Article Summary
Mobile data in Canada is expensive, and most affordable smartphone plans don't include more than a few gigabytes. However, carriers will usually let you top up your monthly data for a small fee or switch to another plan with more data. Regardless, it’s always a good idea to check out the settings in your favourite streaming apps to minimize data usage or download the content you need over WiFi.
Canadians pay some of the highest rates for mobile data in the world. We've been conditioned to avoid using mobile data unless we need to, but we sometimes still hit that monthly cap. To address this, national carriers like Rogers, Bell and Telus have rolled out unlimited data plans. However, you only get a limited amount of full-speed data on these plans, after which your downloads are slowed to a crawl. In other words, while they’re unlimited in name, they’re not all that unlimited in function. Still, there are ways to stay connected even when you run out of mobile data before your monthly contract renews.
Download Ahead of Time
Music and video streaming apps often give you an option to download while you're connected to a Wi-Fi signal. When you download ahead of time you can listen to podcasts, whole music albums, or watch a few episodes of CSI on your commute without using up your mobile data.
As you go about downloading music and movies to your phone, make sure to watch your phone's storage. When you download music from Spotify or Apple Music, the files from an album can take up about 100MB. Preloading long playlists with dozens of tracks may result in little room to spare for new apps or photos. If your device supports additional storage with a microSD card, you can set your favourite streaming apps to use that external storage instead.
Many video streaming apps will let take your shows on the road too, but some content may not be available to download. For example, you can put Netflix Originals like Stranger Things on your phone, but licenced material like Star Wars: The Last Jedi may not be downloaded to your smartphone.
Use Free Wi-Fi
Most coffee shops, restaurants and public spaces offer free Wi-Fi. Some networks require a password, while others ask you to sign in with your email address. A public Wi-Fi network may also be throttled unless you pay for full-speed downloads, but that's fine unless you want to stream video. No matter how you connect, remember there may be strangers on the same WiFi network.
When connecting to a public Wi-Fi network you should consider installing a VPN (Virtual Private Network) app. This protects you from other users on the same network by securely encrypting your data. When looking for a VPN, you should subscribe to a service that offers an Android or iPhone app for easy connections.
Data Boosters and Add-ons
We can't say this loudly enough; don't use pay-per-use data once you hit your data cap. Canadian carriers often price overage data at something crazy like $0.10 per MB. With those rates, you can expect to pay $50 just for 500MB!
The best option to get a little more connectivity is data boosters. These get you back up to speed on most prepaid plans, postpaid smartphone plans, and even unlimited data plans. Depending on your carrier, data add-ons start around $5 to $15, and can include anything from 500MB to 3GB of data. You may get a selection of boosters with different prices, or your carrier may only give you one choice.
Data boosters and add-ons are one-time purchases. Paying $15 this month to get a few extra gigs won't add $15 to your plan next month. However, if you find that you are going over your data limit every month, you may consider finding a better phone plan to suit your needs.
Unlimited Data Plans
Unlimited plans allow you to keep downloading even after you hit your monthly limit. There's no additional cost when you are subscribed to one of these plans but there is one restriction: uploads and downloads can be slowed down considerably. After you’ve reached your full-speed data cap for the month, you will find that activities like video streaming are unusable.
Carriers who offer unlimited data plans may offer different throttled speeds. Our guide to Unlimited Data streaming tells you if you can browse, play games, listen to music or stream video on every carrier in Canada that offers unlimited data. If you don't mind slower downloads for a few days, then look at these carriers to find out what they offer.
Enable Data Saver Options
No matter which solution you go with, reaching your monthly data limit can be avoided (or further postponed) simply by using less data. Most streaming services including Spotify, Netflix and even the new Disney+ offer settings that reduce your data usage while your phone is on mobile data. These apps stream music and video at a lower quality while reducing your data use by 50% or more. Some apps include the option to disable mobile data altogether, so you don't accidently eat into your data plan.
Intensive streaming apps like Google Stadia can only reduce data consumption so far. Even at the lowest quality setting, Stadia still uses around 10Mbps (that's 4.5GB per hour). You can burn through even the largest data plans with just a few gaming sessions, so keep it on WiFi.
Before you hit your data limit, it might be a good idea to enable data-saving settings in your apps. If you find that you regularly hit your data cap just short of your billing month, then this is your best chance to stretch that plan a little longer.
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