When you are new to Canada, after sorting out the housing subject, one of the next needs you will have is having a mobile with a Canadian number. Sometimes it is fancy to keep your number from abroad, but most mobile companies won't honour the service if you are roaming all the time; Canadian recruiters won't call an international number. So, let's find one. This is my experience.
Rogers
I was recommended to get a service with Rogers by my now ex-boss, so I did in the pay-as-you-go plan. Big mistake, Rogers bills you for everything, even incoming SMS/calls. I ended up topping up around $30 weekly (plus taxes) only for my line. I must say the service was beyond excellent, I had a signal even in my basement; a signal without balance is useless.
At that time, Canadian legislation allowed Carriers to have locked devices. Therefore, if you want to have the freedom of moving between companies you have to provide your own unlocked device. Roger's post-paid service is less expensive, however you must have a credit card. As a newcomer to Canada, that was out of the equation.
Freedom
I learned about Freedom; at that time, it was a $45 monthly package with unlimited data. Sounds too good to be true! Freedom is affordable because of its frequency band (1.7GHz and 2.1GHz). These two bands are not very popular and not every device supports them. I had to get new devices to move to Freedom as my mobile phones from Mexico wouldn't work. However, Freedom offered (and I believe it still does) pay-as-you-go without a credit card.
The unlimited data feature that Freedom brags about is unlimited with the catch of the speed. When you hire a monthly package with Freedom it comes with the first N gigabytes at full speed, then the rest of the month it goes down (I think to 128 kbps) which is very slow if you want to stream, but enough if you just use social media.
Freedom signal was an issue as well. I couldn't get a proper service if I was in the basement. Also, if I went out of Ottawa, (let's say I was in Montreal for a quick visit), no service at all, not even roaming (because of the frequencies, Bell and Rogers do not support those bands).
Fizz
Fizz, the little brother of Videotron. I was introduced to Fizz by a coworker in Montreal. I must say, even when it was free (beta user) I have always had service everywhere (even in the metro and basements). Fizz is a BYoD service and it is not always at the edge tech-wise (while Bell is on 5G, Fizz is on 4G). As a consumer, the big difference between 4G and 5G is the speed; while 4G offers up to 1 Gbps and 5G does around 20 Gbps. If you use your phone as a normal person (to watch TikTok videos, Netflix) 4G will be more than enough.
Now, among the cool features that this company does:
- Roll-on data. If you didn't finish your monthly data the difference is rolled to the next month. For example, in my 4 GB data monthly plan, sometimes I only used 1.5 GB, the next month I had 6.5 GB. The roll-on can be done for up to 3 months (if I am not wrong).
- Gift your data. You can send data to another user by knowing the phone number or a private tag. This could be used in a family scenario where parents have big plans and they share data with their children.
- Levels and Perks. Each month you make points, the more points you do (based on the plan and the number of services), the more you level up. Each time you level up you get perks (like a $1 recurrent discount, 500 GB recurrent data increase or one-time 4 GB data among others).
- Freebies. From time to time, Fizz sends you free gifts (usually free data) to say thank you or to make up for a system failure (it doesn't matter if you didn't notice it).
- Referral awards. Both parties (the referrer and the referee) get a bonus credit on the second month if the referee keeps the service. My referral code is UK9WT.
And the other good news. Fizz is expanding; their service is now offered in more provides (including Ontario).
About the prices. As for April 2024, I am paying $28 + taxes for 40 GB monthly data, unlimited calls, unlimited texts, no voice mail (I don't use it) and Canada coverage.
For these reasons, I have been a long-time Fizz user.
Good luck!