Freedom Mobile answers rivals’ recent moves with limited-time offer of free phone

TORONTO – Freedom Mobile is using a limited-time offer of free phones to fight back against a recent change in pricing strategy by Canada's three national wireless carriers.

Customers who buy one of a selection of two-year service contracts from Freedom will also get to choose a no-cost Apple or Samsung smartphone from a list of about half-a-dozen models.

The Calgary-based regional carrier says its Absolute Zero promotion sets it apart from device financing plans recently introduced by its rivals because customers pay only for the service and at no point pay for the phone.

Recently introduced financing plans from two of Canada's three national wireless carriers allow customers to buy and pay for any available phone over 24 or 36 months, but with no up-front fee or interest on the device portion of the purchase.

The new financing plans from Rogers and Telus departed from a long-standing practice of subsidizing all or some of device purchases by including the cost within monthly service fees for one- or two-year contracts.

The financing plans introduced this month come as Rogers, Telus and Bell begin to offer their first service plans that charge a fixed monthly fee for an unlimited amount of data — a pricing strategy already used by Freedom.

The national carriers have said their adoption of wireless plans with fixed monthly prices and no overage fees are being introduced in preparation for the arrival of faster fifth-generation services that will carry vastly more data.

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