u/architect_guy

I’m a frequent traveller, so like many of you I switched to Freedom for the 250GB + 50GB Total Freedom monthly plan at $40. This plan is essentially unmatched in what it promises, and on paper seems to be a no-brainer. I can say that after three months of use Freedom’s plans as advertised are quite dishonest; especially regarding their coverage. Some of the issues I faced were:

• Regular instances of poor to no reception in common buildings, even when relatively close to Freedom’s towers. This is not a hardware issue, as I tested on more than one phone.

• Falsely advertised download and upload speeds on the 5G network. Speeds in larger cities such as Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal were commonly lower than even poor LTE speeds, sometimes capping around 40 mbps. I suspect this is due to the sheer number of subscribers now on the network.

• Perhaps the biggest frustration was international roaming. While your data technically works abroad, it appears to be heavily throttled in many countries, making it nearly unusable at times. This varies by country, but Freedom doesn’t clearly disclose this. If reliability and speed matter, you’re better off buying a local eSIM.

• Freedom advertises reasonable coverage, but they fail to mention the efficacy of it. They operate on a spectrum that has difficulty penetrating obstructions so interior performance can be very poor without WiFI.

• Porting my number to another provider was unnecessarily difficult. After replying “YES” to the port authorization text, Freedom still prevented the transfer and instructed me to call customer service instead. I was routed to the retention department and had to go through nearly 30 minutes of verification before my number could finally be released. This was beyond frustrating.

I understand that Freedom’s plans offer compelling value, but they should require more transparency in their offerings and be more candid about potential issues with their service. I hope this helps if anyone is considering them in the future!