Canadian phone plans now change faster than most people check their bills. Within the past few weeks the big carriers raised their entry plans by $5 to $10, two prepaid brands dropped their cheapest options, and the federal regulator is still deciding whether a new set of device and SIM charges breaks its June ban on activation fees. The good news hidden in all that churn is that switching is cheaper than it has ever been. This guide sorts the market by the situation you are actually in (a senior on a fixed income, a snowbird with months in the U.S., a family of four, a rural driver, a newcomer with no credit history) and tells you which plan type wins for each, what the fine print costs, and where to complain when a carrier gets it wrong.
Eight Quick Answers Before You Switch
These are the questions people search right before they port a number. Each gets the short version here; the sections below explain the exceptions.
Fizz lists unlimited Canada-wide talk and text from $18 in the provinces it serves, and pay-per-use service from $10. If you want a little data on a national network, the realistic floor is now about $22–$25, because Lucky Mobile and Chatr dropped their $19 plans in early October.
Yes, in three cases: you drive or live where only Bell, Rogers or Telus towers reach, you bundle several lines with home internet, or you roam overseas often enough to use a $100 global plan. Otherwise the same towers are available for less through their own discount brands.
Costco does not sell its own plan. The kiosks are run by WIRELESS etc. and sell standard plans from Rogers, Bell, Fido, Virgin Plus, Chatr, Lucky Mobile and SaskTel. The extras are member perks (bonus long-distance minutes with Bell or Rogers, an accessory, and Costco Shop Cards on select 24-month phone deals), not a lower monthly rate.
It is Telus Mobility for Good, a subsidized plan for seniors who receive the federal Guaranteed Income Supplement. Telus currently lists 10GB and 20GB 5G+ versions; plan trackers price them at $25 and $35 a month. You apply with your T4A(OAS) slip showing GIS in box 21.
Opensignal’s August report named Telus “Best Network,” with Bell and Telus tied for coverage because they share much of their infrastructure. Rogers won the most individual awards. For your own life, check each coverage map along your commute, cottage road and highway routes, not just your postal code.
Not for activating, changing or cancelling a plan with no subsidized phone. If you financed a phone, the remaining balance is still due. Bell’s $40 device-handling charge, Telus’s $15 SIM charge and Rogers’s $40 setup and $25 shipping charges are under a CRTC show-cause review that had not been decided at our last check.
A plan with Canada-U.S. use built in. Freedom includes Canada-U.S.-Mexico on every plan from $35, and Public Mobile’s $40–$50 tiers do the same. The Big 3 equivalent starts near $90 now, so it only makes sense if you need their rural Canadian coverage.
If your current plan is fine, yes. Black Friday falls on November 27 this year and Boxing Day on December 26, and carriers often raise list prices in October so their promotions look bigger. If you are overpaying badly today, switch now; with no switching fees, you can move again in November.
Who Really Owns Your Phone Company
There are more than a dozen phone brands in Canada and only four companies behind nearly all of them. Knowing which network a cheap brand rides on tells you most of what you need to know about its coverage.
When we lined the plan pages up side by side, the pattern was hard to miss. Each big carrier sells the same towers three ways: a premium brand with the perks and the phone financing, a mid-priced “flanker” brand with fewer extras, and a prepaid brand with the lowest price and the thinnest support. Fido, Virgin Plus and Koodo were all near $50 for 60GB in our October check, while Rogers, Bell and Telus wanted roughly $70 for the same 60GB after their early-October increases. The signal your phone picks up on a highway outside Kamloops is the same either way; what changes is how fast your data runs at busy times, whether you get 5G, what roaming is included and how easily you can reach a human when something breaks.
Quebecor is the outsider. It owns Videotron in Quebec, plus Freedom Mobile and Fizz in other provinces, and it has been the main source of price pressure on everyone else. Freedom’s own towers are strongest in cities, and outside them it leans on partner networks, which is why its coverage map deserves a closer look than its price list. Opensignal noted that Quebecor’s brands together now hold just over a tenth of Canadian mobile subscribers.
One practical consequence: if you are happy with your coverage on Telus, Koodo, Public Mobile or Kini will usually feel the same in the same places, at a lower price. The same logic holds for Bell with Virgin Plus, Lucky Mobile or No Name Mobile, and for Rogers with Fido or Chatr. The most common trade-off on the prepaid brands is speed: several still run on 4G LTE only, which is fine for messaging, maps and music but noticeably slower for video calls in crowded areas.
What Each Price Tier Buys Right Now
All prices below are monthly, in Canadian dollars, before tax, for people bringing their own phone, and generally assume automatic payments. Many brands price differently by province, so treat these as the headline Ontario and B.C. numbers we compared in October.
| Brand | Network | Price we saw | Data | U.S. use included? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fizz | Videotron / Freedom | From $18 | Talk and text; data plans up to 200GB | Some plans only | Light users in QC, ON, AB, BC, MB; data rollover |
| Lucky Mobile | Bell, 4G LTE | $25–$35 | 5GB, 15GB or 30GB with autopay | No | Simple prepaid on Bell towers |
| Chatr | Rogers | $22–$35 | 500MB to 35GB with autopay; $159/yr option | No | Prepaid on Rogers towers, annual payers |
| Public Mobile | Telus | $22–$50 | 1GB 4G up to 150GB 5G | Yes on $40–$50 tiers | Best all-round prepaid value |
| Freedom Mobile | Own network + partners | $35–$100 | 10GB to 250GB, plus global roaming data | Yes, every plan | Snowbirds, city dwellers, travellers |
| Fido · Virgin Plus · Koodo | Rogers · Bell · Telus | $50–$55 | 60GB 5G | On the $55 tier | Postpaid with phone financing, lower price |
| Rogers · Bell · Telus | Own networks | $70–$100 | 60GB to unlimited | From about $90 | Rural coverage, bundles, global roaming |
The October price moves you might have missed
The big carriers moved in step again. In early October Bell lifted its bring-your-own-phone plans by $5 to $10, and Rogers and Telus followed with $5 increases within days, which put all three at roughly $70 for 60GB, $75 for 100GB and $90 for unlimited data with Canada-U.S.-Mexico use, with $100 global-roaming plans on top. Bell and Telus cap full-speed roaming data at 5GB a day on those plans. Separately, some existing Bell customers were told their rate would rise $6 a month starting with their October bill, and similar notices reached Rogers and Telus customers earlier in the year.
The discount brands trimmed rather than raised. On October 7 Virgin Plus dropped its $45/20GB plan and lifted talk-and-text from $25 to $30. Lucky Mobile and Chatr pulled their $19 plans. Public Mobile ended its back-to-school promotions and cut data on its Canada-U.S.-Mexico tiers, leaving $40 for 70GB, $45 for 100GB and $50 for 150GB, while its $35/50GB Canada-wide 5G plan stayed put.
Our reading of that pattern: list prices often climb right before Black Friday so the November discounts look deeper. That is not a reason to panic-buy, but it is a reason to compare the November “deal” price against what you could get in September, not against the inflated October list price.
What a full year costs on each kind of plan
Taxes change the real number more than people expect. Depending on your province, GST, HST or PST adds roughly 5% to 15% to every figure above, and provincial 911 fees are added on top of that. When you compare a $35 prepaid plan with a $40 postpaid plan, compare the after-tax totals on the checkout page, not the advertised prices.
Autopay discounts are another quiet variable. Most of the prices in this guide assume you let the carrier charge a card or bank account automatically. Fido’s listed prices included a $5 autopay discount and Virgin Plus showed a $10 credit in the plans we compared, and several prepaid brands only include the advertised data if you sign up for Auto Top-Up. If you turn autopay off, your bill can rise or your data can shrink.
Which Extra Options Exist in Your Province
The national brands are everywhere, but the cheapest regional choices are not. Use your location or tap your province to see which regional carriers and discount brands are worth adding to your shortlist.
Tap a province above, or use your location, to see the regional options worth comparing.
Match the Plan to Your Situation
A plan that is perfect for a downtown student can be a poor fit for a retiree on a farm road. Find the paragraph that sounds like your life and start there.
You are the person most overcharged by the big carriers. If you use under 5GB a month, a $22–$25 prepaid plan on a national network does everything you need. Fizz lists talk and text from $18 where it operates and has a pay-per-use option from $10 for a phone that mostly sits in a drawer. Chatr also sells a $100 annual plan with 400 Canada-wide minutes and no data, which works out to about $8.33 a month for an emergency phone in the car. Before choosing, check your last three bills for actual data use; your phone’s settings menu keeps a running total.
Start with the income-tested programs, because no retail plan beats them. If you receive the Guaranteed Income Supplement, Telus’s Mobility for Good for seniors lists 10GB and 20GB 5G+ plans, priced by plan trackers at $25 and $35 a month, and it has offered a refurbished phone to eligible applicants. To apply, email your T4A(OAS) slip showing GIS in box 21 to [email protected]; Telus says it replies within about two weeks and sends a code you use to sign up. One catch from Telus’s own page: any phone balance or trade-in program amount on an existing Telus account must be paid off before you can move onto the plan. Rogers runs a similar Connected for Success program with a $25 5G mobile plan for eligible low-income customers, including GIS recipients.
If you do not qualify, ask yourself two questions. Do you travel to the U.S.? If yes, Freedom at $35 for 10GB with Canada-U.S.-Mexico use is the cheapest way to keep your number working in Florida or Arizona. Do you live outside a city? If yes, stay on Telus- or Bell-network brands such as Public Mobile or Lucky Mobile, which ride the networks Opensignal rated highest for coverage.
This is where plan choice saves the most money. Freedom includes Canada-U.S.-Mexico talk, text and data on every Total Freedom plan, plus a separate “Roam Beyond” allowance for more than 120 other destinations, and Freedom says that data carries no daily roaming fee. The October ladder ran from $35 for 10GB to $45 for 125GB and up to $100 for 250GB with 50GB of global data. Public Mobile’s $40, $45 and $50 tiers also include the U.S. and Mexico, on Telus towers, which can matter if your Canadian home is rural. The Big 3 equivalent starts around $90, though it adds stronger rural Canadian coverage, and Bell and Telus limit full-speed U.S. data to 5GB a day.
Check two details before a long trip. First, carriers’ terms generally expect Canadian plans to be used mainly in Canada, so confirm how many days of U.S. use your plan allows before you leave for five months. Second, the Wireless Code caps data roaming charges at $100 a month per account unless you agree to more, which protects you from a shock bill but can also cut you off mid-trip if you are on a pay-per-use roaming plan.
Here, coverage beats price. Discount brands on the Telus and Bell networks give you the same rural towers as their parents, but a few details matter: some prepaid plans stay on 4G LTE, and Lucky Mobile says its 3G/HSPA network support ends March 1, 2027, which matters if you still use an older phone. Open each carrier’s coverage map and zoom to your road, your cottage and the dead zone you always notice on the drive. Ask a neighbour which carrier works on their porch; local knowledge beats any map.
Satellite texting is now a realistic backup. Rogers Satellite, which uses SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, lets supported phones send texts and use apps such as WhatsApp and Google Maps where there is no cell signal, and Rogers has extended it to parts of the U.S. through a T-Mobile partnership. It has been priced at $15 a month and bundled free with some Rogers plans for a limited period. Bell and Telus have each partnered with AST SpaceMobile and were targeting direct-to-phone launches by the end of the year.
Do the math on the whole account, not one line. Big 3 multi-line discounts and home internet bundle credits can narrow the gap with prepaid brands considerably, and Freedom has advertised ongoing credits for third and later lines on eligible plans. Write down every line’s price after discounts, then ask what happens to those discounts if one person leaves (a teenager heading to university, for example). If a bundle credit vanishes when you cancel one service, it is a lock-in tool, not a saving. Keep in mind that under the Wireless Code only the account holder can approve data overage or roaming charges above the caps on a shared plan, which protects parents from a teenager’s travel bill.
Prepaid is your friend. Public Mobile, Lucky Mobile, Chatr, Fizz, Kini Mobile and No Name Mobile do not need a Canadian credit check, and you can activate with your own unlocked phone. Newcomers are also the people most likely to have paid activation fees in the past, because they open new accounts rather than renew. That changed on June 12: a carrier may no longer charge you to activate a plan. If you are asked for a fee at the counter, ask what it covers and whether it is a device or SIM charge, then compare with a brand that charges nothing. Koodo has listed a $40/10GB student plan, and several brands run student offers in August and September.
Do not ignore the insert. Bell told some existing customers their rate would rise $6 a month starting with their October bill, and price notices have hit Rogers and Telus customers during the year too. Because plan-change fees are now banned, you have two clean options: call and ask to be moved onto a current plan that costs the same or less (carriers frequently have better-value plans than the one you signed up for years ago), or port your number to another brand. If you signed a contract that promised a fixed price and the bill now shows more, that may be a breach of contract issue, which is exactly the kind of complaint the CCTS handles; its most recent annual report counted a 121% jump in those complaints.
A $0-down phone is a two-year loan or lease with a plan attached. Carrier programs with names like Save & Return or Bring-It-Back lower the monthly device payment because you hand the phone back at the end or pay a balloon amount to keep it. Leaving early means paying off what remains on the device, which the June fee ban does not touch. Costco’s wireless kiosks sell these same carrier deals with member extras, including Costco Shop Cards on select 24-month plans and bonus long-distance minutes with Bell or Rogers. The honest test: add 24 months of the required plan to the total phone cost, then compare it with buying the phone outright and using a $35 prepaid plan.
Pay for roaming only when you use it. If you leave Canada once or twice a year, a travel eSIM bought for the trip or your carrier’s day pass is usually cheaper than paying $100 a month year-round for a global plan. If you travel monthly, the Big 3 global plans cover 60-plus destinations each (Bell listed 83 at our last check), and Freedom’s higher tiers carry 20GB to 50GB of Roam Beyond data for more than 120 destinations without a daily cap. Read the destination list for the countries you actually visit before choosing.
Coverage and Speed: What Independent Tests Found
Every carrier claims the best network, usually citing a different award. Opensignal, which measures real phones in everyday use, is one of the few neutral scorekeepers. Its August report covered April through June data.
The headline result is how close the three national networks have become. Telus earned “Best Network” for its outright win on overall download speed plus shared wins for reliability, consistent quality and coverage. Rogers collected the most individual awards, nine in total, including the top score for how often users were connected to 5G. Bell kept the lead for 5G download speed. On consistent quality, Telus and Rogers tied at 82.2% with Bell a point behind at 81.4%. Opensignal also noted that Freedom Mobile performed well in Alberta and British Columbia in its regional breakdowns.
Two things to take from this. First, if you live in a city, any of the three networks, and the discount brands that use them, will serve you well; choose on price and plan features. Second, coverage on the edges is where they differ, and national averages hide those edges. Bell and Telus tie on coverage scores partly because they share infrastructure, which is also why a Telus-network prepaid plan and a Bell-network prepaid plan often perform the same on a rural road. The carriers are still building: Opensignal reported Bell adding 220 sites this year, and Telus has a tower goal running to 2030.
Speed on a prepaid plan can differ from speed on its parent network. Several prepaid tiers are limited to 4G LTE, and some plans throttle video or slow data after your full-speed bucket runs out. Telus’s 5G+ Select plan, for example, drops to reduced-speed unlimited data after 60GB. If you stream on the bus, check the speed after the cap, not just the cap.
The Fees You No Longer Owe, and the Ones Still Being Fought
The CRTC’s switching-fee ban is the biggest consumer change in Canadian wireless in years. It is also the reason a new set of charges appeared the same week.
Here is what the rule actually does. Since June 12, providers covered by the Wireless Code cannot charge a fee for activating a new plan or changing an existing one, and cannot charge an early cancellation fee when there is no subsidized device in the contract. Activation fees had been running roughly $30 to $80. Optional products and services can still carry a reasonable charge, and money owed on a financed phone is still owed.
Within days, the three national carriers introduced or kept charges that the CRTC’s staff said do not appear to qualify as optional. Bell charges $40 for device handling when you buy a phone with a plan, Telus added a $15 fee for a SIM or eSIM, and Rogers brought in a $40 device setup charge, a $25 shipping charge on some online orders and a SIM fee. The carriers argue the charges relate to optional purchases or replacement SIMs. The CRTC opened a formal show-cause proceeding, rejected the carriers’ attempts to split the case, and collected public comments until August 31, with carrier replies due in September. Quebecor told the regulator that Videotron, Freedom and Fizz do not charge these fees. If the CRTC rules against the carriers, it can order compliance and impose penalties.
What that means at the counter: we found that the cleanest way to avoid these charges is to bring your own unlocked phone and use a free eSIM or SIM from a brand that does not charge for one. If you pay one of the disputed fees, keep the receipt; whatever the CRTC decides will matter to anyone who paid.
Rights you already have under the Wireless Code
These protections have been around for years and are still the ones people forget. If your bill or your carrier contradicts any of them, you have grounds for a complaint.
*Since August 14, carriers have temporarily been allowed to sell a locked phone only if it is unlocked automatically within two business days of purchase, and you can still ask for a free unlock before then. A longer lock period that Bell and Virgin Plus have used is under separate CRTC review. The 15-day trial requires the phone to be in near-new condition, and on plans with usage limits you must have used less than half the monthly allowance.
Common problems and the fastest fix
| What you see | Most likely cause | Try this first | Escalate when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bill went up with no plan change | Price increase on an older plan | Ask to move to a current plan; it is free to change | A contract promised a fixed price |
| “Activation” or setup fee on a new line | Fee that may fall under the June ban | Ask what it covers in writing; request removal | Carrier refuses and no device was bought |
| Big roaming charge after a trip | Pay-per-use roaming without a pass | Check whether the $100 cap was respected | You were charged above it without consenting |
| New carrier says phone is locked | Lock still active after purchase | Ask the old carrier for the free unlock | They charge or delay beyond the rules |
| Promised credit never appeared | Promo not applied to the account | Quote the chat or call date and agent name | Two billing cycles pass with no fix |
| Slow data after mid-month | Full-speed bucket used up | Check usage; move up one tier free | Speeds are slow before the cap too |
When Your Carrier Will Not Fix It
Canada has a free, independent complaints commissioner for phone and internet service, the CCTS. Its numbers show why you should not be shy about using it.
The CCTS accepted a record 23,647 complaints in its 2024–25 year, with billing making up 46% of all issues and breach-of-contract issues up 121%. Its mid-year report for August 2025 to January 2026 then showed 19,157 complaints in only six months, 56% of them about wireless, driven largely by activation and installation fees, incorrect monthly charges and roaming charges. The commission said 88% of concluded complaints were resolved. Rogers’ brands together were the most complained-about provider for the third year in a row, which partly reflects their large customer base.
The process is simple. Give your provider a fair chance first, in writing if possible, and keep the dates and the names of the agents you spoke to. If the problem is not fixed, file with the CCTS online; it is free, and providers participating in the program are obliged to respond. For questions about the rules themselves, or to comment on an open CRTC proceeding, go to the CRTC.
Final Verdict: Who Should Pick What
You own your phone, you mostly stay in Canada and your coverage is fine on the Telus, Bell or Rogers network. Public Mobile at $35 for 50GB of 5G is the strongest all-rounder we compared, and Fizz, Lucky Mobile, Chatr and Kini Mobile fill in for lighter or more budget-focused users.
You visit the U.S. or Mexico regularly, especially for long stretches. Freedom’s $40 and $45 plans bundle U.S. and global roaming data at prices the Big 3 do not approach. Check Freedom’s map outside major cities first, and choose Public Mobile’s U.S.-inclusive tiers if you need Telus towers at home.
You depend on coverage in places only their premium networks reach, you bundle several lines with home internet at a total that beats the alternatives, or you roam overseas every month. Even then, ask whether the flanker brand on the same network (Fido, Virgin Plus or Koodo) gives you what you need for about $20 less.
Questions people still ask
Which carrier has the best coverage in Canada?
Opensignal’s August report named Telus “Best Network” and scored Bell and Telus as tied for coverage, while Rogers won the most individual awards. In practice, all three are strong in cities; on rural roads, check each carrier’s map for your exact routes, because national averages hide local dead zones.
Are Costco phone plans cheaper?
Not on the monthly price. Costco’s wireless kiosks, operated by WIRELESS etc., sell standard plans from Rogers, Bell, Fido, Virgin Plus, Chatr, Lucky Mobile and SaskTel. Members get extras such as Costco Shop Cards on select 24-month phone deals and bonus long-distance minutes with Bell or Rogers.
What is the Telus $25 plan for seniors?
It is the Telus Mobility for Good plan for seniors who receive the Guaranteed Income Supplement. Telus lists 10GB and 20GB 5G+ options, priced by plan trackers at $25 and $35 a month. You apply by sending your T4A(OAS) slip showing GIS in box 21 to [email protected].
Is there a $10 phone plan in Canada?
Fizz has listed pay-per-use service from $10 a month in the provinces it serves, which suits a phone used only occasionally. For unlimited Canada-wide talk and text, the lowest regular price we found was Fizz at $18, and plans with some data on national networks start around $22.
Can my carrier still charge an activation fee?
No. Since June 12, the CRTC bans fees for activating, changing or cancelling a plan when no subsidized device is involved. Device balances are still owed, and new device-handling, SIM and shipping charges from Bell, Telus and Rogers are under a separate CRTC review.
Do I need a credit check to get a phone plan?
Not for prepaid. Brands such as Public Mobile, Lucky Mobile, Chatr, Fizz, Kini Mobile and No Name Mobile let you pay in advance with no credit check, which makes them a common first choice for newcomers and students.
How this page was checked. We compared published plan prices, carrier program pages, CRTC decisions and notices, CCTS reports and Opensignal’s network reports in October. Prices are monthly, in Canadian dollars, before tax, for bring-your-own-phone customers and generally after autopay discounts; some prices were last confirmed in late September where carriers had not changed them since. Canadian wireless prices often change weekly and vary by province, so the carrier’s checkout page is the final word.
This page is independent and is not affiliated with any carrier. It is general consumer information, not legal or financial advice.
Key sources: CRTC (Telecom Regulatory Policy 2026-43, Notices 2026-155 and 2026-210, Wireless Code) · Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (annual and mid-year reports) · Opensignal Canada Mobile Network Experience reports · Statistics Canada · Telus, Rogers, Freedom Mobile and Costco Wireless program pages