Just wanted to share some frustrations and open this up for discussion.
Unlike in Europe or parts of Asia, Canada has virtually no true pay-as-you-go (PAYG) mobile plans. Most so-called “prepaid” or “PAYG” options here are just monthly bundles with expiry dates — not actual usage-based billing. You’re often paying $15–30/month whether you use 100 MB or not at all.
To make things worse:
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The minimum postpaid plan is now often 60 GB or more — which is total overkill for average users who don’t stream or game constantly.
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Vacation suspensions are restricted or unavailable unless you upgrade to expensive plans and limited to a minimum of 30 days.
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Text-to-911 is still not available to the general public, only for those registered as Deaf or hard of hearing — despite many emergency scenarios (hostage, abuse, low signal) where calling isn’t possible.
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CRTC and CCTS don’t help. The CRTC says they can’t intervene in pricing or service terms, and the CCTS (per Section 4.3) won’t challenge carrier policies themselves.
Please note that I’m not asking for charity or free service — just fairer options that reflect actual usage, more flexible policies, and access to emergency support.
Has anyone here had better experiences with MVNOs or alternatives? And why do we seem so far behind compared to other countries?
Canadians are way to used to getting shafted.
I currently pay monthly but if I had to get a PAYG plan, I’d go with something like Saily: https://saily.com/esim-canada/
Or one of those other eSim companies. However, I’m not sure if it’s just data or if it’ll give you a number. Typically with PAYG I’m happy with just data, but I know it doesn’t work for everyone. The cost is pretty wild though, I’m in London UK right now and I got a 200GB PAYG SIM for the same price as the 20GB SIM on Saily.
Freedom’s Prepaid looks alright-ish?
https://shop.freedommobile.ca/en-CA/prepaid-plans?planType=Prepaid+By+The+Month
The CRTC is mostly run by former telco people and it shows.
Its the same reason we “couldn’t” do a proper implementation of the emergency alert system, which is why every Amber alert uses the “the bombs are falling” warning level.
Yeah Canadian prepaid plans all seem to have the scammy expiring bullshit built in.
I use my phone basically just for maps and being reachable in an emergency. Best one in Canada I’ve found that actually works is $99 a year or $119 if I want data (which I do need). A couple of the “budget” options have the exact same plan, but I went with Freedom to not have to deal with Rogers bs. These have unlimited calls and texts, data is limited to 15GB / year, but it’s just goes to slow speed after 15GB at no extra costs. Very pricey for what I need it for still.
I used to have shitty prepaid plan sold by petrocan where the cheapest option was $25 for 3 months, but with very limited amount of data and the whole thing just didn’t work half the time (no calls, texts or data).
Comparing these to Nordics is pretty rough. We go to Finland every couple years and we get a package with SIM card and enough data and calls for the 2 to 3 weeks we stay there with 15 euros. You just go to convenience store to pick it up, no signing anything needed. Just need to bring a phone that’s not SIM locked.
Its the good ol’ telco monopoly. Doesn’t help that our population density is basically nothing. We’re the second biggest country by land mass, but have about the same population as California.
I’m not sure who we need to pressure to get better service for the money…
Yeah, population density gets blamed a lot — and while it explains some issues, it doesn’t justify:
- No true pay-as-you-go (even in cities and urban areas)
- 60+ GB minimum plans for light users
- No public access to Text-to-911 (even when dangerous moments happen)
- Inflexible vacation suspensions (with mandatory 30 days minimum)
- Daily roaming access fees (yes, even with no usage, as long as a foreign tower is connected) from so called marketing such as Roger’s Roam Like Home™, Telus Easy Roam®, and Bell Roam Better
The Big 3 hide behind geography while keeping margins high and MVNOs out.
Who to pressure? Well… it’s basically no one at the moment.
- CRTC says it can’t touch pricing or service terms
- CCTS won’t challenge policies (see Section 4.3)
- I even contacted OpenMedia, CBC, CHEK, and CTV, but it feels like shouting into a void. The mainstream Canadian media ignore such issues especially for temporary residents like me.
Not asking for freebies — just flexible, fair options that reflect how people actually use mobile services.
Population density isn’t a rural issue, it’s a fixed costs issue.
The companies are required to maintain a larger total network of towers and everyone has to pay for that, which means city users are subsidizing rural networks quite significantly.
I’m not saying the Big 3 aren’t taking advantage of the situation, but they do have a legitimate issue.
Totally fair — fixed infrastructure costs are real, and urban users likely do subsidize the broader network. But even within cities, the lack of options (like true PAYG or small data tiers) feels unnecessarily rigid.
The issue isn’t solely about cost — it’s how little flexibility or fairness is built into the plans, even for light users.
Allowing light or limited plans means that they don’t have the revenue to cover the costs.
The actual usage on the network is functionally irrelevant at this point, providers don’t save any money if people don’t use their phones as much these days. It’s almost all fixed costs which means that plans are essentially just fixed at this point too. Price points still exist only for advertising and marketing purposes, the companies are totally satisfied just getting everyone to a minimum value. The whole industry has just become a commodity but with 100% fixed costs.
It’s not like they’re raking in stupid profits either, TELUS only had a net income of around 5% of their revenue last year.
True, in Canada most plan suck if you are not a heavy user. I use maybe 20 minutes of call per month, some SMS for 2FA, and quite often less than 250MB of data per month…
I know there is some 1 year plan sometimes that could be useful, check on RFD https://forums.redflagdeals.com/hot-deals-f9/?c=5121
Else I recommend fizz in QC, or PublicMobile in ROC I guess.
I agree that most Canadian plans aren’t great unless you’re a heavy user. I actually use very little talk and SMS — mostly just for 2FA and phone verification for apps.
That said, Fizz didn’t work for me at all. They failed to initiate the porting process due to technical issues on their end. I never received a working eSIM, and even though I requested a refund (they allow it with limited cases, such as within the 15-day trial window and only once per year), it’s still pending ticket resolution. No service was ever usable.
I also tried Public Mobile, and while it technically worked, the overall experience and value still didn’t meet my needs.
Just putting this out there in case anyone else is considering these providers — your mileage may vary.
I agree totally with what you said! . If you don’t search for deals or negotiate, you will get a basic plan, which worth nothing. How about new providers coming in Canada, and a year later or so is leaving or bought by Rogers or Bell. They killed competition and now they control everything! Who is going to control them? This monopoly kills everything.
I also want to add phones, we stuck buying Samsung, Apple, Motorola and One plus, any other phones like the nothing phone, most likely won’t work, because of bands. I want to be able to buy a mid tier phone, and not a crappy Motorola or an expensive Samsung.
edit: And now they going to shut down 3G, because as far I know it costs for them!
Is there some business in Canada that hasn’t been regulated into an oligopoly?
The options suck because there is no real competition, simple as that.
What the carriers actually care about is average revenue per customer (ARPU), so you will find that no matter the “deal” you get, you will be paying about the same minimum cost regardless of carrier at the same level. This is about $70/mo for Telus/Rogers/Bell, and $35/mo for their discount brands Koodo/Fido/Virgin. All that really changes is the amount of data you get, which they can easily give more of since the data itself is practically free. The only reason that these companies would ever do anything to deviate from the status quo is if a new company came in and challenged them, or they were legislated to change their policies, otherwise all they care about is maximizing revenues for shareholders.
Yep, even trying to “vote with your wallet” doesn’t help. Fizz couldn’t even port my number due to technical issues — no working eSIM, no service, and refund still pending. They do allow limited refunds within a trial period (15 days, once per year), but that didn’t stop the headache. Public Mobile worked but wasn’t great either. The issue runs deeper than just price.
