Before you start

An unlocked handset — every phone sold in Canada has been unlocked since 2017
Photo identification
A Manitoba address, for postpaid billing
Consent to a credit check, or a deposit

Step-by-step

1
Start prepaid or on a flanker brand
Public Mobile, Fido, Koodo, Chatr and Virgin run on the same networks as their parent carriers and need no credit check or a much smaller one. In a city as compact as Winnipeg the coverage difference against the premium brands is negligible.
OnlineWho: YouWeek 1
2
Ask specifically for a newcomer postpaid plan
Carriers offer plans that waive the credit check on presentation of a passport plus a work permit, study permit or PR card. This is precisely the difference between paying a deposit of several hundred dollars and paying nothing.
In personWho: You
3
Bring your own handset rather than financing one
Device financing bundled into a plan ties you to one carrier for two years at exactly the point when you know least about the market. Bringing an unlocked phone keeps you month-to-month.
OnlineWho: You
4
Check what your building is wired for before choosing internet
Bell MTS fibre and Shaw/Rogers cable both serve much of the city, with resellers riding the same infrastructure, but older houses converted into suites and some apartment blocks are reachable by only one. Ask the landlord before signing a service contract.
OnlineWho: You
5
Diarise when every promotional rate expires
Canadian telecom pricing is heavily promotional and reverts silently at the end of a term. Calling to renegotiate is entirely normal and retention departments exist for it. This is the largest avoidable cost in Canadian telecom.
OnlineWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Photo identification
Work permit, study permit or PR card, for a newcomer postpaid plan
Manitoba address, for postpaid billing
Banking details for pre-authorised payment

Things most newcomers don’t know

Manitoba used to be one of the cheapest provinces for mobile, and the acquisition of MTS ended that.

MTS was the provincial incumbent and its presence held prices here well below the national average for years. Bell acquired it in 2017 and prices subsequently rose, a shift documented by the regulator and competition authorities. The relevance for a newcomer is that Manitoba-specific advice about cheap phone plans is a decade out of date, and comparisons drawn from Quebec — which still has a genuine fourth network — do not transfer.

Source: community-reported, corroborated by CRTC pricing reporting

A postpaid plan is a credit product in Canada, and without a file you pay a deposit.

This surprises almost everyone arriving from Europe, where a phone contract is just a contract. Canadian carriers are extending credit and check for it. With no file you are asked for a deposit of several hundred dollars, refunded after a year of clean payment — unless you present an immigration document under a newcomer plan, which waives the check entirely.

Source: Carrier newcomer plan terms

The immigration document, not the passport, is what removes the deposit.

A passport alone leaves you in standard postpaid territory. The work permit, study permit or PR card is what moves you onto a newcomer plan. Carry both to the shop; people routinely bring one and pay for it.

Source: Carrier newcomer plan terms

Which internet you can get is a property of the building, not the street.

Winnipeg has a lot of older houses subdivided into suites, and while the street may carry both fibre and cable, your particular unit may only be reachable by one — or by neither at the speed advertised. Landlords know. Asking before you sign a service contract saves an installation appointment that ends in an apology.

Source: community-reported

Common mistakes to avoid

Reading decade-old advice about Manitoba being cheap for mobile.
Signing standard postpaid and paying a deposit a newcomer plan would have waived.
Arriving with a handset still locked to a foreign carrier.
Taking device financing in your first weeks and losing the ability to switch.
Choosing an internet provider before checking what physically reaches the unit.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.