How good is Freedom Mobile’s LTE network?

By: Ted Kritsonis

February 17, 2017

 

The carrier formerly known as Wind Mobile rebranded as Freedom Mobile at the same time it launched its own LTE network in November 2016 in Toronto and Vancouver, so how good is it three months in?

It got off to a rough start initially, with customers reporting they weren’t seeing LTE connections, but things have gotten better since. The constant caveat for this LTE network is that it runs on AWS-3, otherwise known as Band 66, which has little support up to now.

Network rollout

Freedom (then Wind) had acquired it through government wireless spectrum auctions for Ontario, Alberta and B.C. Rolling out the network will cost an estimated $250 million, staggering it out through the Greater Toronto and Greater Vancouver areas first up to this spring, followed by Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa by the summer. Southwestern and southeastern Ontario would cap things off in the fall.

The same “Home” and “Away” zones apply. Venturing into an Away zone onto another carrier’s network costs $0.15/minute of talk, $0.05 per text and $0.05 per megabyte of data. It doesn’t include the Everywhere Talk and Text Freedom offers on other plans.

Roaming in the U.S. on LTE networks there will be opened up in the spring, likely through AT&T or Verizon, who both own Band 66 spectrum too. Those on 3G plans will continue to access 3G when roaming, and will also act as a fallback for LTE customers.

Despite the limitations, the monthly plan is compelling. Until Feb. 22, Freedom is offering its LTE plan for $35/month, switching to $45/month after 10 months. It includes unlimited calling to Canada and the U.S. There is 3GB of data already in there, but another 3GB is tacked on for a total of 6GB, except that will expire on January 31, 2018. Freedom says there will be “different offers and plans available” customers can choose from, but has not elaborated on what those might look like.

Even at $45, that is a fraction of what a similar plan would cost with one of the Big 3. For example, a Rogers Share Everything plan with 5GB of data is $115/month. With Telus, a similar plan with 2.5GB of data is $100/month. Bell has a 5GB Share plan that costs $125/month.

The discrepancy is huge, except there’s another current roadblock. As of this review, only the LG V20 and ZTE Grand X 4 are capable of running on Freedom’s LTE network. That is poised to change as newer devices are launched this year, where Band 66 could be included in a number of flagship devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S8 and LG G6, among others. What about the iPhone? We won’t know until Apple launches the next one.

Network performance

Freedom’s LTE network is like a highway that has one or two cars on it. Congestion is not a problem and speed isn’t constrained too much by traffic. I was only able to test the network in the GTA, so am not sure how well it currently operates in Vancouver. I did, however, test it with both compatible phones.

Far from being a scientific experiment, my testing was largely a collection of many anecdotes to ascertain connectivity and note any patterns. For instance, Freedom’s 3G network is plagued by poor reception indoors, largely because AWS-3 doesn’t penetrate walls very well.

Band 66 seems to be far more consistent. There were instances where I was getting better coverage indoors in downtown Toronto than I was with Fido or Bell. Other times, it was the opposite. Even when it was, reception was never terrible enough to ruin a browsing session or drop a call.

Still, there were indications coverage needs a little work. Random drops down to 4G would happen at various times, lowering the connection to 3G+ speeds.

Latency on LTE was quite low, usually between 17-21 milliseconds. Download speeds consistently topped 50Mbps, though the average was slightly lower — about 48.62Mbps — which is more than competitive compared to the Big 3. The heart of downtown Toronto skewed upwards toward 60Mbps, whereas the fringes of the current LTE coverage area could drop down to 40Mbps.

As good as it is, Bell’s network is super fast by comparison, topping 100Mbps in the same areas. Even averaged down, the final tally doubles what Freedom can deliver. However, that’s largely the case with Bell (or probably Telus, which uses the same network too). Fido, which uses Rogers’ network, fell short of Freedom in several locations. In others, it was on par or better.

One benefit of Freedom’s network compared to all others is access in Toronto’s subway stations. LTE connectivity was excellent in downtown core stations, though it doesn’t extend north of Dupont or Rosedale, east of Sherbourne or west of High Park. Freedom says it will be expanding the footprint futher in the coming months, but no firm timetable or deadline has been confirmed.

Moving forward

Freedom’s LTE network will rest on future support, which should come in greater numbers this year, but there are other features that would help. Wi-Fi Calling, which would negate any reception issues when connected to a Wi-Fi network, would make a real difference. Calls, texts and picture messages transfer over Wi-Fi under such a feature, which also works really when travelling abroad.

Freedom has only said that it is “working with phone manufacturers to include the feature as standard in mid to high-end phones” the carrier sells. VoLTE (Voice over LTE) is another feature that is reportedly coming, improving voice quality for calls.

It’s unclear how more congestion might affect Freedom’s new network, but it’s probably a good bet that performance will be similar to how competitors operate.

For now, though, it’s a pretty good start, and a far cry from the nagging issues the 3G network suffers from. With only two phones currently compatible, the most popular models have yet to jump onboard, but with more choice and a monthly cost well below the competition, Freedom may be appealing to more than a few defectors.


84 comments

  1. Reg says:

    Freedom phone signal is extremely poor where I live even though I’m in a “covered” area. I’ve decided to switch to another provider and am trying to cancel my Freedom account. Their customer service is worse than their cell signal. I’ve been trying in a chat session to cancel my service with them for an hour now and they are averaging about 7 minutes to respond to every entry I make. A lot of their responses are trivial and then it takes another 8 minutes when I respond to their trivial response.

    Having a very hard time not blowing up at the person I’m chatting with. My guess is that they should have at least double the number of customer service reps than they do.

  2. Rima says:

    Terrible experience with this sneaky company that boasts about “no hidden fees or surprises” but buries everything in their terms and conditions. No different than any other network other than slower network speeds, dead zones, and oh yeah, surprise roaming charges.

    Their bait-and-switch referral program is so convoluted and needs to be better communicated. I referred 3 people and only got credit for 1 because of shady communication from this communication company (if you can even call them that, more of a joke!).

    You get what you pay for, and Freedom should not be your main network source, unless you are super desperate and pack A LOT of patience to save a buck. Otherwise, focus on Canadian carriers that appreciate your business and care about your experience – companies always devalue the power of quality customer care, I will never understand the logic in that.

    If you have a long time and loyal customer, retain them vs pull one over on them, especially if they are vouching for you and brining you new customers through referrals. Shameful!

  3. Jen says:

    Worst customer service .

    Had to get my account number and after 45 minutes- 6 verifications on 3 different modes. I got it. The service was rude and unprofessional. Asked to speak fro a supervisor after call but nope she didn’t bother. Just crappy company. They have a f grade with bbb. I think that says it all.

  4. Brad Deakin says:

    I have been a client for almost 8 years…

    In the beginning i went with them for cost…

    THEY ARE THE WORST

    Terrible coverage/….can even get coverage in some spots in Burlington…my home town

    THEIR CLIENT SERVICE IS TERRIBLE…

    I cant even call some places in the bahamas !!! They can call me but I cant call them…CS and Tech support say a large amount of fraud calls come from there so its blocked….what a bunch of bullshit

    They call me so how is it that is the case that the exchange is blocked for security purposes

    Quite simply it is run by lies and terrible coverage not to mention terrible client service…leaving after 7 years of service

  5. Jeremy says:

    ABSOLUTELY DO NOT GO WITH FREEDOM MOBILE!!! They have garbage coverage, and the salesman lie about everything. To phone customer service took 54min on hold to pretty much get told to go f&*k myself when I finally got to talk with someone.
    Plans are cheap, usually you get what you pay for… but not with freedom, you get alot less than what you pay for.
    Salesman answered my questions: 1) Will I have service and data where I work, on the other side of the freeway, he said yes, I HAD NO DATA COVERAGE. 2) Wife said we were going to the mountains for our anniversary and would need data for maps, salesman told us yes that is what the 500mb out of city data is for, WE HAD NO DATA, NONE!!!, a 6h traffic delay on the day of our anniversary would leave us without data, more importantly maps, and basically ruined our anniversary. 3) Salesman told us we would get the promotion of $45/month on the $60/month plan… bill gets emailed to me for $198.43 FOR THE FIRST WEEK AND NEXT MONTHS SERVICE, this does not include a phone as we brought our own.
    If you want to feel ripped off, and get garbage coverage and service, go ahead and get a freedom mobile plan. We went back to our provider we had used before and they had trouble getting our phone numbers switched back over, just to top off the unimaginable horror of going with freedom mobile for 8 days. They also want me to pay complete for the month I did not use.

  6. Terry says:

    Freedom mobile has been without question one of the most frustrating businesses I’ve ever dealt with have years of problems with him have cost me endless amount of contracts. That’s over the course of two years and probably over a hundred hours on the phone with them they push you from one person to the next and then they say they’re going to escalated to their technicians. Now hold on to your hats their phone technicians do you not have phones where you can reach them so after the 3 to 5 days they don’t get back to you you have to go through the same jerk off session and then they assure you the technicians are looking after it over a year ago I said how can you assure me what are they doing how do you know they’re looking after it she said what we sent them a ticket. My question was is that taking on the bottom of the pile still or the top she said she didn’t know big? When I finally talked to them about a week and a half later they told me there was no problem with my phone my cell line. That’s kind of strange because I was only receiving about 40% of my calls when I asked him what they did to come to that conclusion I mysteriously got disconnected. Fast forward to today another year later now I can’t make phone calls I can barely send texts had spent so much time on the phone 2 weeks ago once again I was told a technician would get back to me in 3 to 5 days again that was 2 weeks ago they keep having me do different things to the phone which is making it worse. I can’t even check my voicemail with my phone and I did manage to get a hold of them twice but they said sorry sir we can’t hear you you’ll have to call back and hung up on me twice this happened today from my house I’m a Lock & Safe technician so I guess I’m not that smart but if you paid me to open your safe or fix your locks and I don’t get the safe open for the lock remains broken do you really think I would charge you. If someone fixes your roof and it leaks are you going to pay for it if you take a taxi to the airport and they drop you off halfway cuz they get a flat tire are you still going to pay full price these people need to be brought to account especially in this day and age when we need to get hold of our relatives cuz we’re confined to the house. Sorry for rambling but this is driving me nuts and I plan on doing it everywhere I possibly can just somebody listens

  7. Liam says:

    I signed up with Freedom eight days ago.
    Eight very long days ago.
    I have one very long day to go before I leave them.
    We truly do live in the age of the thief.

  8. Ken says:

    Very disappointing service. Constantly dropping calls no matter whether I was at home, or in any major city in North America. Freedom’s service department team said they couldn’t tell me why it was happening and they couldn’t fix it. So when I told them I had to cancel, they insisted I pay penalties. WTF, they broke the contract by not providing (or fixing) the service!! When i tried to reach customer service, I could not get someone of authority to get back to me. The email they provide just bounces back. Unbelievable, don’t get sucked in.

  9. Kevin says:

    I’ve switched over to Freedom Mobile and the first 2 weeks, nothing but bad service. I live in Vancouver, BC and I am well within the coverage. Calls never ring. They went into my voicemail. Trying to call other people, and it does not ring, just dead silence. Internet sucks. Constantly getting pop up message that Network is unavailable. Cannot even send SMS Text message as it keeps failing.

    Seriously, Freedom Mobile should be shot dead. They have the worst service ever. Calling their customer service was unhelpful. Telling me to reboot the phone and run that stupid key code EVERY TIME there is a problem with the connection?!? That equates 10 times throughout the day, EVERY day. That is not practical. I never had problem like this when I was on Rogers or Telus.

    Before you write an article trying to promote Freedom Mobile, please try out the product and service yourself. Otherwise, your journalism and your website is untrustworthy.

  10. Dan says:

    Freedom Mobile has a horrible network as soon as you go Indoors. My office is in Mississauga and as soon as I enter the office, the reception is gone. I haven’t been able to receive a single call without disturbance. I will strongly NOT RECOMMEND Freedom Mobile to anyone. DO NOT FALL FOR LOW PRICES!

  11. I use Freedom Mobile in the core of downtown Toronto and have no issues 95% of the time. While I see others here say it loads really slow, it works well in my condo and my office where is where a lot my time is spent so I can’t really complain paying $50 bucks for 10 GBs. I think their network will become better over time, I’m sure they are receiving the feedback plastered all over the internet about their reception/coverage.

  12. Lee says:

    I with WIND/Freedom mobile since 2012 , no problem with LTE in Vancouver BC and roam to AT&T when travel to USA.

  13. Free Thinker says:

    Any comments on here that say Freedom’s network is great is a farce. I live / work in downtown Toronto, Freedom’s LTE is garbage. I can be standing at the corner of Yonge and Bloor and have 3-4 bars, but the connection loads like 3G and lower…. or it just times out.
    This does not change when I get to my residence which is just outside the city core… the network / connection is just as bad and even spotty to no connection at times.
    I absolutely would not recommend Freedom to anyone.
    Also their customer support is horrendous… really really bad.

    I plan on purchasing a new phone outright this October 2018 and will be switching carriers at that point. I’d gladly pay more to get away from the horrible mess call Freedom Mobile

  14. Chika says:

    Worst customer service on earth. Stood in front of a representative today trying to buy a note 9 and he looked right through me. Didn’t even say a word to me for over 20 minutes. I got tired and walked away.

    I probably did not look like someone who could afford anything at the stores. Network is shitty so one would expect the best customer service. Please look for another network. Pay slightly more but get service

  15. Chris says:

    Before going to India, I deactivated my Freedom mobile account online by clicking a large ‘Deactivate my Account’ button.
    While in India I was charged for 2 months of service fees ($50/each month). I disputed this and yet they would not retract the fee.
    While in India I was trying to access the wifi of the airport to send a message. Apparently my data was turned on in the process and – even though my message never went through and even though I did nothing other than try to send one message, I was charged $100 for this mishap.
    I called Freedom Mobile to talk about this, but I could not find one human person in their entire support centre. All I got was foreign, third-party call centres which did nothing other than follow a robotic script. Even when I escalated the dispute to hopefully find a human, the foreign, third-party call centre person there just followed her script.
    Again, all this happened while I deactivated my Freedom Mobile account.

    My review of Freedom Mobile Customer Service: 1/10 – Completely inhuman robotic third-party script users.
    My review of Freedom Mobile Business Practices: 1/10 – Lying about my account being deactivated.

  16. Mario D’Ablanco says:

    What a bunch of lies. These comments must be written by robelus people…
    I’ve bent on Wind/Freedom since Jan 2009 and yes, there was a pain. Yes, customer service sucks, but where it doesn’t? Now, LTE works pretty well. I travel a lot between Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Edmonton and do not have any trouble with voice and/or data, Airports, Highways, side streets…. Learn how to use your phones…

  17. Eli says:

    The worst provider that I have experienced. In most indoor places e.g. toronto hospitals you have zero coverage. In outdoor places although you see signal but the speed is terrible.
    Never ever suggest their garbage service to my friends or anybody.

  18. John says:

    LOL, signed up with Freedom on Monday, returned phone on Wednesday, seems service is so bad it could only sometimes come into my house; other times it dropped HOME and showed AWAY.

    Bad customer service, and even worst technical support.

  19. Li says:

    Network is not very good, I guess what you pay is what you get.

  20. Jeremy says:

    Things are definitely going down hill. They seem to be having tech problems. I have all data turned off, and even had it blocked by them, but they keep charging me for data each month. I call them and complain, they refund me and block data, but it happens again every month for the passed 4 months.

  21. Mike says:

    Like others have said. Freedom has been nothing short of a nightmare. Freedom from your phone should be their moto because if you sign up with them you will effectively be left without a phone. One thing Freedom did well was make me appreciate Bell a ton more.

  22. Maria says:

    If you are considering using FREEDOM Mobile DO NOT! Run the other way. Lured by the completive pricing, I switched over to them 4 months ago. BIG MISTAKE. Even in the Calgary’s “home” network where there is supposedly good coverage, data works 10% of the time and I have dropped and missed calls regularly (that don’t show up on my phone at all…does not ring, no call history) regardless of where I am (not in elevators…middle of a field…city street…no difference). I’ve called several times to trouble shoot the issues- always end up on hold or getting passed on to different departments- the problem gets fixed temporarily, if at all. I’ve spent hours on this. I’m done. I called today to cancel my account and I’ve been on the phone so far for 1 hour and 46 minutes. I just found out I have to pay $774 to do cancel my account…news to me. When I signed up I was told the new Iphone 8 I was getting would be $15/month for 24 months ($360) and could cancel anytime. Great deal. I had done some research on Freedom and was worried about the reviews I’d read about network issues and I thought, if that happens to me, I’ll pay the remaining balance, cancel my account and go elsewhere. What I found out today is that isn’t an option. The phone is only $15/month x 24 months ($360) IF AND ONLY IF you stay with this terrible company for the 24 months. I wouldn’t have an issue staying with Freedom if they actually provided a phone service that works! I can use my phone to make calls out and most of the time texting works, but data and incoming calls DO NOT work more often than they do work.So why am I paying $774? The way it was explained to me is that the phone is in fact $38.70/month for 24 months, though I was offered a promotional rate of $15/month IF AND ONLY IF I stay the length of 24 month term but if I cancel today the total amount for the phone is $38.70/month x 24months ($929 total) and since I’ve only been with the company for 4 months, the balance owing on the phone is $774! ($929 – 4 months @38.70). BRUTAL. I’m going to pay it because I’ve spent almost 2 hours on the phone again today with Freedom- AGAIN- being passed on from person to person, NONE OF WHICH WERE HELPFUL. To add insult to injury, they mistakenly added a $20/month bundle to my bill three months ago and after a long conversation offered to pay for half of THEIR mistake. Furthermore, I was told the first time I called to troubleshoot 4 months ago that I would receive a discount of $10/month for six months as a compensation for the technical issues on their end. At that time, I thought what a great company. I didn’t ask for compensation, it was offered and I thought my technical issues were fixed. Boy was I wrong. The discount was never applied to my account. When I asked about it today the rep essentially called me a liar and then put me on hold for 20 mins. When she came back she had found in the communication history that in fact the offer was made to me, but nothing was done about it. She did not acknowledge her mistake or offer an apology for essentially calling me a liar. Instead of offering me a $40 compensation ($10 x 4 months), she said she could only provide me with the same promotion, starting today, which is useless, since I am going to pay the $774 to be rid of this useless service and return to Virgin Mobile, who despite costing a bit more monthly, is a superior service on all levels. I never had issues with them. I was simply looking for a bit of a better deal. If I knew then what I know now, I never would have switched. I have been offered zero compensation for this huge waste of time and money- not from their “loyalty” department, “retention” department or “management”, despite having to repeat my story to all three of them today. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY LIKE I DID. FREEDOM MOBILE is by far the worst cellular service I’ve ever dealt with on so many levels.

  23. Freedomhater says:

    Freedom is the worst mobile plan I’ve taken having Telus and bell before. I don’t think they know anything about customer care services. I’ve never felt so humiliated in my life. Suspending my account even after I’ve made my payments which happened twice. The mobile app keeps crashing and I’m not able to find out what my bill is. Even before the end of cycle they suspended my account without telling me what went wrong. And if I don’t pay the bill the same day neither your calls, messages nor data works. Also charged me more for what I’ve not used. Disaster!! Please stay away from freedom. Even if you have to pay a little more join other plans that makes you feel important and respect you.

  24. sasaki says:

    Freedom is absolute disaster. Customer service was very bad to deal with and no experience what so ever.

    Never again, I have learned my lesson.

  25. Shaun says:

    I just switched to Freedom Mobile yesterday from Bell. The coverage is supposed to be ‘Home’ from GTA to Barrie, I still have no Internet connection. I’m switching back to Bell. Looking at these comments helped reassure me that I’m making the right decision. Good bye Freedom Mobile, Bell please take me back

  26. Art says:

    I purchased Galaxy S8 with freedom 2 months ago and service it’s just garbage I tried to listen to Internet radio which doesn’t take much data it’s just impossible it was one of my worst decisions to switch

  27. Sally says:

    I purchased my phone (Sony Xperia Ultra) in October 2017, I began to experience technical problems and connection problems 2 weeks after I bought the phone. I have taken the phone in twice already since I bought October. I do not think this is acceptable as Freedom cannot identify the actual problem. I was told by Freedom agent that it is the common problem with the phone. If this is the case, how come Freedom MOBILE continues to sell the phones without alerting their customers? I have been with Wind mobile and Freedom for over six years and as a loyal customer, I find freedom not taking the best interest of their clients.

  28. She says:

    The worst signal even for international calls, a waste of money !

  29. Andrew Black says:

    I been with WIND now Freedom for 5 years. The data/internet is the worse it’s ever been. I’m in the general downtown Vancouver area. I am paying more than ever for their service as well. I So do the math… Most expensive plan to date with the worst service!

  30. Unkown says:

    Freedom “Internet Connection” really sucks and the worst internet service ever!

  31. ALI says:

    Freedom mobile’s customer service is the worst one I had ever have. Do not even pass in front of their shop!!

  32. Daniel says:

    I have been with Wind/Freedom for at least 4 years and in the past year it got worse and worse and worse…
    Funny how this happened right after Shaw took over Wind. From my understanding is that the problem is not only poor cell tower coverage but their choice of network protocol, HSPA/WSA which apparently doesn’t penetrate walls very well, hence poor reception indoors.

    Needless to say I will be switching very soon, will try Fido at first and see how it goes. So long Wind, it was sweet while it lasted.

  33. Marius says:

    I had two line with Freedom, for 2 years

    THAT WAS ABSOLUTE DISASTER

  34. Mike says:

    With freedom for 3 days…… absolute garbage!!! Customer support awful.

  35. Richard Haraszti says:

    Consider another provider.
    I’ve been with them 2 years. In the beginning I was and could accept their limited services. The cost of plans were superb. A fraction of what I was paying with Koodo.

    Since the Shaw takeover and promise of faster speeds and broader location? I’ve had nothing but THE WORST SERVICE IMAGINABLE.
    Yes LTE does exist now but here in Niagara region, service fluctuates all throughout the day. LTE….4G….no service….all day long.
    This causes dropped calls, can’t dial out and incoming go directly to voicemail.

    After numerous attempts to get answers I was reassured that this is just temporary and technical support is addressing the issues.

    Now months after and after the black-and-white, problems persist and have become much worse.

    Finally I did through to a supervisor with client care after being disconnect several times. I was informed Freedom isn’t for everyone. I would not be offered any discounts off the bill or promos. Nothing for all my loyalty and struggles along the was.
    I was graciously told to go to another provider if I could as unhappy.
    That’s it. No apologies. Nothing to keep me as a client. ZILTCH.

    I do not recommend Freedom to anyone.
    Do not be fooled by catchy priced plans. Cost means nothing if Freedom can’t deliver a reliable service.

  36. fariha says:

    horrible phone, always turned off in emergency situations, going. to switch soon

  37. LA says:

    I was with wind for almost or should i say 2 years. Today, i’ve decided to cancel my plan as i’ve been charged $2-7cad every pay period. It’s either i’ve text a landline, phone overseas, call an unknown number while i’m “AWAY” .. . I paid $75 when i opened the account and was told that they gonna send back the money in the mail by cheque in 6 months. 6 months after i didn’t get my money back and told me that the deposit will go to future payments and i will only be able to get it if i pay the bill on time. WHAT?? So ok, that wasn’t the deal at all. But yah why not. $55 aas used to pay a bill last April (if i’m not mistaken). I planned to closed the account due to UNREASONABLE overcharges. Their representative name’s Charles from their BC location. He said, i can’t use the $20 cause it wasn’t stated in my account. I told him but i paid $75 and only got $55. He kept insisting that he can’t do that. ($20 when you work hard for it is precious and a lot.) I’ve freaked out and cuss, cause as a customer, it is my right and it’s my money that i’m getting. Right as i put down the phone, This Representive name Charles cancelled my service without settling the issue. So if you guys wanna switch to freedom/wind mobile cause it’s cheap, DON’T! it’s not worth it!

  38. Corey says:

    I switched a year or 2 ago because of their cheap us plans. Bit as i have learned they will get do anything to get you in the door but once you there they have no customer loyalty if you want to upgrade the is no deal for you being a current customer. They want you to change your plan for what suites them and there plans are constantly changing. At least when i was with telus they actually to care of you. I had no problem with a new phone every few years. with freedom you have to fight and spend hours on a phone and go through multiple people to find 1 person that barely can help you. Worst customer service ever not that it matters them.

  39. JohnF says:

    Just switched today from Bell and it already has started to cause issues. I moved all 4 family phones…even at home we cannot text each other while testing! Phonecalls are a hit and miss. I message works, but it is mostly because of Wifi. When Wifi is off, imessage is pretty slow. Will give them a month. If it doesn’t work, then I will need to find someone else. Too bad the big companies are still gauging us.

  40. Jeff says:

    The user experience for me is somehow getting worse even thought they have been improving the signals over the years? The connection seems to gets lost randomly all the time, so there is basically no reliability for me now.

    Also, I got charged for roaming when I didn’t roam. When you are not in their home coverage, you roam on their partner networks like Rogers. By the way, when I got charged for roaming fee, my phone did not even have data roam turned on, and needlessly to say I was in their coverage zone the whole time (you can check when the roaming data occurred). But hey, even their customer support says this could happen even when you have thick walls. I guess you will just have log on to their website and turn off roaming to avoid hassle. What a joke.

    But then again, with their plans increasing in price, might as well switch to the other more premium carriers then, get better signal and faster speeds (and probably costs about the same considering the “roaming fees”).

  41. Whey says:

    I signed up Freedom during the iphone promotion period a month ago. The promotion was attractive: no upfront payment for iphone 8, only $15 per month for 2 years; $50 for 12gb of data, unlimited texting, calling….

    I found that the LTE speed is fast but it consumes quite a lot of data. I don’t surf the net a lot and I don’t call out of city / province / country that much. I found it sufficient.

    It depends on your need and where you live. My friend in Calgary said the coverage was poor but when she went to Edmonton, coverage was good. So talk to more people and find out more before you sign-up.

  42. Patrick says:

    Avoid at all costs. I signed up with them today. There was a series of nightmares trying to switch my number from Rogers to Freedom. When they were finally able to do the switch I could not switch some setting back from the temporary number they gave the phone during the switch. I called technical support and they could not help me. They actually blamed the brand new iphone8 and said there was nothing they could do. I absolutely regret switching to these guys. They offer cheaper plans but believe me you pay for it with the completely incompetent “technical” support.

  43. Sergiy Slobodyan says:

    Im with Freedom for 7 month in Vancouver, I haven’t tried any other canadian network. What’s good – us roaming included, though not data. Free Calls to US.
    What’s bad – data speed is hardly enough for calls using apps like Skype, Viber…, Internet doesn’t work in subway. No service in suburbs and outside Vancouver. No service on road to mountains, even though I can see people talking over the phone.
    I see no reason to use freedom mobile except for a case when you need to call to US

  44. Derek says:

    It is absolutely the worst. It’s slow all the time and it doesn’t matter if you have LTE. I pay for 10GB of LTE data and first off, I’d rather not have a phone and I’m 16 years old. Its slow, I can’t send pictures on text message, when I try to call someone, I always have to try twice because I get disconnected and its so painful to watch such a small company, try so hard to get their ass up into the “big leagues.” If I didn’t sign up for 2 years with an iPhone 8Plus, I would be totally okay with cancelling and paying $100 for a phone plan that will actually work. Freedom Mobile is garbage and I would pay people to go literally anywhere else.

  45. Nataliia Havryliuk says:

    Horrible customer service.

  46. Erik says:

    I’ve been with wind/freedom since 2012, overall I’ve saved at least $2000 in bills and overages from Rogers. I live in Niagara, most of the region has signal, some parts don’t. I’ve also travelled across country and outside of the extra $20 to cover away fees, I’ve been quite content. Most of these people have no clue how their phones work or what to do to fix it, customer service may be clueless, but hop on Google and learn a few cellphone basics and avoid the $100+/month bills from the big 3. Ain’t nothing in this world for free. Quit being crybabies and go learn how the stuff in the palm of your hands works. What’s the worst thing that could happen,you learn something?

  47. Chris says:

    I was with them since towards the end of 2009. Terrible start but at some point they stabilized. Trouble came when they switched to Freedom, which isn’t Freedom at all.
    Everything they mentioned viz; dropped calls, loss of network, taking too long to get reconnected to mention but a few. I’ve been with Freedom long enough to be a true witness.
    Their prices are good but as they say. Cheap things are not cheap

  48. Andres says:

    recently switched to Freedom. It’s on and off service of basic phone at home or office or open pubic spaces

    WI-FI/Data on my iphone 7 plus is not working

    Honestly don’t know why i trusted Freedom.

  49. Nino says:

    calls dropping all over the GTA.

    Chatr way better, same price ish.

  50. Darko says:

    I recently upgraded to a new LTE plan and a new phone. I am constantly getting calls going straight voicemail and ‘Missed call’ messages, both in my office (downtown Toronto) and at home (Forrest Hill).

    Never had an issue with my old Nexus 5 on G3 network.

  51. Alex says:

    Its not great,
    Promises didn’t follow!
    NO LTE.
    And speed is not much different than 4G and signal on DT Calgary in some building completely off
    .. 4G everywhere losing signal most times.

    And I’m using Samsung 8+.
    When I did get the phone
    They promised LTE servise ..
    but still 4G.
    !!!then I receive text messages
    With offering me pay extra monthly..
    So
    Strength…

  52. Brian says:

    LTE= Lower The Expectations! If it won’t work downtown Calgary it won’t work anywhere in Calgary. A total waste of your money.

  53. Dianne says:

    their service works only if you do not have an iPhone, lg phone works good, mine is an iPhone 6 and I can not use iMessage and no service, because apple does not support freedom mobile. But on their website were you check your phones compatibility put in your serial number is says its compatible, but it is not, and they told me too it was.

    The deals are great, they say iPhones will be available from them in December, so ill wait and see if it gets better then.

  54. Guy says:

    *3rd World Prices, Coverage & Customer Service*

    But 3gb data, unlimited talk & text for $39 after taxes makes it tolerable.

  55. Dear Readers,

    WhatsYourTech.ca appreciates your readership and comments. We have made Freedom Mobile aware of your responses.

  56. Rich says:

    I’ve been extremely disappointed with Freedom. When I first signed with freedom (before LTE) they told me my Note 5 would be able to use LTE when it became available if I signed on for their freedom 55 plan. When LTE came to Calgary I contacted them and they told me I had to get one of their LTE ready phones to use it. So I spent $1000 for the S8 and had to upgrade to the $59 plan.

    After all this I barely get LTE, mostly just 4g and apps and internet have long pauses or won’t load until I close the app and restart it again. That’s not even the worst part. I can’t consistently receive calls in my own home with full bars, sometimes calls go through and sometimes they dont. I would get a prompt saying I missed a call from so and so, even when the phone is right beside me, no ring, no nothing.

    I contacted freedom tech support and they have no clue on how to resolve this. They keep telling to do the same think over and over again. Enter ##21# to cancel call forwarding. Doesn’t work! 3 missed call this morning.

    My patience is almost spent. I originally switched to freedom to try and save some money but their networks are garbage compared to the big 3. Still the same crap Wind, just a new name. Save yourself the time, hassle and headache and stay with your original carrier, you’ll get better, faster and dependable service.

    Rich from Calgary

  57. Ray says:

    It is the worst service out there!

  58. Enrique C says:

    I’ve been with windmobile now Freedom mobile since 2012, after Rogers taking so much money from me in overcharges, and spending countless hours fighting with customer service, for their billing mistakes, I dicided enough was enough. Tried Fido for a while until they started the same path as Rogers I decided to give windmobile a try.

    It was a rocky start, but things how improved so much from the early days, reception more consistent, even at a part of hwy 401 by the Airport where I used to drop calls when using Fido. LTE connection it’s excellent even if once in a while drops to 3g. When I’m traveling in Ontario i I just switch to an away network if needed. Very happy with service.
    Just got loyalty retention to switch my plan to everywhere 59 for the promo price of $50 a month will now have 8gs of data a month plus 1gb within Canada or USA.
    Happy to be part of the competition in favor of better cellular pricing.

  59. P says:

    Hey Nathan Myers,

    I understand what you’re saying, BUT I think myself and many other people were mislead by the sales representatives in the Freedom Mobile shops.

    I was promised pristine network connections and high speed internet, and just like everyone else, it has been a pain so far.

    I’m in the GTA, and my phone will have full reception, and I constantly get texts messages saying that I missed a call. The LTE, I found, is fine if you’re not inside of a building or in a basement. Google Maps tends to work reasonably well with Freedom’s LTE.

    I’ll need to switch over to Telus or Rogers now, as Freedom Mobile really isn’t meant for adults who need a reliable mobile connection, but more for high school students who need access to WhatsApp and other messaging apps that require a phone number.

  60. Brigitte Laskowski says:

    Freedom Mobile has got to make their LTE coding available to download to Freedom BYOD customers, once they purchase one of their LTE plans.

  61. Todd Harvey says:

    Internet speed slow in St. Catharines, varies between 4-10 mbps indoors.

  62. Geo says:

    I don’t know why the majority of the comments are against Freedom Mobile, I’ve been with them for 1 year and so far everything has been great, minor connection issues every once in a while but not enough to constantly miss calls or texts, just switched my plan to the $59 LTE plan and got an LG G6 so far the data is fast, it hit a max of 90Mbps in North York. One thing I agree with though is that their customer support sucks, mostly rude undertrained people.

  63. Sharon L says:

    HORRIBLE COMPANY. I REPEAT HORRIBLE COMPANY. I tried Freedom return the phone in less than 24 hours. They do not provide the coverage they claim to provide. Even though they have away coverage they don’t. I called to complain right away and they said it would take 3-5 business days to get their partner provider to fix the issue. I returned the phone the next day and canceled the plan. 2 weeks later I received an invoice for the phone claiming they have no proof that it was returned. I am the one who had to run around to prove I canceled and returned the phone. HORRIBLE.

  64. Sandy says:

    Freedom mobile services are terrible. This is the worse company ever. The internet and communication are not working every where in Calgary and the internet is really slow, I went outside of Calgary which is 40 mn away, I could not make any calls and there was no signal. I lost for about 1 hour just because of that terrible company, I could not do nothing with my cell phone. Specially, when I am in the basement I can’t make any calls except emergency, even I got out of the basement I have to wait for 15 to 20 minutes before I can make a call. I can’t wait to pay my phone off to get out of all the freedom mobile”s headache. But I have a good experience with customer services.

  65. donald says:

    I was with Windmobile for many years but in 2014 the phone talk quality was so bad that I cancelled contract and paid to Windmoblie 300 dollars for breaking the contract when it was them who broke the contract. I need to get another phone and I was thinking about switching to freedomobile. After reading through all the comments I decided that I am not going to choose them. Thank you everybody for postings your opinions here. And anyway windmobile/freedomobile was free to grab from me 300 dollars they did not deserve.

  66. Alex says:

    Used Freedom for a trial run to see how good/bad the connection was and they were worse than expected. I lost connection frequently while at home in Toronto and could not reliably make phone calls. It would often switch networks while in one location as I didn’t get reception. While working in Brampton, the reception was almost unusable.

    I would just like to add that on top of the poor network performance, the customer service gave me a hassle cancelling the service even within the 15 days grace period. They are not setup properly yet, I would not recommend switching unless you have the patience for dealing with disruptions in what I would consider an essential part of life nowadays.

  67. Ben says:

    I got my first phone at the end of grade 7 and with Wind Mobile it was great, once a week I lost coverage but it was only for a few seconds and it didn’t bother me much. However, when they switched to Freedom Mobile I don’t know what they did but something messed up, I live in Ottawa and it says that the entire city is covered but half of the time i don’t even get coverage in my house. Trust me when I say this, the fact that you get unlimited calling and texting + 4gb of data for 40$ a month doesn’t mean that you’ll actually get it half the time. If this plan is for your son’s/daughter’s first phone its great and being around that age when you first learn the importance of money its great but after that you might want to consider something a bit more reliable. If you have enough patience it works.

  68. Julie says:

    Horrible service. I live in Toronto and lose service just during my small daily commute and in certain areas like the Eaton centre. My texts NEVER send/ are never delivered. Phone calls are muffled usually.
    The data is pretty good. I used to have a lot of troubles with it, but got that fixed.
    Over all would not recommend freedom mobile.

  69. Nathan Myers says:

    First of all – you all need to ‘read to comprehend’ instead of writing as a backlash. Most of these comments are correct, there are definitely network connectivity issues, but it lies in the different type of network Freedom has compared to the Big 3. AWS -3 or Band 66. This is the type of network supported by At&T and Verizon in the states but NOT by the big 3 here in Canada.

    If you all want to see what Freedom’s service will be like in the future as more coverage and support becomes available in this country, than I’d advise you to make a run to the states and roam onto AT&T’s network. It is seamless, I made the run from Detroit to NC and never lost service once, and experienced what the network WILL be like here in Canada.

    All of you seem to forget the early days of Rogers and Bell when their networks were shoddy as well. For the price I pay for complete coverage in Canada and the US @ $55 dollars per month, I am getting exactly what I expected FOR NOW and am happy.

    Yes, I lose service as I run the 401 between Kitchener and London, but its because You switch from the Home Network to the Away Network, and because the networks are DIFFERENT, I expected this to be an issue and was prepared for it. Yes, its kind of annoying, but I don’t blame Freedom, its called growing pains.
    I just manually roam to an away network which takes all of 1.5 minutes, and then I’m good.

    If you aren’t prepared to put up with the growing pains of a brand new — soon to be state of the art network — cool, but stop complaining. # 1st world problems.

    I’ve gone from paying 115+ each month to $62 everything all in, and I have more data and can roam in the states at now extra cost. Yeah I’m good with my new service provider and am happy to wait for the all the bugs to be worked out.

  70. Britt says:

    Being with them was an awful decision! Like everyone else has said – their coverage is bad. They give you the option to pay for roaming so you can get service anywhere (I opted for that) but what they don’t tell you is that their service map is not at all accurate. If your phone is in a ‘home’ area you may still not get serivce and it’s programmed to not roam….so your phone just stops working.
    Even cancelling my plan with them took 3 days because they took so long to port my number over. Then they called collections on me even though I had given them a pre-auth credit and had a confirmation date of when it would be taken out.
    To top it off, their customer service is awful.
    Please don’t put yourself through it!

  71. Nikolas Zetouni says:

    Freedom mobile is the worst provider I ever dealt with. I bought a new phone with them (Samsung A5) and the representative “forgot” they had a $200 off deal if activating with one of the new plans. Upon his suggestion, I kept my old plan, which made me pay $200 more for the phone and be hooked with them for 2 years, paying $15 extra per month on their so called tab plan.

    Once the same rep set up my phone, he used a new network configuration, but because I followed his advice, my old plan only worked on the old network configuration. Meaning, I barely could receive phone calls and txts for 3 months! Every time I called them to troubleshoot the issue, they gave me some codes to use in the phone and the issue persisted. I had to go to 3 different stores to talk to 3 different representatives till one finally figured out the network error.

    Of course I wanted compensation. Their irresponsibility costed 3 months of possible jobs (which is a big deal for a person who was unemployed). When calling their customer service, they only offered $20 off my next bill. I asked to escalate the issue and then they only offered $50 off on my next bill.

    Upon talking to the upper manager, a woman named Melissa, she was very rude to me. Barely acknowledged my issues, said that Freedom could not take responsibility for their employees or network. How come they cannot?

    When I started to argue that they could, she ended the call. That is really upsetting.

    If any of you are thinking on going with Freedom, think twice! You might be as upset as I am right now.

  72. GUILHERME STOCOVICK says:

    I have been with Freedom since April/17, got the S8 and the $35 plan, pretty much every day I miss calls that the phone doesn’t even rings while I’m home with an almost full signal, the calls go straight to voicemail and I receive an SMS later saying that I missed the call. I already made a complaint to the customer service and they said they would give me $5 off my plan for the next 4 months, that doesn’t solve the problem at all and I am starting to see other options.

  73. Gretchen says:

    So unsatisfied. I was on the phone and the service dropped at least 5 times. I had to call back my friend and every time we talked, the service dropped. It became annoying and tedious to always call my friend back and quess when the call would drop. This is completely embarrassing for Freedom and frustrating on my end,

  74. Darlene says:

    Freedom mobile is one of the worst comp I have ever been with , nothing but problems with them I also live in Barrie and when you get out of Barrie you get no service so they told me to up grade so I did still no server then I went to pay my tab right out good to say I am know with another company nothing but a nightmare horrible, horrible company and customer service

  75. Marcus Travadi says:

    I have now been waiting to speak to some one at Freedom headquarters and have been on hold for over an hour. I think this unacceptable. I am owed 150 dollars, and I have been told by your back office that it would be mailed out to me in 2 weeks time. That was 2 months ago. Now if I owed your company any money, I would be aggressively hounded. Now after being on hold for 1 hour and 22 minutes I have hung up and consider my options. I feel , as do many people that I have spoken with, that since becoming FREEDOM MOBILE, that your service has suffered.

  76. Jennifer says:

    Horrible coverage and customer service. Purchased a US add on for time in states, phone, text and data did not work at all. Called and asked for a refund and was told they will only refund me 2/3 of add on cost as I should have called or contacted them when in the states. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE because nothing on the pan worked. Compete jerks!

  77. O. Head says:

    Do yourself a favour to avoid total frustration and endless lack of service and concerns – just don’t get it. Within Ottawa there are major black holes and on the outskirts ie Stittsville, Orleans, South Keys etc Customer service is totally unresponsive – get everything in writing – including canxcellation of service – keep billing you

  78. Taylor says:

    Horrible customer service! !!

  79. Sherry says:

    Yeah I was with Freedom Mobile for a month and I would lose reception all the time. I wasn’t to able to make outgoing calls on the 401 , Sheppard Ave., Finch Ave., all the time the reception goes and goes. It goes to voicemail, it doesn’t ring. I was with Freedom Mobile in February 2017 and then I switched to Fido Mobile in March 2017.

  80. Naseem says:

    Customer service sucks. Misleading info given to customers. I was told if I upgraded my phone, I would get a $5 discount. I was happy about this and proceeded to upgrade my phone only to find out the $5 off was for only 4 months. Shame on you Freedom Mobile for lying to your customers. You should be upfront with your customers and give them the full information.

  81. Najia says:

    I have no service for the past two weeks trying to get my connection back but it’s hopeless talking to costumer support they all say the same thing settings/more/network search/ then select home then all you hear is the keyboard as they really trying something to work ?Then I noticed that I am talking to people are located in Egypt and some are in the Philippines my advice you go with local carrier way better even if you pay more . Save your self the slot off headec stay away from freedom mobile or windmobile nothing but bs

  82. Luis says:

    Very poor coverage, I work in the GTA and live in Barrie, no signal in Toronto downtown, no signal in 400 and Finch area, limited signal in Barrie, signal comes and goes!!! Pay for nothing, I read this article and believe is talking about some other company call Freedom not the one I have my phone service with. Changing soon

  83. Gary says:

    Terrible company!!
    I put my son on a wind phone. Nothing but trouble. They told us service anywhere in B.C.. We went to Prince George this winter the service was limited. No problem it’s a new company and that’s ok.
    We come home I pay his bill he’s cut off. Why? Because they surcharged him for being in the states??? He’s never been to the states!!!
    Argued with them, payed the bill. Move on.
    This month I underpaid the bill by $5.
    Probably another surcharge I wasn’t aware of. So I phone ask for the bills to be sent to my email. Told I can pay next month no problem. They cut me off again!!!
    Phoned, argued, waited for 30min for a supervisor. Guess what no super, guess you have to call back.
    Ridiculous!!
    Go with Telus!! All day long

  84. Gagan says:

    Its not great, speed is not much different than 4G and signal switches often from LTE to 4G everywhere losing signal most times.

    Taking about practical stuff not testing download speeds to show.
    And I’m using LG v20 in Vancouver area.

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