How to Pick a Cell Phone Plan

By Lauren Hannula

Last updated 13 November 2023

Contents

In this guide:

How to shop for a plan
Coverage
Cost & value
Data
Perks
Discounts
Best plan options

Whether you're switching carriers, leaving your family plan, or signing up for your very first one ever, there is a lot of consideration that goes into purchasing a phone plan. You need the coverage and qualities to stay connected without breaking the bank—and with our help, you'll succeed at all three.

We've already dug into what we consider to be the best cell phone plans on the market this year, but we know that you may have some lingering questions about which factors should go into your buying decision.

Here are some more considerations when picking the best cell phone plan for yourself or your family, including details on phone coverage, small carriers versus bigger ones, and some information about cell phone contracts.

What to look for in a cell phone plan

Over hundreds of phone plan evaluations, we've pinpointed five key factors that go into choosing a phone plan: coverage, price, high-speed data, plan inclusions, and available discounts.

Let's break down why each of these is critical to getting the most value out of your phone plan.

Before you shop: 4 questions to ask yourself

Your personal priorities will determine the best cell phone plan for you. Here are some basic questions to ask when shopping for a phone plan.

How much can you spend?
Phone plans can run into the hundreds of dollars, especially if you're bundling multiple lines together. Look for inclusions that might lower your costs elsewhere (like the aforementioned streaming subscriptions). The best phone plans will also be upfront about their taxes and fees, so you know exactly how much you're paying each month. If you're looking to save money, think about picking a prepaid plan over a postpaid plan.
How do you use your phone?
The best cell phone plan will take into account your habits. Do you talk, text, stream music, watch videos, play games, and generally use your phone as a personal entertainment system? An unlimited plan is your best bet. If you really only talk and text while occasionally checking email or social media, you can probably get away with a smaller data package. Check out our guide to help figure out how much data you need.
How many people will be on your phone plan?
If you're sharing with the whole family, you'll likely want a higher data package or even an unlimited option. The best cell phone plans for families also offer perks that offset other costs, like included streaming subscriptions.
Where do you live and work?
It's important to make sure the carrier you're considering has good coverage in your area. T-Mobile, for example, has great coverage in urban cities but relatively little coverage in rural locations—which also applies to any smaller carriers using its network. In this case, the best cell phone plan might be from a Verizon-backed carrier, which has broad coverage in remote areas. Also consider if you prefer to have a local store location in your area.

1. Network coverage

Cell phone coverage is, in our opinion, the most important factor to consider when choosing the best cell phone plan for your needs. After all, your plan won't do you much good, regardless of its price or inclusions, if you can't actually use it in the places you spend time due to poor reception.

Canada is dominated by the Big Three carriers—Bell, Rogers, and Telus. To put it succinctly, Bell and Telus offer the best 4G LTE coverage in the country, which is still the prevailing network type to which our phones connect. All three carriers are virtually tied for the best 5G network, though Rogers currently wins out for the fastest 5G speeds.

You'll want to look at the coverage quality not only where you live but also where you work and often travel to. All three major carriers and their MVNOs (which we'll explain in detail below) typically offer great coverage in urban areas and metro areas, with the network differences becoming more prominent as you branch out into more suburban and rural neighborhoods. And when you don't have easy access to secure Wi-Fi, your 4G and 5G coverage are critical to staying connected to GPS, making emergency calls, and dozens of other necessities.

Cell phone coverage is one of our specialties at WhistleOut, and you can use our maps to get a sense of which carriers offer broad service in specific areas throughout the United States. Select a network below to see their coverage footprint and zoom in to compare carriers.

Click to Activate Interactive Map

Coverage information is collected from carriers and other third party sources. This is approximate coverage only and does not include indoor coverage. Actual speed and performance depends on your location and device. Local conditions and things like natural and artificial physical features of an area all affect your reception. Coverage © Mosaik

Major carriers vs. MVNOs

The Big Three are the major mobile carriers that own and operate their own cellular networks. However, there are a variety of smaller carriers—known as mobile virtual network operators, or MVNOs—that purchase network space from these big carriers and offer service at generally far cheaper prices. Indeed, the best deals in the market often come from these "little" brands. This includes MVNOs like Koodo and Public Mobile, which operate on Telus' network; Fido and Chatr, which are Rogers-backed carriers; and Virgin Plus and Lucky Mobile, which piggyback off of Bell's network.

MVNOs offer the exact same coverage as their parent or host carriers, but with a caveat. In times of high network traffic when lots of people are using their phones (think mornings and evenings outside of typical work and school hours), your plan could be subject to deprioritization. This means the parent carrier can give network priority to customers that subscribe directly to its own plans, slowing the speeds of those subscribed to a supported MVNO plan.

Is this actually a problem to worry about? Not in our experience. We've tested plenty of MVNOs like Lucky Mobile and Freedom Mobile in times of peak network traffic and have yet to experience significant slowdowns. But it's definitely a possibility to be aware of as you choose your phone plan and carrier.

Find your MVNO's network

Not sure which MVNO operates with which major carrier? We've got you covered. Check out our guide to MVNO networks to explore your options.

2. Plan cost and relative value

Just because a plan is expensive and full of bells and whistles doesn't mean it's actually worth that cost. Conversely, just because a plan is priced affordably doesn't mean you'll necessarily be sacrificing a great experience. The trick here is to be very clear on what your most important plan aspects are, then determine whether the given makes sense for those elements.

Perhaps you pay separately for lots of streaming subscriptions; in this case, finding a pricier phone plan that includes one or more of those entertainment services for free or at a discount could save you plenty in the long run. For others who don't use those services, though, the added premium might not cut the mustard.

This is often where MVNOs can sneakily beat out the major carriers, depending on what your priorities are. Let's compare Public's premium unlimited plan to Telus' mid-tier unlimited option.

Public vs. Telus unlimited plans

	Plan	Premium data	Max download speeds	Price
	Unlimited Canada-wide Talk/Text + 50GB	50GB	250Mbps	$45/month
	Unlimited 50 5G+ Can-U.S.	50GB	2Gbps	$65/month

Telus' $65 Unlimited 50 5G+ plan offers 50GB of premium data at 5G+ speeds—that's up to 2Gbps where those speeds are available—before dropping down to 3G speeds (512Kbps). Public Mobile's Unlimited Talk/Text + 50GB plan, on the other hand, also offers 50GB of premium 5G data, albeit at 250Mbps speeds, before your plan drops down to 3G speeds... but for $20/month less than Telus.

The main difference between these plans is the 5G+ versus basic 5G speeds, and you're not necessarily guaranteed to always experience 2Gbps speeds on the Telus plan. More often than not, you'll experience the same 250Mbps as customers on the Public Mobile plan . As both carriers use Telus' network, and neither carrier includes additional extras like cloud storage or streaming subscriptions, the $45 Public plan is a far better deal for most folks than the $65 Telus plan.

Postpaid vs. prepaid plans: Which is better?

These days, the differences between postpaid and prepaid plans have really shrunk down to just one: when you pay for your service. Postpaid plans charge you at the end of the month for whatever you've used throughout that time. Prepaid plans charge you at the beginning and allow for top-ups throughout the month if you need more talk, text, or data.

While prepaid plans were previously much more bare-bones than postpaid ones—and some still offer that approach—most now are practically indistinguishable from postpaid plans in terms of available features and quality of service. Perhaps the only other difference to be aware of is in their customer service options, as several repaid carriers are online-only and may not offer the fastest call centers or chat responses.

3. High-speed or "premium" data

Nearly all phone plans these days offer unlimited talk and text as basic inclusions. The main factor that now differentiates one plan from another is how much high-speed data you get with your plan.

Often marketed as "premium" data, high-speed data is the amount of gigabytes you get each month at full 5G and 4G LTE speeds, before you'll either have your data throttled (i.e., slowed immediately and automatically), deprioritized (i.e., possibly slowed in favor of other customers on the network), or cut off entirely until the next month (in the case of some pay-as-you-go prepaid plans). Many fully unlimited plans are priced according to how much premium data is included in that "unlimited" allowance.

For example, let's compare Rogers' unlimited options.

Rogers unlimited plans: Premium data allotments

Plan	Premium data	Price
5G Mobile 60GB	60GB	$55/month
5G Infinite Essential	120GB	$75/month
5G Infinite Premium	150GB	$95/month

All of these plans offer unlimited talk, text, and data. The Mobile 60GB guarantees speeds up to 250Mbps for up to 60GB before you'll be throttled. For $20/month more, Infinite Essential gets you a very healthy 120GB of guaranteed high-speed data per month, way more than most people actually use. (For reference, I only use around 15GB of data per month, and I stream a lottttttt of Instagram puppy videos and YouTube knitting tutorials.) For a pricey $95/month on Infinite Premium, you'll get 150GB of high-speed data... which you're very unlikely to ever even touch. The question is do you really need it—and is it worth that premium cost?

Most carriers' premium data allowances are hard cutoffs—you'll absolutely be throttled once you reach that limit. However, other carriers simply have the possibility of slowing your speeds once you reach the advertised threshold.

Not sure how much data you need?

Some activities are more data-intensive than others—live gaming uses up way more gigs than streaming music, for example.

Depending on what you do with your phone, you'll need more or less data to accommodate those habits. Hop over to our guides on mobile data and data usage to see how much data the most popular activities typically use up, so you can plan accordingly.

4. Plan perks and inclusions

With most folks subscribing to at least 3 streaming services, costs for entertainment and subscriptions can add up very quickly. So for many, roping those costs into their cell phone bill is very appealing—especially if you can get your carrier to pay for them. Major and MVNO carriers alike offer everything from free cloud storage, to grocery delivery, to music and movie streaming subscriptions to hook you into their phone plans.

Virgin Plus, for example, offers several services as part of its Members Benefits. You can choose from options like meal delivery plans, discounted movie tickets, travel and hotel discounts, and more. Public Mobile offers Public Points Rewards, which you can redeem for discounts on your phone bill, upgrades to your plan, or entries into contests for free device and other swag.

The catch? Often, you must subscribe to the carrier's top-tier (i.e., most expensive) plan to get those free or cheap inclusions. This puts you at risk of overpaying on a plan you don't necessarily need, just to save a few bucks on a subscription that, most likely, costs a fraction of the overall plan cost. As mentioned, if you already subscribe to several services, bundling them with your phone plan at a discount (or even free) could indeed save you a pretty penny. But make sure you do the math to be absolutely sure you're actually getting good value out of the plan as a whole.

5. Family plans and discounts

While discounts technically roll up into the "cost" category, we think they're worth considering on their own when deciding on a phone plan. There are two main ways that carriers typically offer plan discounts:

Multi-line/family plan discounts: The vast majority of phone carriers offer some form of family plan option, with each line getting cheaper as you add more lines to your account. However, some carriers' discounts are a better deal for, say, a family of four rather than a 2-line plan for couples. Some carriers offer no family plan discounts at all, but have options already cheap enough to undercut the competition.
Membership discounts: Some carriers have relationships with businesses or organizations that qualify you for a discount on your phone bill.

A family plan is often a great way to make those uber-expensive unlimited plans from the major carriers much more affordable—especially if that carrier lets you mix and match different plans to create a customized option for your family (does your 12-year-old really need 120GB of unlimited premium data?). Again, make sure you do the math to see whether any multi-line discount makes sense for your specific family makeup.

Find the best phone plan for you

Once you've factored in your budget, your typical phone habits and data needs, your coverage area, and your preferred inclusions, you should have a good idea of what sort of phone plan you're looking for. To get you started, here are a few of our top roundups that we've compiled using the methodology outlined above:

We also encourage you to explore phone plans using our comparison tool. You can set filters based on the factors above to zero in on the plans that meet your specific needs.

You can also see some of the most popular phone plans below, as determined by other WhistleOut visitors like you. These plans are the ones that our readers have shopped the most often using our phone plan comparison tool.

#1	Rogers	Rogers Infinite Extra Plan Unlimited 175GB at speeds up to 1Gbps $80/mth Go	$80/mth	Go
#2	Videotron	Videotron 65GB All-Inclusive Cell Phone Plan Unlimited data Deal: Holiday Offer! Waive the $50 activation fee when you subscribe to a mobile plan with data + Get $10/mo. off when you bring your own device $5/mth + $50 Upfront Go	$5/mth + $50 Upfront	Go
#3	Fido	Fido $15 Basic Plan with 100 Minutes + 250MB 250MB data $15/mth Go	$15/mth	Go
#4	Freedom Mobile	Freedom Mobile $60 5G Unlimited 100GB CA-US plan Unlimited 120GB full-speed data at 5G Deal: Receive 20GB Roam Beyond data on this plan + Get $5/mo. off for 18 months when you activate on this plan $55/mth + $45 Upfront Go	$55/mth + $45 Upfront	Go
#5	Public Mobile	Public Mobile $35 Unlimited Canada-US Talk + Text + 50GB 50GB at 5G full speeds up to 250Mbps Deal: Receive $1.75/mo. in points value with Public Points + Get a FREE eSIM or $5 off on a physical SIM with new activation on this plan $35 + $5 Upfront Go	$35 + $5 Upfront	Go
#6	Chatr Wireless	Chatr Wireless $15 Nationwide Talk & Text plan 500MB data Deal: Get 500MB bonus data when you sign up with Auto-Pay $15 Per 1 Month Top-up + $10 Upfront Go	$15 Per 1 Month Top-up + $10 Upfront	Go