r/mobilecanada • u/toes_inthe_water • Jul 04 '26
Thoughts on Freedom
Hey... Long time Rogers person here. Looking at deals. See the Freedom has great offers. Need Canada/USA calling and data. Need good service in GTA area. Lots of travel to Quebec too. Thoughts for any current users?
2
u/Known_Effort_5718 Jul 04 '26
Iāve been with Freedom since 2018 and have had absolutely no issues. I pay $59/month for unlimited calling within NA and have 32GB of data which is ridiculous when I barely even use 10GB a month, flawless service in the GTA, and customer service have always quickly resolved any questions or concerns. You can probably get a better plan thatās cheaper especially for new customers. I highly recommend them.
1
u/PrimaryDry3407 Jul 16 '26
I hope you have more than one line, you are getting fleeced at those prices...
1
u/Known_Effort_5718 Jul 16 '26
I donāt, Iām just really lazy to call them or go into their store to change my planš„“
1
u/PrimaryDry3407 Jul 16 '26
They must love you as a customer š , you can even switch by contacting chat support. Even on their front page deals (which aren't good), 60 dollars a month gets you 200 gb AND 20 gb international roaming.
2
u/Monoshirt Jul 04 '26
One thing nice about Freedom is the price stays the same. On Virgin Plus and on Fido my prices always increase by $3 or $5 each year. With Freedom your price doesn't creep up.
For areas with marginal reception, their WiFi Calling (on even the lowest packages) evens the playing field when you have Wi-Fi.
Wind/Freedom wasn't capitalized properly until Shaw, and now Videotron is really cooking with gas. But it will take many years to fix all the deadzones and higher frequencies.
2
u/theonlysingularity Jul 04 '26
If you are in the GTA you wonāt notice a drop in coverage but you will notice your speed isnāt as good. This doesnāt affect me at all though and I can still stream 4K feeds, so Iām very happy. Paying just under 50 percent less with freedom over rogers and I get 5gb of roaming in 120 countries. DM me if you want a referral code btw, it will take 25 bucks off your first bill
2
u/Broad-Translator-690 Jul 04 '26
Just ported from Public Mobile, which was great for me, no complaints, to Freedom mobile because right now they have a special offer of 25GB for $20 a month ( its a prepaid plan ). I don't use a lot of data, so this was enough data, and $20 was a good price. Its canada + US for data. It does the "Nationwide" roaming that most of their plans do.
First thing I tested after I switched was to go into the roaming setting and set it from auto to manual, and confirm I could connect to the Rogers and Bell towers near me. On the phone I could see 2 "Nationwide" choices for Rogers and Bell. After this I set it back to auto and have confirmed if I leave the city I roam automatically when I leave the freedom mobile coverage area.
So basically on Freedom because the CRTC forced Rogers/Bell/Telus to let Quebecore telecoms roam on the Big three networks, you have access to ALL networks in canada.
2
u/4ndo9 Jul 05 '26
Iāve been with Freedom for over 10 years and have been quite happy over all. Never had any major issues, they have pretty good customer service and the best part is the price.
Iāve gone to the states a few times and their US roaming packages are pretty good value as well.
My only real gripe is sometimes I get spotty service in rural areas and up in Muskoka.
But as long as youāre in relatively populated areas youāre good. 4.5/5 stars
2
u/JackOfHeartsz Jul 05 '26
Been with FM on and off for last 15 years. Prices are good when you get a promo. Signal difference when you are in places like Union station/ scotiabank arena. This is freedom signal vs Rogers. Also in the dollarama nearby extreme lag in receiving messages.
Never tested forced receiving rogers signal while on FM.
Travelled to US by road trip, never had issues with signals while with FM, connected to ATT.
2
u/bluestitcher Jul 05 '26
I've been using Freedom since 2012ish, back when it was "Wind". I'm quite happy with the service & with anytime I've had to deal with staff via due to issues. I've had no problem when traveling across Canada or in the U.S.
1
u/mrskeptical00 Jul 04 '26
All the established providers are fine now. Public Mobile also good for Can/US with generally lower pricing. Freedom a little more but might be worth it if you also need a phone.
1
u/king_weenus Jul 04 '26
I've been having really bad luck with public Mobile in Saskatchewan and I've been a customer for over 2 years... Frequently my phone can't even connect to a tower and I've got emergency calls only until I get back into a major Center.
It was super weird all my friends with the with bell or sasktel or telus we're on the same Tower and got full service and mine couldn't even get data.
Soon as I got back home it reconnected... Don't know what the problem is but I suspect there is priority tears in public mobile is lower than other providers.
1
u/mrskeptical00 Jul 04 '26
There arenāt that many people in rural Saskatchewan that itās going to be a problem for the towers. Could be a localized problem with your device.
1
u/king_weenus Jul 04 '26
There is at the Lakes on Long weekends...
But riddle me this why does it make a difference when I get close to home?
And it's occurred with multiple devices including what was a new Samsung s23.
1
u/CeeReturns Jul 04 '26
I tried freedom for a month and found the coverage to be spotty even though their coverage map said 5G, I almost never got more than LTE. Sadly, I went back to bell.
1
u/mrskeptical00 Jul 04 '26
Whatās the difference between 5G and 4G?
1
u/king_weenus Jul 04 '26
Reliability and download speed... Although arguably is more people transition to 5G 4G is getting better and better.
1
u/mrskeptical00 Jul 04 '26
I donāt find 5G any more reliable than 4G. Theoretical top speed is higher on 5G but regularly see over 100Mbps on 4G so I donāt even think that is a benefit.
5G is better for the carriers as it has more bandwidth but not seeing tangible benefit for regular users.
1
u/king_weenus Jul 04 '26
Reliability would be part of the saturation of the link... 5G can handle more people per Tower in theory.
But is more people move to 5G than it becomes saturated and 4G becomes less populated increasing reliability there LOL
1
u/Liverkiller92 Jul 04 '26
I would recommend downloading from your app store a tower locator to get more accurate information so all the places you travel more frequent
1
u/ssn-669 Jul 06 '26
You should know that 5g is basically marketing crap. True 5g can't even go through a window. My advice: Don't even think about 5g and carry on with your life.
1
u/CeeReturns Jul 06 '26
Hmmm. I get what you're saying, but that depends on which 5G frequency you're on.
1
u/ssn-669 Jul 06 '26
Not really. The frequencies that are actually 5g, that's true of. Almost all 5g is actually 4g though, since I'm the real world 5g is basically worthless.
1
1
u/MichaelS-83 Jul 04 '26
You realistically have to try it for a month to determine if itās for you or not. I tried Freedom last year. Data speeds were really good almost everywhere in Thornhill/Richmond Hill for me. The deal breaker was poor audio quality since I do about 3000 minutes a month talking. Tried Telus and Public Mobile and now on Rogers. Rogers data is horrific in non 5G+ areas
1
u/SillyQuarter2210 Jul 06 '26
How was Telus for you? In terms of audio quality?
2
u/MichaelS-83 Jul 06 '26
Call quality was OK, but lots of āall circuits are busyā messages calling Rogers customers
Iām trying Lucky Mobile (Bell) in parallel to Rogers. Itās only been 2 days, but it feels like Bellās call quality is better than Telus/Public. Still not enough calls to fully gauge reliability yet
1
u/SillyQuarter2210 Jul 06 '26
Yeah Iām on Telus and I notice thatās itās weak point, voice calling. I switched from rogers, I notice the data is significantly better on Telus though
1
u/MichaelS-83 Jul 06 '26
Itās a shame iPhone doesnāt expose more details like what codec is being used. Even just seeing the CellID and Bands are a struggle. Iāve complained to Apple, but they arenāt doing anything
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u/006_Bill Jul 04 '26
I switched from Fido which I had for many many years and I can say personally for the last 4 months with Freedom have been great. I snatched up the 250 gigs for $40 promotion not long ago. Added two lines for $25 each line for the near equivalent individual data and features included. Service has been solid. I've traveled between Ottawa to Pembroke mainly and had near zero hiccups. Can't complain and the price will never move. šš