How to lower your phone and internet bill in Canada

On June 12, 2026, a CRTC ruling took effect that eliminated the fees for switching phone and internet plans (opens in a new tab): no activation fee, no charge to change your plan, and no early cancellation fee unless the contract came with a subsidized phone. Within days, Bell, Rogers and Telus introduced new charges in their place, and the CRTC opened an investigation (opens in a new tab) into whether those break the same rule. That fight is still going as of August 2026.

So switching is cheaper than it was, but it isn’t quite the free move the headlines promised. Meanwhile the prices themselves moved: Statistics Canada recorded cellular prices in Quebec rising 2.6% year over year in June, because the advertised deals got worse once promotional offers across the province ended. If you haven’t looked at your plan since 2023 or 2024, you’re paying a price that isn’t on offer anymore, in either direction. This is what to do about both bills, and what to watch on the final quote.

Why is your bill higher than the plans you see advertised?

Because Canadian telecom pricing runs on promotions, and yours ended. A discount is attached to a plan for a fixed stretch, the plan reverts to its standing price, and the bill goes up on a date nobody circled. Nothing about your service changed. Nothing about your contract changed either. The discount just ran out.

Internet got cheaper this year. Cell service didn’t.

The two halves of the bill moved in opposite directions. In the June 2026 Consumer Price Index (opens in a new tab), internet access services fell 3.8% year over year, which Statistics Canada attributed to lower prices offered in most of Western Canada. Cellular prices in Quebec went up 2.6% over the same twelve months, and the reason given was the end of promotional offers across the province. All-items inflation ran at 2.8%.

So the internet side of your bill is the one most likely to have a better price sitting on the provider’s own website right now, and the cell side is the one where the good deals are being withdrawn rather than added. Either way, the thing to do is the same: go and check what your provider charges a new customer today.

Your promo end date is on your agreement, not your bill

The number that matters is the promo end date, and it’s on your agreement rather than your monthly bill. Find it for each service. That date is when your provider’s offer to you expires, and it’s also the moment you have the most leverage, because a customer whose discount just ended is a customer who is about to shop.

Put both dates in your calendar with a two-week head start. If you keep a monthly budget, this is one of the few lines on it you can cut once and never revisit, which makes it worth more than the same dollars trimmed from groceries or discretionary spending.

What changed on June 12, 2026?

The CRTC amended the Wireless Code and the Internet Code so providers can no longer charge you to activate a plan, to modify one, or to cancel early when no subsidized device is part of the contract. Bell, Rogers and Telus had been charging up to $80 to activate a wireless plan (opens in a new tab), and some providers billed up to $20 simply to change a plan with a customer service agent.

The three charges that are gone

Activation fees on a new plan. Modification fees for changing an existing one, including changing it by phone with an agent instead of doing it yourself online. And early cancellation fees, whenever there’s no subsidized device attached to the contract. The CRTC’s reasoning was that these charges worked as a barrier to switching rather than as a real cost, which is close to how they felt from the customer’s side.

What can still cost you

Three charges survive the rule, and they’re all things you either owe or chose:

• The balance on a financed phone. If you’re paying for a device over 24 months, leaving doesn’t erase what’s left. That balance comes due.
• Physical installation at your address. An internet technician visit is a real cost and remains billable.
• Add-ons you asked for. Anything you explicitly bought on top of the plan is still yours to pay for.

And the new fees the CRTC is now fighting

Some of what was banned came back under a different name, and this is the line to check on your quote. Within days of the ban taking effect, all three big carriers introduced charges that didn’t exist before: Telus a $15 SIM fee covering both physical SIMs and eSIMs, Bell a $40 device handling charge, and Rogers a $40 device setup charge plus a $25 shipping fee. The regulator’s view is that a SIM isn’t optional if you need one to join the network, so it opened a proceeding (opens in a new tab) asking all three to justify the charges, with penalties of up to $10 million on the table. All three said they’d keep charging in the meantime, and no decision has landed as of August 2026.

For you, this comes down to one habit. Ask for the all-in number before you agree to anything, including the SIM, and check the first bill against the quote. A $15 SIM fee is still a rounding error next to $40 a month saved, so it’s a thing to catch, not a reason to stay.

What does a cheaper plan look like in August 2026?

Roughly half price for the same network, if you’re currently on a Big Three brand. Every major Canadian carrier runs cheaper sub-brands on the exact same towers, which is the single most useful fact in this whole article. Here’s the shape of the market as it’s advertised this month.

Those are prices outside Quebec. Quebec has a fourth carrier in Videotron and the competition shows up on the bill: entry unlimited plans there start around $55 to $60, roughly $25 a month below the same plan in Ontario or Alberta.

Prices move month to month, so treat all of that as August 2026 signposts and check the current offer before you commit. The arithmetic is the durable part: going from $80 to $40 frees $480 over a year, and that’s one line item, for one person, on a household bill that usually has two or three.

What you give up going down a tier is service, not coverage. Discount brands are self-serve, so there’s no walking into a store when something breaks, support runs through chat or a community forum, and some plans slow your speeds after a data cap rather than charging overage. For plenty of people that trade is easy. For someone who wants a human in a store, it isn’t, and that’s totally fine.

How do you actually lower the phone bill?

Work out what you use, find that plan at your carrier’s cheaper brand, then give your current provider one chance to match it. The whole job takes about an hour and it’s the same hour whether you’re saving $10 a month or $50.

Start with the data you actually use

Open your account and look at the last six months of data usage, not your plan’s allowance. Most people carry a plan sized for the month they travelled or the month their home internet went down. If your real number is 8 GB and you’re paying for unlimited, you’ve found your saving before you’ve compared a single provider.

Look at your own carrier’s cheaper brand first

Koodo and Public Mobile run on Telus. Fido and Chatr run on Rogers. Virgin Plus and Lucky Mobile run on Bell. Fizz runs on the network of Quebecor, which also owns Freedom Mobile. Moving from Telus to Koodo is the same coverage, the same towers, and a different bill, and because the parent company keeps you either way it’s usually the smoothest transfer available.

Ask for the retention offer, then move if it doesn’t come

Call and say you’ve found a plan for less and you’re deciding whether to port your number. Have the competing offer in front of you with the price and the data. Retention departments exist for this conversation and often match or beat what you found. If yours doesn’t, port the number. There’s no cancellation fee to leave anymore, so the only thing to pin down is what the new provider charges to set you up.

And the internet bill?

Same job, different lever to pull. Speed is where households overpay on internet, because the plan was chosen once, during a promotion, for a household that may have since shrunk.

Match the speed to the number of people

A one or two person household streaming and working from home is usually well served by a mid-tier plan, and a lot of Canadians are on gigabit fibre bought during a sale. Drop a tier and watch for a week. If nothing buffers, the higher plan was insurance you were paying for monthly.

Renegotiate the day the promotion ends

Internet is the more negotiable of the two bills, because regional independents and the incumbents both fight for the same address. Call with the competing price, ask for the new-customer rate, and be ready to switch if the answer is no. Since June there’s no cancellation fee for walking away, though an install visit can still be billed.

Whatever you free up, decide where it goes before the first cheaper bill arrives, or it disappears into ordinary spending. Moving it automatically into a separate account on payday is the version of this that works, and it pairs well with a budget you actually keep. If the account you’d move it into charges you a monthly fee, that’s a second bill worth the same treatment: our roundup of no-fee bank accounts covers the options.

How Lodavo fits in

Cutting a recurring bill is the rare saving that repeats. Do it once in August and it’s still paying you next August, without a decision, a spreadsheet, or any willpower at all. The hard part isn’t finding the $40. It’s keeping it.

That’s what Lodavo is for. It’s a free Canadian app that rewards you for saving: connect the bank account you already use, and the more you keep saved the more free tickets you earn in a weekly cash draw. Prizes go up to $10,000, and a guaranteed prize of at least $100 goes to a user every week. A transfer you’d otherwise never think about gives you a reason to check your phone on Sunday.

Start with the promo end date

You don’t need to become a telecom expert. You need two dates, an hour, and the knowledge that leaving no longer carries a cancellation fee. Find when each promotion ends, price the cheaper brand on the same network, and let your current provider bid for you once. Most Canadians who do this find something, and the ones who find nothing have at least confirmed they’re on a fair price.

Then keep what you win. Download Lodavo free on the Apple App Store (opens in a new tab) or Google Play Store (opens in a new tab) and start earning tickets for the weekly draw with the money you just stopped handing over.

Terms and conditions apply. No purchase necessary (alternate method of entry available). Skill-testing question required. Open to legal residents of Canada who are the age of majority. Odds depend on the number of eligible entries received. Full rules and odds at our contest rules.