not be such a good deal by the end of this year.
Not for the time being.
Most of the carriers will still continue to offer 4G LTE service for quite a few years to support non-5G devices. But eventually they will phase out these services as faster protocols are introduced in the future. For example, most providers are currently phasing out 2G service in Canada - I think only Rogers in select geographies is still keeping their 2G network up.
If there is a cheaper 4G plan on offer, I'd opt for that instead of paying full pop for the 5G plan that you won't take advantage of.
In that timescale, I wouldnt be worried about 4G devices. They will lose updates and/or get broken before 4G is turned off.
dont think you can beat $34 a month..for now
Switch to Freedom then. Have had lots of friends do so in the last few years and none have regretted it.
I think Public Mobile & Koodo are both Telus, which might make things easier. Can't seem to get the computer to select pick up a sim card from the store a few blocks away, and I'm not sure how/if I can retain my number, or if my S10 will work with the Can/US plan which is 5G. I'll try popping by the store tomorrow and seeing what they say.
No reason why it shouldn't work at 4G LTE by default, you just won't get 5G connectivity.
When you port your number over, you'll get a temporary one for a day or two and then the old one will be applied.
