Danny B

Just in case anyone is heading abroad over Christmas and needs their cell phone unlocked, it's free as of tomorrow.

https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/phone/mobile/change.htm

Unlocked cellphones

Mobile devices unlocked free of charge, upon request, and all newly purchased devices unlocked.

Cyan

Thanks for posting this. Canada is finally joining the 21st century.

Gozit

This has been a long time coming...i remember when getting your device unlocked through your provider just wasn't an option, and if you wanted it done you would have to go through a shady eBay seller, which was fine for android devices because you got the unlock code and it worked, but for Apple devices was a lot harder due to the way apple controls that stuff server-side. Now I can just do a messenger chat to Rogers and get it done free.

cheeky_monkey

you have always been able to by unlocked iphones through apple..but no where else..but yes have been waiting to buy my son an unlocked phone and was told about this change by the people at the source who said wait until Dec 1st (this was back in the summer)

ChrisBan

Typical, couple days after I get a contract that says phone can be unlocked for $50. I assume I can now disregard that and get it unlocked for free

Gozit

Yes but that would mean spending $1000+ on the outright price vs spending $400 from Rogers on the subsidised price.

Yep. In fact, new contracts should be stipulating that it is free, since it is now illegal to charge for a device unlock.

dbd33

Gozit, nothing to do with phones but is post #21 here:

NOTtheTalk - What is the Worst Thing You Know How To Say in a Foreign Language? (The Haven)

accurate?

scrubbedexpat091

You don't need to spend 1,000+ on a phone, plenty of lower cost options that will work fine.

I refuse to sign contracts for phones, I want the freedom to cancel anytime I want or switch providers without penalties.

I also don't feel the need to have a i phone or other high end phone, my $150 android does everything I need, makes calls, goes on the internet, takes photos, etc.

cheeky_monkey

and??..its actually way more expensive to buy an Iphone that way..its not subsidized at all you end up paying for it through a contract and then some probably $500 more in the end

Partially discharged

Be careful with Rogers. I got an Iphone 6 in January 2016 on a 2 year contract and about $24/month on the bill was the phone subsidy. I was thinking that in January 2018 the bill would go down by $24/month.

I had heard that many people weren't getting reduced bills after their subsidy period ended and after a lengthy phone call with Rogers they confirmed this which made me question what the point of the subsidy was if it never ends. After some back and forth they reduced my bill by $25/month immediately (this was 3 weeks ago) credited me $24/month for December and January and extended the Spotify premium and the added data on the account (I"m sure Gozit won't understand this but as a family of 4 we had 2.5 gb/month of data + a 2 gig bonus plan but have never used more than 4 gb in a month).

With the big 3 you have to watch your bills like a hawk and then everytime they send out some bogus announcement once or twice yearly along the lines of 'due to increased network experiences and improvments to your service......' you bill is going up by $4 on cable, $5 on internet, $4 on home home phone etc...' call in and ask exactly what improvements have occurred that would cause increases way above CPI and then when they realize you aren't impressed with their increases they magically find a credit to cancel out the increases.

Partially discharged

Exactly. I think my next phone is one I'll buy on Black Friday outright from the Apple store. We got our daughter one last year before she went to university in france and she basically just went to all the phone providers in Nice and found the best deal on a BYOD plan (bring your own device) as the phone was unlocked.

Gozit

Yes, but I think this one is more vicious personally (and is thrown around alot in my household) https://www.urbandictionary.com/defi...rm=Haqq%20Alla

Gozit

Fair enough, to each his own I suppose. I enjoy some of the more advanced features, better/almost professional quality photos I can take with my iPhone, and for better or worse, I spend a lot of time on my phone for work and personal reasons, so I might as well sink some coin into it.

For me I won't switch providers until someone can do better then my 42% discount I get because I work in public sector combined with having other services with Rogers.

In our case, when you have a plan with a lot of data, plus 4 people with a cell phone, and a bunch of discounts it ended up cheaper to do subsidies. If I wasn't joined with my family in a plan and I didn't have the public sector discount I have then I would consider buying outright, but i've done the math and it actually makes more sense for us this way.

Yeah i've had the same experiences in that regard.

If I lived in Europe I would definitely buy outright and do a prepaid plan. I've found in Europe prepaid plans have much more value then post-paid ones with a device subsidy. (25Eur/month for 10GB of LTE data and all the calls/texts I would need on prepaid vs 75Eur/month for 5GB of data and a subsidised iPhone.)