Unlimited 2Mbps Data Plan, Fully Hotspottable, $20/month

EDIT: tl;dr as requested:

• Unlimited hotspottable data @2Mbps (4x Rogers/Bell/Telus throttle speed)
• Can use Fongo or Google Voice for free unlimited Can/US calls/texts
• Officially SK only but works nationwide
• $20 with code student5

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About three years ago, I made a post that got a bunch of traction about a plan from upstart Wundle Mobile which had a pretty neat (for the time) schtick: Unlimited 512Kbps data only on your phone for $25/month (they included taxes and fees — a practice it seems they've unfortunately abandoned — so for me in NB it came out to $20.90 before taxes/fees, which I had put it the title). It also included 3GB/month of 5G-speed data locked in for early customers (it's unclear whether customers who signed up later got this too).

For the time, it was a pretty great deal because what the Big 3 were doing was locking the unlimited throttle behind high GB/high price plans. I can't remember exact pricings at that point but I believe the cheapest way to get unlimited throttled data on your phone was to get a plan that was 2-3x more expensive. 512Kbps was slow but fast enough for WhatsApp voice calls, medium-quality music, and low-quality video. It was a great plan but had its limits, which for me was largely that the data stopped being hotspottable after the first 3GB, which meant it was a nice way to make sure I never ran out of data on my device… but not much beyond. I maintained my line with them for a while because it was cheap enough to have as a backup but it's no longer something they offer.

I like their page on Facebook so I've seen their ads pop up on my feed from time. Typically the pricing is towards the cheapest you can get, but not quite rock-bottom pricing. However last year while staying in Winnipeg I saw an ad that caught my eye for a seemingly updated version of the plan, marketed to students. The ad lead to a SK-only non-public page on their site with a few plans, including this:

• Unlimited data at 2Mbps (so 4x the 512Kbps they used to offer)
• A hotspot that doesn't cut off (i.e. unlimited @2Mbps)
• $25/month, marked down to $20 with the code student5
• Roams nationwide on Rogers/Bell/Telus but officially is a SK plan
• Just like the old plan, no calls/texts included

It was a clear upgrade so I bought a SIM. It took almost a week to get to me but does what it said on the tin. For $20/month, it's reasonably quick unlimited internet that you can hotspot without limit to your other devices. Whereas the 512Kbps wasn't hotspottable after 3GB and the 512Kbps throttle meant that browsing was only technically doable, 2Mbps is actually surprisingly workable as someone who travels a bunch and likes to have wi-fi with me at all times. Heavy pages you've never visited before do take a few seconds but data compression is great these days and most sites are light enough to load within 1-2 seconds — nothing I notice unless I'm actively doing speed testing comparisons. I have YouTube Revanced set to load 1080p by default and the only time I've ever seen buffering is when the odd video loads at 60fps, but 1080p@30fps YouTube and Netflix work like a charm. Tidal lossless quality (1411Kbps I believe) streams without a hitch. Torrenting works but 2Mbps means you'll want to enable sequential downloading in your client to start watching media as you download. In short: it's far, far more of an actual, bona fide browsing experience than the old 360p plan was. Video calls are crisp and clear, even on Zooms with multiple people. Discord updates take ~30 seconds, which is annoying, but also ultimately not worth complaining about at $20/month. I still use Google Voice (American number) for unlimited US/Canada free calls/texts as I have for about a decade, but if you need a Canadian number then Fongo or TextNow both get you calls/texts for free.

I noticed recently that they've updated their website to include this plan on the public plans page so I wanted to share that link. (I lost the SK-specific one with a bunch of other plans as well — they had a talk/text one with the unlimited 2Mbps for like $45.) Note that it's still officially Saskatchewan only but (assuming it's still as it was when I signed up ~9 months ago) they'll ship the SIM wherever and you can use it nationally. I got cut off after ~6 months of permanent roaming but was able to call back and asked for the SK data plan and got a new account number and SIM shipped to me without any headache.

2Mbps isn't fast enough to share between people, but for one person it's pretty killer at $20. If you travel a bunch (truckers/RVers) or are a student looking to cut every expense to a minimum, do what I do and combine your cell phone and home wifi into $20/month.

As far as I know, Wundle is the only company in Canada that offers consumers a 2Mbps throttle. (Tbaytel in Thunder Bay offers 1Mbps but it's business only.) I believe it's also the only plan that doesn't cut off the hotspot off data after a certain point (whatever your full speed threshold is) but don't quote me on that. It's not just cheap but it's the only way to get something like this. The most I've ever used in a month, when I was torrenting 24/7, was over 1TB of data (between download/upload) for 20 bucks. Not bad.

A note on Wundle — Just like PhoneBox, they're an MVNO that use the Big 3's towers. They're smaller but have been super responsive to me through FB the couple of times I've needed help. The sense I get is they make deals with the Big 3 to buy in bulk. I searched the CRTC license database and they're licensed to resell plans, so they're at least legit in that way. Perhaps others who had dealings with them 3 years ago on the old Telus plan can chime in with experiences as well.

I'm attaching pics of the speedtests I took. Download ranges from 2.0-2.3Mbps, upload from 4.3-5.6Mbps. Pings are 52-93ms based on load. You need to use the same promo code (student5) to get the $20 pricing; I've verified it's still active.