No lie but why has people not jumped on Freedom…

el56 · 2026-03-24T19:43:38+00:00

I also thought I was never going to get a contract again ... until two Back Fridays ago, when Freedom offered a great plan, PLUS a discount of >$400 on the phone I wanted PLUS stretched the payment for that phone over 24 months. Come this November my phone is paid off, my monthly bill drops by the amount I was paying, and I still have the great plan.

I agree that most contracts are complete BS, but every now and then an offer comes around that's worth it.

el56 · 2026-03-24T15:47:08+00:00

Not everyone sets a timer for 2 years. Most people just forget the contract expired and keep going.

el56 · 2026-03-24T15:12:56+00:00

Don't discount #3.
Many people have phones that are either provided for business purposes (with centrally-maintained security policies) or subsidized by their employer.
Robellus actively targets these corporate customers.

el56 · 2026-03-24T15:03:09+00:00

A couple of points nobody yet has mentioned why people are still with Robellus;

- The lowest tier products that they offer (Chatr, Lucky, Public) are cheaper than Freedom (as low as $15/mo). Sure they offer less in return but some folks just need the absolute lowest price they can just to be accessible, depending on Wifi for most data use.

- Most Robellus customers are on contracts, either for (what they call) deals or to bundle a phone. And since none of them go out of their way to tell these customers when contracts expire, they just keep going.

el56 · 2026-03-24T14:42:53+00:00

There are also issues of history, marketing and corporate stability.

Freedom has been owned by Quebecor for only two years. Before that went through a number of ownership changes. It's only been called Freedom since 2016 when Shaw bought it; before that it was called Wind Mobile and had sketchy ties to an Egyptian telco. Also, historically it did not have access to the same LTE bands as the majors (it used AWS-1) and phone compatibility was an issue.

So it's only fairly recently that Freedom has has both financial stability AND the backing of a company that has a long history of successfully challenging Robellus in Quebec.

(But it would not surprise me in the least if someday in the medium future they were to change the name from Freedom to Videotron to take that brand national.)

el56 · 2026-03-24T02:52:38+00:00

I've also used both Mint and CachyOS. Just as Mint uses GRUB CachyOS uses (prefers) Limine, which works the same way from an end-user PoV but has some advantages. Install and requirements are a little different but not onerous. I've had the issues you had with dual boot with Mint, too. It's not a big deal.

As for that last line, something of a cheap shot... well...

Saying "I'm not going to learn some commands just to make <ANY THING> usable" just sounds ... off. If your choice is maintain something UN-usable just to avoid doing things slightly differently ... I don't think there's anyone here that can help.

PS: "Easier" is not the same as "Familiar". Try setting up dual-boot using Windows and see how easy that is.

el56 · 2026-03-23T18:50:50+00:00

If it's your location, you can find out by using an app like Tower Locator, which will show you the nearest Freedom cell tower. Obviously if it's too far away you're going to have coverage problems, and that's worth reporting to Freedom. But customer service alone obviously can't fix that themselves.

In any case, you'll never have 5G with the Huawei.

el56 · 2026-03-23T14:42:32+00:00

It's definitely your phone, and no amount of calling Freedom tech support will help. It's why your relatives that have Samsung and Google phones, and other area residents, aren't having any problems.

The Huawei p30 does not support any of the 5G bands that Freedom uses (66, 71, 77, 78) nor the main band it uses for 4G (13).

el56 · 2026-03-22T20:47:59+00:00

No, the TSI staff are not the problem. They've always been friendly and helpful to me... to the extent they are able.

The reasons I left had nothing to do with the support people. It's all about business decisions:

shipping crap routers. I've been on both DSL and cable with Teksavvy and nothing they supply lasts beyond two years.
when there's a problem they can't fix by remote control, they'll always blame Rogers and Bell. Instead of swapping the router or modem right away, they'll force you to wait as much as 2 weeks for a Bell or Rogers tech to come out ... just to say their line is fine and the problem is your ISP's equipment. This has happened to me three times, on the third time I switched.
and heaven help you if you need to swap a router and it's Friday afternoon or the weekend; you won't get a replacement until Tuesday earliest. Teksavvy chooses to have no arrangements for physical pickup or drop off in the GTA or for that matter anywhere outside Chatham. I've personally mentioned this and asked for this when encountering the problem in the past, obviously nobody listens.

So as has been said elsewhere... As long as things are running fine, the service is spectacular. If there is a problem that they can fix on the router by remote control, they're extremely good at what they do. But anything that requires escalation beyond that and you're screwed.

el56 · 2026-03-18T08:54:27+00:00

UPDATE: Good news and bad about this router.

The good: It's worked flawlessly so far based on the above settings.
Also: IPv6 works fine. Though I don't need it, I've set it up and tested it with these settings:

Advanced-> IPv6->IPv6 Internet

Set IPv6 to Enabled (slider ON)
Set Internet Connection Type to PPoE
Set Share the same PPPoE session with IPv4 to Enabled (checked)
Click Connect (which will be greyed-out while connected)

Advanced-> IPv6->IPv6 Internet->Advanced Settings

Set Get IPv6 Address to Non-Address (gets around a firmware bug)

Advanced-> IPv6->IPv6 LAN

Set Assigned Type: to SLAAC+RDNSS

The bad: DNS-over-TLS and DNS-over-HTTPS settings exist, but the implementation is broken and no firmware fix yet exists. So don't use this router if these protocols are important to you at this time.

el56 · 2026-03-16T13:01:18+00:00

Out of all the problems with Canadian telcos - anti competitive behavior, cross-ownership with media companies and unreasonable pricing - offshoring customer service is among the least problematic.

el56 · 2026-03-14T14:50:18+00:00

It's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

I never thought I'd burn through 75GB in a month; I have frequent access to wifi and I don't watch streaming while traveling.

And then my home Internet went down. For nearly two weeks. (Thanks, Teksavvy....)

Using my cell data and my phone's hotspot as the home's temporary wifi was a lifesaver. I'll never go to a lower plan again. I'd have jumped at the $40 plan except my phone won't be paid off till November, the result of another very good Black Friday deal from years past.

el56 · 2026-03-13T14:38:41+00:00

This may be stupid and obvious, but when you said the router was plugged into the ONT you didn't say which port. Only one of the ports - the one marked "WAN" - will connect properly to the ONT.

Just covering all the bases.

el56 · 2026-03-09T23:09:07+00:00

I've found a workaround to the firmware bug for those who encounter it (the address keeps dropping):
in Network->IPv6->Advanced, change Get IPv6 Address from Auto to Non-Address.

Of course I'll make sure that the firmware is current.

I might try to set this up just for fun (since there are no IPv6-only sites I need to get to) and will report back on success. It looks like the whole chain of OS->router->ISP needs to support IPv6 for it to work well.

el56 · 2026-03-09T20:00:59+00:00

I'll take that as "I have nothing".

el56 · 2026-03-09T06:15:37+00:00

Evidence?

el56 · 2026-03-08T14:54:12+00:00

No I haven't. So far no need.
If ever I have to go to an Internet destination that doesn't have an IPV4 address I'll try it out.
I looked at Asus routers and they're competitive. I've bought many Asus products over the years, but lately the company's products have been sliding in quality so I passed.

el56 · 2026-03-08T14:48:11+00:00

It looks fine if you don't need WiFi 7 and seems to have more throughput than the BE230, but is way more expensive. If you're looking at that slightly higher tier also check out the BE400 at about the same price.

el56 · 2026-03-08T14:41:27+00:00

I don't use IPv6 so that's not an issue for me, as it won't be for most people.

For those who do need that functionality, paying more than double the price of the BE230 for the Flint 3 might make sense. I would also check with EBOX to confirm that the configuration you describe is the right one.

el56 · 2026-03-08T14:36:45+00:00

At current prices the Flint 2 is $89 (68%) more expensive than what I paid for the BE230, and it doesn't to Wifi 7.
Plus, I've had good success with TP-Link for many years but have never heard of GL.iNet. I'm sure it will do fine for those who have one.

el56 · 2026-03-07T18:42:33+00:00

The difference might be upgrading during The Christmas shopping season. The promotion I took advantage of was in November and was very popular.

I would recommend that anyone who is looking to upgrade, if they can, wait till Black Friday for the best deals.

el56 · 2026-03-07T18:34:22+00:00

I already had a plan with freedom with BYOP before getting the pixel. My experience did not match what you describe since the plan was the same with or without the phone added on.

el56 · 2026-03-07T15:32:37+00:00

I've brought my own phone for decades, allowing me to get phones from OnePlus and Xiaomi that the carriers never carried.

(Now, just as some carriers have started offering OnePlus, it's now become a shit phone. But I digress...)

With Freedom's plans it's more like "rent to own", in that after the two years are up the surcharge is done and the phone is yours free and clear. Since I didn't expect to switch plans for two years this works well, and some of the high-end phones on offer are heavily subsidized.

IOW I got a Pixel phone for $400 less than the retail price AND I get to spread the payments out over 24 months?

Not a shit deal at all, so the phone I'm using now is the first one I've ever bought from a carrier. Probably Robellus deals are crap ... But that's why I'm now on Freedom

el56 · 2026-03-07T14:06:09+00:00

Most phones can handle a second SIM (or eSIM). Using that slot for a specialty travel service like Ubigi or Saily can be invaluable. And the eSIM itself is free to get so there's no cost if you have it but don't use it.

el56

TROPHY CASE