Following the CRTC announcements from about 3 months ago, Freedom Mobile is officially removing its Connection Fee (CF) and Hardware Upgrade Fee for all prepaid and postpaid accounts starting tomorrow, Friday, June 12th.

​While other carriers are making up new loophole fees to replace them, Freedom is keeping things simple. Here is exactly how it works starting June 12:

​1. Connection Fees & Hardware Upgrade Fees are Gone

​There is no longer a standard connection fee when you activate a postpaid or prepaid line. Also, the fee you used to pay when upgrading to a new phone (Hardware Upgrade Fee) is completely removed.

​2. Online Prepaid Activations ($10 Credit)

• ​Online: If you activate a prepaid account online, you will be charged $10 at first. But, Freedom will give that $10 back to you as a credit on your first top-up. (edit: this is an upfront topup amount. Not a connection fee.)
• ​In-Store: If you activate prepaid in a retail store, you won't be charged this $10 fee at all.

​3. $30 Roam Beyond Fee Removed

​Previously, if you changed your plan within 90 days of getting a Roam Beyond plan, you had to pay a $30 fee. This $30 fee is also completely removed

​4. What is NOT Changing

• ​SIM Swaps: If you go into a store to swap your physical SIM card, the $10 fee stays the same.

​No Hidden Fees

​Unlike the competition, Freedom is not introducing any new sneaky "handling" or "activation" fees to make up for the lost revenue.

edit (June 12 2026) : The changes are live now. The $10 for online prepaid is charged as an upfront payment. Which offsets the first topup with a $10 topup code. This is not same as the connection fee. So essentially it's just a topup amount for the plan collected upfront.

edit 2 (June 12 2026): official information link https://www.freedommobile.ca/en-CA/support/about-the-connection-fee