The IT Nerd

So get this. Freedom Mobile, which I have touted as a possible alternative to the “Big Three” telecoms have sent out a survey. Now there’s nothing unusual about a telco sending out a survey as telcos do that all the time. But this was different. One of the questions as captured by a Reddit thread was:

“If these advanced security features were offered by Freedom Mobile at an additional cost of $8 per month (on top of your mobile service plan), how likely would you be to subscribe?*

(Advanced security features: Encrypted text messages and voicemail, spam call detection, SIM swap protection, improved account sign-in security, and location privacy)”

The fact is that “Advanced security features” such as sim swap protection, spam call detection and the like would sit behind any sort of paywall is a #EpicFail on the part of Freedom Mobile. Doubly so given that they log in process quite frankly epically sucks beyond any belief as I covered here. The fact is that this should be the least that a carrier offers. Plus Freedom Mobile’s log in process needs a serious overall. As in they need to adhere to modern security standards such as multi factor authentication or some sort of passwordless authentication. Passkeys for example.

Now to be fair, Freedom Mobile haven’t announced any changes. Yet. But the fact that a survey like this has gone out shows that they are thinking about making changes. And like those who are part of this Reddit thread, I will be much more likely to dump Freedom Mobile if these changes are implemented. But I guess that Freedom Mobile feel that they need to generate revenue somehow. And simply stealing customers from the “Big Three” isn’t enough. I’d ask Freedom Mobile for their side of the story, but they won’t talk to me. So I guess I will have to see how this plays out. If they are smart, they make sure that it plays out in a way that customers win.

Freedom Mobile is often referred to as Canada’s Fourth Telco relative to their place in relation to “big three” telcos which are Rogers, Bell, and Telus. Now Freedom has had a positive influence on the market by forcing down the prices of cell phone service in the country and having the best international roaming options available. But in terms of coverage and offerings, Freedom sort of lags behind the “big three”. If Freedom is going to, really continue to have positive momentum in 2026, here’s things that they need to focus on:

• Securing customer data: Freedom got pwned in 2025. Which is something that I suspected that would happen when I first got onto the Freedom Mobile bandwagon. And getting pwned is a great way to have customers bolt to the competition. Thus at the top of the list has to be Freedom stepping up their game in that area. They need to prove to their current customers and to their future customers that they can secure customer data. And the time to start doing that is now.
• Superior customer service: Right now Rogers, Bell and Telus have by all reports have taken a serious dive in their customer service via off-shoring their customer service and bringing in AI to replace humans. Which has infuriated customers who can’t get the help that they need from the “big three”. Freedom has an opportunity to take advantage of this by having Canadian based customer service that is customer focused and easy to get to. On top of that Freedom needs to improve their app which is simply a wrapper for their website so that is is a real app that allows customers to add and remove services with ease. While they’re at it, Freedom should also update their website to allow customers to do the same thing. In short, what Freedom needs to do is to make dealing with them as frictionless as possible.
• Better coverage with less reliance on their partners: Freedom will never be a legitimate competitor to the “big three” until they have a network that they control. So what they should start doing in 2026 is accelerate their rollout of their own towers in more places. That way they are able to control their own destiny from a service quality standpoint. Speaking of service quality, Freedom also needs to fill in the holes in their coverage. In Toronto for example there’s areas where there’s very weak coverage or no coverage. And signal penetration inside buildings lags behind the “big three”. All of this needs to change.
• Implementing more 5G variants: What does this mean? Well, they have 5G and some 5G+. But for Freedom to be a player, they need to have things such as5G Standalone and 5G RedCap as that will benefit a wide variety of 5G devices and use cases. That’s important because we live in an age where cell service isn’t just about phones, it’s about devices and how those devices are used. And by doing so, that would put Freedom either level to or ahead of the “big three”.

I’d be very interested in hearing from Freedom Mobile customers about anything else you think should be on this list. And I would be very interested if Freedom Mobile has a response to this if they happen to be reading this. Finally for transparency purposes, I am also a Freedom Mobile customer. So you might say that I am invested in the success of Freedom Mobile. Unless I switch carriers, which I have been known to do.

You might want to log into your Freedom Mobile account as according to this Reddit thread, Freedom Mobile is giving away 40GB of data.

Upon reading this thread I checked my Freedom Mobile account and found that my data allotment went from 50GB to 90GB. I didn’t get a notification like a text message or email so this might be a your mileage may vary thing as it isn’t clear as to what qualifies you for this data add on. But whatever the conditions are, I’ll take more data without hesitation.

Freedom Mobile seems to be playing hardball to grab marketshare any way it can. The latest example of that is that the company dropped a bunch of new plans that are sure to get the attention of Rogers, TELUS and Bell.

Let’s start with the plans that went up on their website yesterday:

Some random thoughts:

• The first thing that I notice is that all three of these plans have Canada, US, and Mexico usage. The Mexico part is new. I am assuming that Freedom is catering to those who travel to Mexico.
• The second thing that I notice is that the $5 a month credit on all plans that used to be forever is now for 18 months. That’s a bit of a downgrade. But I am guessing that Freedom is going to stop using long term discounts to attract business.
• Next is the fact that the 75GB and 100GB plans have Roam Beyond access. Meaning that you can affordably travel with your phone without having to buy a local SIM card (which until Freedom came along was the cheapest way to avoid the insanely high roaming prices of the big three telcos). In the case of the 75GB plan, you get 10GB of data and unlimited talk and text. In the case of the 100GB plan, you get 20GB of data and unlimited talk and text.
• Finally, the 100GB plan adds the option to add a smart watch or tablet to the plan.
• All these plans are BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)
• There’s 5G access in Canada, U.S., and Mexico 

In general, I think that all of these plans are a better value than their previous plans. That has my wife and I seriously considering switching to these new plans as a result. Specifically the 100GB plan as that has Apple Watch support. The only question would be if switching would incur the $45 fee that Freedom has when adding devices or switching plans. We’ll have to investigate that and do some math before we pull the trigger.

What these plans do is put pressure on Rogers, TELUS, and Bell as they don’t offer anything this good. And as Freedom’s 5G coverage improves (for example I have seen a speed bump recently on 5G via my iPhone 14 Pro), that’s going to make Freedom a viable option for those who are paying too much elsewhere. I am sure that the big three know this, so it will be interesting to see how they respond to this move by Freedom.

A press release from Freedom Mobile owner Quebecor is saying that they’re met all the commitments that they had to make in order to buy Freedom Mobile.

The Progress Report on Fulfilment of Videotron Ltd.’s Undertakings submitted to ISED on July 3 describes this remarkable progress, including:

• Maintaining the prices of wireless plans by introducing a Mobility Price Freeze Guarantee for all current and future customers of Freedom Mobile;
• Promoting competition and lowering wireless prices by offering affordable mobile packages backed by an enhanced customer experience, which was instrumental in the 26.6% reduction in the wireless component of the Consumer Price Index1 during the year following the acquisition of Freedom Mobile;
• Extending Freedom Mobile and Fizz services to Manitoba and other Canadian markets through MVNO2 agreements;
• Offering low-cost 5G plans to an ever-growing number of Canadians.

The full report is available here.

I have to admit that Quebecor has used Freedom Mobile to make life difficult for the “big three” telcos. From a personal standpoint, their deals and coverage were good enough for us to switch from TELUS. If they can keep this momentum up, their existence may actually provide the competition that the telco market in Canada desperately needs.

Quebecor who owns Freedom Mobile has filed a complaint with Canada’s Competition Bureau against grocery store chain Loblaws, which incidentally along with grocery chain Sobeys is the subject of another Competition Bureau investigation, and Glentel who runs retail brands including WIRELESSWAVE and tbooth wireless and manages Costco Canada with WIRELESS etc. Here’s why Quebecor has gone this route:

Quebecor has filed a complaint with the Competition Bureau regarding an agreement between Loblaw and wireless carriers Bell and Rogers, through their joint venture Glentel, that would give them exclusive selling rights at The Mobile Shop. This agreement would shut Freedom Mobile out of 180 Loblaw-owned grocery stores and further strengthen the stranglehold of the telecom oligopoly which, based on available data, would henceforth control 62.5% of all third-party retailers in the Canadian wireless industry.

Quebecor is confident that the Competition Bureau will investigate the grocery giant’s practices and the business model of joint ventures such as Glentel, which create further concentration to the detriment of Canadian consumers.

Well, I have to admit that I was skeptical when Freedom Mobile was bought by Quebecor after Rogers was forced to sell the carrier when they bought Shaw. But I have to admit that Quebecor is seriously trying to be a big player in the wireless space in Canada. Something that Canada desperately needs. And assuming that their claims are accurate, it appears that they are making the “big three” telcos nervous. Thus here we are talking about it. I will be keep an eye on this as if this moves forward, some people will have some explaining to do.

Recently, I posted a story about Freedom Mobile expanding access to Apple Watches on their Nationwide network. Which is their term for their “partners” from the “big 3” carriers. That seems to be short lived as I got this text message from Freedom Mobile:

That sucks. That suggests to me that one of the carrier “partners” backed out of the deal or something. But the good news is that Apple Watch owners on Freedom Mobile still get to keep the 5GB increase. That’s still way better than anything the “big 3” carriers offer. I’ll be keeping an eye on this to see when Freedom Mobile can offer Nationwide access for Apple Watches as that’s something that a lot of their customers will appreciate.

About an hour ago, I got this text from Freedom Mobile about their Apple Watch support. Something that my wife and I use:

So there’s some explanation that’s required to allow you to understand why this is a big deal. Let’s start with the fact that Apple Watch support is now available on their Nationwide network. Freedom Mobile’s Apple Watch support only worked on their own network. If you were outside of their network, as in you connected to a Rogers or Bell cell tower for example, your Apple Watch won’t get data. This is something that I admit that I never tested as that wasn’t top of mind for me when I did my testing of Freedom Mobile’s network a few months ago. That changes today as clearly Freedom Mobile have worked out some sort of an agreement with presumably Rogers and/or Bell and/or TELUS to allow Apple Watches belonging to Freedom Mobile customers to work on their networks.

That brings me to the second piece of news. Freedom Mobile has jacked Apple Watch users data buckets to 5GB up from 1GB at no extra charge. Now my wife and I are paying $10 a month each so that is a win for us. And to give you some points of comparison:

• Bell wants $15 a month for 1GB of data
• Rogers wants $15 a month for 1GB of data
• I wasn’t able to find what TELUS charges. But they’re likely $15 a month for 1GB of data as well as all of the “big 3” tend to copy each other. Any who can point me towards a definitive price on their website can leave a link in the comments below.

Now to be clear, the most that I have ever used with my Apple Watch during one billing cycle is about 500 MB. So 5 GB is overkill. But it’s still welcome as it is not costing my wife and I anything. I’ll be interested to see how it performs and once the weather warms up a bit more, I’ll be sure to do some testing and report back to you.

In the meantime, you have to wonder what if anything the “big 3” will do to respond to Freedom Mobile and how they have priced their Apple Watch support. This is a pretty big gauntlet that they’ve thrown down, and you have to think that they will respond to it at some point.