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Best 8 Mobile Phone Plans in Canada, 2022

Find information here on the best and most affordable mobile phone plans in Canada.

As a new immigrant in Canada, setting up your cell phone and internet plans can be a real hassle if you have no guidance at all. Luckily, Work Study Visa is here to give you a quick run down on some of the best mobile phone plans in Canada in 2022. It doesn’t matter if you have been living in Canada, a Landed Immigrant, student or regular visitor to Canada.

The cheapest mobile plans in Canada do not claim to be quite as robust as their United States counterparts. Not all of them can boast of reaching penthouses and remote areas, but Canada sure have great and affordable mobile phone plans and internet access.

Come what may, it doesn’t cancel out the need for data services even when people are in such areas. Communication and internet access is a basic social need in Canada, regardless of your city or province. No matter where you are, you still need a fast, affordable internet plan.

One thing any Canadian inhabitant would notice is that Canada offers a wide range of mobile plans that run on a cut-your-cloth basis. What’s best for one person is not always the best for another – but there’s a middle ground.

The cellphone plan providers in Canada are Telecommunication Companies that each have services that makes them unique, and that would make you choose one over the other depending on your need. If you’re shopping for phone plans to start off your 2022 with, let’s get down to the review and possible recommendation.

Mobile Phone Companies in Canada

There are three major mobile phone services in Canada; also known as ‘The Big Three’;

  1. Rogers
  2. Telus
  3. Bell

Most of the other companies each fall under these 3 companies. The big three either own them or have strong shares within. They are;

  • Public Mobile
  • Chatr Mobile
  • Lucky Mobile
  • Fido
  • SimplyConnect
  • Freedom Mobile
  • Virgin Mobile
  • Koodo

As earlier stated, each of these mobile network providers has a feature that makes them stand out. Some of them are phone plans for students, others are best as family cell phone plans, others still are best because they offer cheap mobile phone plans. For home use, best family plan in Canada would be those offering discounts and deals to family units for calls, messaging/texting and internet data bundles.

Furthermore, due to Canada’s vast geographical size, not all these cell phone companies have the best services at every point. It doesn’t hurt to subscribe to an unlimited data plans in Canada no matter where you live – or whether you use iPhone, Android or Tablet.

For example, the best mobile phone services in Toronto, Ontario may not be the best in the Sierra Nevada or British Columbia. We’ve had some of our readers asking for the best cell phone plans in Nova Scotia earlier this year, truth is there are many options to choose from!

The key puzzle here becomes identifying what exactly you need in a mobile phone plan and adopting it. Good enough, WhistleOut has categorized these different benefits into 8 mobile plans, and we intend to help you understand what makes them the best in each case.

8 Best Cell Phone Plans in Canada

  1. Best Smartphone Plan in Canada
  2. Best Unlimited Data plan in Canada
  3. Cheapest Prepaid Mobile Plan in Canada
  4. Best $0 iPhone Deal in Canada
  5. Best $0 Android Deal in Canada
  6. Cheapest Talk and Text Mobile Plan in Canada
  7. Best Data-Only Mobile Plan in Canada
  8. Best Family Sharing Plan in Canada

#1. Best Smartphone Plan in Canada: Virgin Mobile

Virgin Mobile doesn’t claim to be as affordable as any of the other options available. However, there is no doubt about the quality of their service.

Virgin mobile phone provider offers one of the best coverages for mobile phone plans in Canada. What you can at least be sure of with Virgin, is that you will get back value for your money.

Very recently, the Canadian government ordered a 25% decrease in the cost of cell phone plans. Virgin, in response, created a budget of $41.25 for 4GB.

In addition to this unlimited 4G LTE data, customers in Ontario and Quebec have the option to pair this deal with their home internet plans from Virgin.

Subscription to Virgin budget plan gives you an automatic $20 discount on home plans for a period of 12 months.

Virgin Mobile will provide you with quality access to the internet across many different geo-locations in Canada. It is especially good for those who use a lot of the internet and don’t have access to Wi-Fi.

#2. Best Unlimited Data Plan in Canada: Telus

I think everyone can agree that Telus Mobility offers the best unlimited mobile plans in Canada.

Other providers such as Rogers and Bell offer amazing plans as well, but when it comes to unlimited data, Telus is the undisputed champion. Pay as you go Telus plans are suitable for low volume callers who have a sparing need for service use.

Unlimited data can go both ways to either help or hurt you. The major advantage here is that you do not get a monthly cap, thereby having to pay extra charges whenever you exceed.

However, if you use an unlimited plan, you get a limited bandwidth for internet access. Therefore, in order to get the best results from Unlimited data, premium plans are always best.

At $80/month, the Telus 20 plan gives you access to 20GB full-speed internet per month; more than enough for the average internet user in Canada.

With Telus, you could use a pre-existing device here with no new contracts, or you could get a new device from Telus Mobility’s vast selection.

#3. Cheapest Prepaid Mobile Plans: Public Mobile

Prepaid mobile plans (also known as Pay-as-you-go), is a cost-effective way to control your mobile data. This way, you don’t have to worry about getting shocking bills every month due to excess usage of data or going over your cap.

In pay as you go, you pay for your data upfront and lose access to the internet once your subscribed data plan is exhausted. This, for most Canadians and Canadian inhabitants, is a great choice.

Public Mobile offers the best low-budget deals in this case, but that doesn’t mean they lack service or coverage.

Being under the Telus Mobile company, they have coverage in nearly 4 out of every 5 Canadian phone owners.

The most popular prepaid mobile plan is the 1GB + Canada-wide Talk + Text. This plan costs just $23/month.

Cheap prepaid mobile plans aren’t the only way Public Mobile helps you save money every month. They offer several bonuses including a $2 credit per billing if you set up autopay, $1 after a year, $10 for referring a friend, and up to $20 for contributing to the community forum.

#4. Best $0 iPhone Deals in Canada: Koodo

Koodo, another subsidiary to Telus, has some very mouth-watering plans for $0 iPhone deals. Probably their best deal currently out there is the iPhone 12 mini at $26/month for 24 months.

Even with new phones on the market, getting deals like this one actually is more cost-effective for you.

Koodo also comes with a couple of other benefits. One can easily get data or unlimited minutes here for both national and international calls for merely $5 extra to certain plans. This makes koodo one of the best Canada phone plans for new immigrants as well.

As a new immigrant who wants to get an iPhone in Canada while paying in installments, this might be your best shot,

#5.  Best $0 Android Deals in Canada: SimplyConnect

SimplyConnect, a subsidiary of the Rogers network, offers cheap deals on the Samsung Galaxy A51 at a monthly installment rate of $45/month. They make this deal better by offerings $150 credit when you sign up with them as a new customer.

#6. Cheap Talk and Text Mobile Plans in Canada: Chatr Mobile

Chatr Mobile has a $15/month deal for 100 minutes of talk time or $25/month for unlimited talk time. These are some of the best deals in the business, especially as it comes with unlimited minutes coming in on the Roger Network.

#7. Best Data-Only Mobile Phone Plans in Canada: Freedom Mobile

Freedom mobile provides a plan that gives users 17GB worth of full-speed data for just $50.

These days, we don’t need talk time or SMS messaging to connect with our friends and family. We already have VoIP and chat applications such as Facebook, Facetime, WhatsApp, and the likes.

This plan enables you to stay in your comfort zone (if you prefer not to call) and still connect with your people while saving costs.

The big idea here is to use your cell phone’s hotspot as a portable access point to connect to the Internet via any of your devices.

Here, you also get an unlimited text while having pay-per-use talk time at $0.05/minute. Drawback here, however, is that Freedom Mobile is only available in urban areas like South Ontario, British Columbia, Albert, etc.

For inhabitants living elsewhere, the $15/month on Lucky mobile might just be the next best thing.

#8. Best Family Sharing Mobile Plans in Canada: SimplyConnect

Probably the most practical way to save cost on mobile plans in Canada (or anywhere really), is to make use of combined plans. SimplyConnect currently offers the best mobile family sharing plan in Canada.

For just $59/month, two phone lines could share unlimited talk time and texts, with a decent 3GB of data. There are a couple of other plans on this network for both budget and heavy data users. You can be assured of their service, and that they offer the best deals available for family plans.

Conclusion

Conclusively, Canada has some of the most expensive data rates and the costs are expected to increase a bit in 2022-23. Therefore even with their student-friendly mobile plans and their plans for new immigrants, you still have to determine what exactly you need and how much data you consume, before you can determine which of the plans is best for you.

Determining your average consumption will help you get it right when it comes to choosing your plan. And as expected, the Canada mobile phone companies of preference has to do with the plan you’re interested in.

It is not unusual to see Canadians comparing one mobile plans versus another. What we do recommend though, is ensuring you choose a low-cost plan that serve your need and within your budget.