Will Koodo blacklist a phone for non payment?

Sorry to hear that but yes they will as you haven't fully purchased that device yet. Unless you can call them asking for deferment, waiver, or leniency, then that device's network radio (HSPA, GSM, LTE connectivity) won't be operable in Canada (or maybe USA/Mexico too). You'll most likely be able to use it with WiFi only.

But the good thing is, the network radio would most likely still be usable in other parts of the world (e.g. Asia, Africa, Euro, South America)

Phones are not allowed to be added to the list for non-payment of bills. It's *only* for devices reported as lost or stolen. Carriers can block the device from their own network, but that's it. Now, that's not to say that the carrier might not TRY to do it (and they'll definitely send your account to collections), and if they do I'm not sure how you'd go about getting that rectified ("I didn't bother paying my bill and now I want to use this phone I didn't pay for, and they won't let me!"), but *in theory* they're not supposed to do it. And FWIW, the last time I looked (some time last year) I wasn't able to find any reported cases of non-payment leading to a blacklisted phone.

liemhoho wrote: ↑ Sorry to hear that but yes they will as you haven't fully purchased that device yet. Unless you can call them asking for deferment, waiver, or leniency, then that device's network radio (HSPA, GSM, LTE connectivity) won't be operable in Canada (or maybe USA/Mexico too). You'll most likely be able to use it with WiFi only.

But the good thing is, the network radio would most likely still be usable in other parts of the world (e.g. Asia, Africa, Euro, South America)

Actually, you are wrong. Called the support line today and they made it clear they wouldn't blacklist the phone.

Thank you all for your answer and time

Well that's good then. Maybe it's their new policy or Covid policy.

As wearysky mentioned, the blacklist is for lost/stolen phones and is intended to deter black market/theft of devices. Non payment is not related to this process. In the current COVID situation, most telcos are deferring service disconnections and sometimes allowing payment deferrals as well. If payment remains uncollectable, they then pass on the bad debt to collections agencies but at no point in the process do they normally add your IMEI on the blacklist.