Canadian carriers end March deals, roll out new plans

As was foretold, Canadian carriers have ended their various wireless deals, bringing an end to a surprisingly mad month of discounts.

Freedom Mobile led the way with its $40/250GB CAN/US/MEX plan, which sparked a rush of deals from other providers. Few directly matched Freedom, but there were still plenty of other great options out there. Notably, Koodo, Fido, and Virgin Plus briefly offered a $25/80GB CAN/US/MEX plan, but that’s gone now.

Unfortunately, the end of the deals means carriers have rolled out a bunch of new plans. Unsurprisingly, the new plans are not nearly as good. Here’s a rundown of what’s new at several providers (in no particular order).

Freedom Mobile

Freedom’s plans have pretty much returned to what they were prior to the March deal madness, which is pretty good news since it already offered some great value. Here are Freedom’s plans with notable changes highlighted:

• $35/10GB + 1GB Roam Beyond (previously included 80GB)
• $40/60GB + 5GB Roam Beyond
• $50/100GB + 10GB Roam Beyond
• $60/150GB + 20GB Roam Beyond (previously $50)
• $70/200GB + 30GB Roam Beyond (previously $60)
• $80/250GB + 50GB Roam Beyond (previously discounted to $40)

All of Freedom’s plans include 5G data, unlimited usage in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, and unlimited talk and text in over 120 Roam Beyond destinations.

Check out all the plans on Freedom’s website.

Koodo

Koodo has added three new plans and kept its $55/100GB plan around unchanged. It no longer offers a CAN/US/MEX option, with all plans instead being Canada-wide with unlimited calling, texting, and international texting. Here are the new options:

• $40/20GB
• $45/60GB
• $50/80GB (previously $25/80GB CAN/US/MEX)
• $55/100GB

Check out all the plans on Koodo’s website.

Fido

Fido has replaced all of its plans with the following options:

• $39/20GB (includes $6/mo discount)
• $44/60GB (includes unlimited calling to 27 countries)
• $49/60GB CAN/US/MEX (includes unlimited calling to 27 countries)

Fido is still including free hotspot access with all plans (after it made hotspot a paid feature last year) and some other promos, like enhanced voicemail and 500 international texts.

Check out all the plans on Fido’s website.

Virgin Plus

Of the Big Three flanker brands, Virgin actually seems to have the best prices at the moment. (I’m sure that won’t last long, either Virgin will increase to match Fido and Koodo, or the others will cut rates to match Virgin.) It’s also offering unlimited calls to 27 countries with all of its plans.

• $35/20GB (previously $35/80GB)
• $40/60GB
• $49/80GB CAN/US/MEX

Check out all of Virgin’s plans here.

Public Mobile

Last but not least is Public Mobile. I’ve noted before that Public tends to closely mimic Freedom’s pricing, but this time around, it’s actually beating Freedom in some areas. Here are Public’s plans:

• $35/40GB 5G – ends April 6 (previously $25/80GB)
• $40/100GB 5G – ends April 6 (previously $30/100GB)
• $50/150GB 5G – ends April 6 (previously $35/150GB)
• $20/500MB 4G
• $23/1GB 4G (previously 2GB)
• $26/5GB 4G
• $30/15GB 4G

Check out all of Public’s plans on its website.

Everyone else

The carriers listed above were the ones with the most significant changes, but not the only providers that had offered deals or discounts. Providers like Chatr and Fizz offered one-off deals or discounts that have ended without changes to other plans. Similarly, the Big Three — Rogers, Bell, and Telus — didn’t really try to match any of the deals, and so haven’t made any significant changes to their offerings.