How to Unlock Your Phone for Free in Canada
By Simon Hung
December 1, 2017Starting today, all cell phones sold in Canada must be unlocked, thanks to a CRTC ruling from June that updated the Wireless Code to ban the sale of locked cell phones and unlocking fees.
Prior to the ruling, most major Canadian carriers locked phones to their own network, which meant that you couldn’t use your phone on other networks in Canada or abroad without paying an unlocking fee, a practice that generated a whopping $37.7 million in revenue for Canadian telecoms in 2016.
Now, wireless customers with a locked phone can unlock their devices for free! To start, you'll need to have your phone's IMEI number -- this can be found in settings on most Android or iOS phones. The unlocking process will vary depending on your carrier and most require your account to be in good standing. We’ve listed resource pages for several Canadian carriers along with methods on how to unlock below.
Carrier | How to Unlock |
---|---|
• In-store - visit a Bell store • Online - log in and request an unlock via your MyBell account page • Phone - call 1-800-667-0123 | |
• In-store - visit a Bell MTS store • Online - log in and request an unlock via your MyAccount page • Phone - call 204-225-5687 (residential) or 204-225-4249 (business) | |
• In-store - visit a Chatr Mobile store • Phone - call 1-800-485-9745 | |
• In-store - visit a Fido store • Phone - call 1-888-481-3436 | |
• In-store - visit a Freedom Mobile store • Phone - call 1-877-946-3184 | |
• In-store - visit a Koodo Mobile store • Phone - call 1-866-995-6636 | |
• Online - visit the Public Mobile Community page • Phone - call 1-855-478-2542 | |
• In-store - visit a Rogers Wireless store • Online - live chat with Rogers support • Phone - call 1-855-381-7835 | |
• In-store - visit a SaskTel store • Online - live chat with SaskTel support • Phone - call 1-800-727-5835 | |
• In-store - visit a TELUS store • Online - live chat with TELUS support • Phone - call 1-866-558-2273 | |
• In-store - visit a Vidéotron store • Online - request an unlock via their self-serve tool • Phone - call 1-877-380-2611 | |
• In-store - visit a Virgin Mobile store • Online - log in and unlock via your Virgin My Account page • Phone - call 1-888-999-2321 |
The biggest benefit of unlocking is the flexibility to use your phone with multiple carriers. If you ever decide to switch networks or travel, you won't have to buy another device or pay an additional fee in order to get service. Unlocked phones also carry a higher resale value on the used market, since buyers don't have to worry about compatibility issues.
Visit the CRTC mobile phones page for more information or to learn more about the Wireless Code.
Showing 40 Most Recent Comments
View allLocking thread.
They raise prices to screw the consumer because they have a monopoly. Not because of carrier lock and unlocking fees. Last 10 years you could get unlocking from carrier for $50 after 2 or 3 months into contract. Therefore unlocking has nothing to do with loyalty or keeping you tied to them. The pay as you go and prepaid phones where garbage mfg cost $60-100 phones we were asked to pay $80-200
It's all nonsense, I bought a used bell phone and Samsung themselves sent me th3 code on d3c 22 2017 over the oh. As for apple idk2as they have stores and sometimes they defer you tonth3 carrier .
If you guys think these carriers are losing money and will raise the rates to 30 million subscribers due to a loss of 40 million . 1) do your math. 2) you're wrong
They raise rates because the comapnies shareholders and the drug dealers and hookers that supply them want more lol. 38 million is nothing to these people and nothing when divided over entire robellus subscriber base.
It may come as a surprise but unlocking a phone isn't a thought on the forefront of everyone's mind.
But congrats on railing on @msaf and telling what he/she should've done in hindsight to save themselves $6.
Thanks,
Cal.
A) Get it unlocked right away on December 1st so you don't have to wait hours on hold or in a chat queue
or
B) Don't get it unlocked on December 1, and wait until the holidays when the phone companies release their holiday promotions and are very busy and understaffed and then call to get the phone unlocked
or
C) pay some $$ and get it unlocked
You could have easily avoided all of this if u unlocked it right away instead of waiting around for no reason.
This was during the 60$/10Gb promo's
My options were:
1) To sit in chat all day without a working phone.
2) Stay on hold for 4-5 hours to try to get it unlocked.
3) Pay 3$ and get it right away.
So yea, if your time isnt valuable, then I guess I got ripped off... getting a phone unlocked in 30min was definitely worth it for me.
P.S I would of paid even more during that time period. My time & phone are worth more than 3-4 hours on the phone during xmass
It was a pain for me to get to that unlocked page in MyBell acct. Finally, Googled Bell unlocked, click on the link and voila.
I told them I'm still a Fido customer, I still have 2 account with them.. she didnt care...
I ended up paying 3$ on ebay and getting an unlock within 30min.
That Fido rep should get fired. She only cares about new sign-ups.
thanks
You'd have to send out the phone to a friend to use for a day, then request the unlock code.
It's the same as back then - an excuse. They still would raise their prices, because they can. It has absolutely nothing to do with them "losing" $50 and everything to do with them wanting $600 more by raising rates $5 a month.
It just sounds better than raising rates "because we want more money".
There's zero reason they could not have simply changed to 2 year contracts and offer that you pay more up front for the hardware (the exact cost difference) and exact same monthly fee.
Instead they said they "had to" raise prices because of the contract term changes - pure BS.
My mom is with Vidéotron and I'm with Virgin, can we swap our sim cards and unlock each others phones? Then switch back the sim the way they were and continue on as usual?
I just want to unlock it so when I sell it later on it will be good to go. Thanx
PS. After the phone was unlocked, I had to set (Bell my case) APN manually for data to start working.
Used to be a prepaid cusomter 2 years ago(really just to unlock another phone then)
Called them up, asked for my information and found me in the system and proceeded to unlock the phone. 2 hours later I got an email with the steps to unlock it. Just popped in a different sim and it worked.
Will probably try the same method again next week to unlock a family member phone.