Finding the cheapest mobile phone plan in Canada

Sometime around 2025-09 (give or take a month), 7-Eleven Speakout stopped offering their $25 365-day mobile phone plan top up. Thus, I went on a quest to find the next cheapest mobile plan in Canada. I journeyed across a mall, asking every provider's kiosk whether they had a yearly plan. The results, as of 2025-10:

• Bell: did not have any yearly plans.
• Rogers: their child company Chatr had $149/year for unlimited calling and texting.
• Telus: had $100/year for 400 incoming/outgoing texts and 400 minutes, exactly to the specifications of the CRTC's low-cost and occasional use plans.
• Freedom Mobile had a $99/year plan with a weird system:
  If one has not sent any outgoing texts in the current month, one has unlimited phone calls. If one has sent any outgoing texts in the current month, one cannot make any phone calls. One cannot send more than 160 outgoing texts in a month. Incoming texts are unlimited, like the former 7-Eleven top-ups.
  They also had a more sensible $129/year plan for unlimited calling and texting and 20GB of mobile-data.
  They also have an unadvertised $119/year plan for unlimited calling and texting and 15GB of mobile-data, on the 4G network. I only found this out during the purchase process.

Telus and Freedom Mobile seem to have the cheapest plans; the decision of which plan probably depends on the individual.