How I pay $0 a month for my cell phone and home phone, Canada-wide calling — Saving $540+ a year

Disclaimer: The content in this article is provided for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal or other professional advice or an opinion of any kind. You are advised to seek specific legal advice by your own legal counsel regarding any specific legal issues. The author does not warrant or guarantee the quality, accuracy or completeness of any information on this blog. The articles published on this blog are current as of their original date of publication, but should not be relied upon as accurate, timely or fit for any particular purpose.

The topic of cell phone plans came up with a number my friends and thought I’d make this post so more people can learn about it.

Things you will need:

• Be a Shaw internet customer to get these rates.
• Live in Alberta/British Columbia
• Take a hard credit inquiry on your credit score to open new lines
• $20 one-time activation fee for a new line
• Sign up by end of November

Highly recommended:

• Have an unlocked phone that supports active dual-sim (All iPhone XS and later have this capability)

Be aware:

• Test the coverage of Shaw Mobile in your area before switching by buying a pre-paid one month plan with Freedom Mobile (Shaw owns Freedom mobile and are on the same network and frequency)
• Shaw could increase their prices any time (but highly unlikely), the alternative is to use pay $15 a month for the phone service (don’t need to be Shaw internet customer) or switch to Freedom Mobile for ~$11 / month ($129 /year) by paying for their yearly subscription
• You can switch your current phone number to Shaw mobile

Cell Phone Plan

Cost savings:

Traditional Fido — 2Gbs unlimited talk Canada , unlimited global text

— $45 / month + $0 one-time fee

My Shaw mobile + Fido plan — 3Gbs, unlimited talk Canada , unlimited global text

— $0 /month + $20 one-time fee

The idea is to use a dual sim phone, you make calls/text on the Shaw mobile sim card and use a tablet plan (you can choose any carrier of your liking but I went with Fido because I was already with them) for when you need to use data, both are active and can be used simultaneously. If you don’t have a dual-sim phone, you can use an old phone to hotspot your current one, a bit of a hassle but it can work.

My phone: iPhone 11

Sim Card 1 — E Sim:

Shaw Mobile — Unlimited global texts, Canada-wide calling

• $0/month
• $20 one-time activation fee
• My main phone number is on this sim card

Sim Card 2:

Fido Data Only plan — 3Gbs LTE data

• $0/month (usually $10/month)
• I don’t use the phone number on this sim card

How to sign up

Shaw Mobile:

• I signed up by going to Walmart cellphone department and opened 5 phone lines at once (crazy guy I know) because I didn’t want to take 5 separate hard inquiries on my credit score. The maximum number of phone lines was 6 but in my case, the store limited to 5. You can find the location nearest to you via the link below
• Was provided a temporary number and contacted Shaw mobile support via iMessage with the following information from my previous carrier (Freedom Mobile) when I got home

Full Name of account holder

Account number

Number wishing to port

• In about 15 minutes, my old phone number was ported over to Shaw. It depends on the carrier but because I was switching from Freedom mobile which is a subsidiary of Shaw, I didn’t expect the wait to be long

How To: Activate Shaw Mobile service

Fido:

• They no longer allow new customers to sign up for a data-only plan. So if you or a family member is still on Fido with a cellphone plan, they can open as many tablet-only plan with Fido as needed (no need for a credit check if you’re already a customer, I did it in person for a free tablet offer as well) and then transfer over to Shaw mobile afterwards.
• I signed up a while ago when they allowed new customers to sign up for data-only plan and paid $15/month. About 3 months into paying, I called them telling them I wanted to cancel and retention gave me 2 free years of data.
• Note: You can choose another carrier, I went with Fido because it was a no brainer, who wouldn’t pass 2 years of free data?

Home Phone Plan

Cost savings:

Before: iTalkBB voice over internet home phone — Unlimited talk Canada

— $15 / month + $0 one-time fee

Shaw mobile + Fido plan — Unlimited talk Canada , unlimited global text (but can’t really use because I’m using the phone adapter)

— $0 /month + $20 one-time fee + ~$72 one-time fee for the home base device including tax

The idea is to plug a Shaw mobile sim card into the ZTE MF723 device and connect that to your home phone devices around the house

What you will need:

1. Check the coverage in your area
2. Purchase the cell to home-phone adapter — ZTE MF723

Checking the coverage in your area.

1. Go to settings in your phone and set it to only use 3G
2. Dial this number*3001#12345#* to open a network diagnostic tool n your phone
3. When connected to 3G UMTS, go to Phone > *3001#12345#* > UMTS > Serving Cell Info > freq_band_ind or wcdm_band and check for Band 4 (1700/2100 MHz)

Purchase the cell to home-phone adapter — ZTE MF723

You can find this device on Craigslist, Facebook marketplace. I went with Fido because they have a free 15 day return policy. Note: Since I already had an account with Fido, they didn’t need to perform a hard credit inquiry.

1. I called into various locations in my area and asked to open a home phone line and if they had the home phone adapter (ZTE MF723) device available
2. I went in person to sign up for a new home phone line, paid ~$72 for the device (ZTE MF723) and then paid $18 /month + $40 one-time activation fee.
3. Then, I brought it home, plugged in my Shaw sim card instead of the Fido one.
4. I cancelled the Fido home phone line plan before 15 days of activating it and told them I was keeping the device so they refunded $18 + $40 one time activation fee

After helping switch my family over to these methods, we collectively saved over $2000+ a year by just switching our phone plans!