Freedom Mobile has invested $35 million to acquire wireless spectrum in Manitoba, which it hopes will lay the groundwork for a new network in the province. This will also be a big step in helping Freedom offer its own Canada-wide network.
The network rollout will begin in Winnipeg, targeting the areas that serve the most people before expanding to the rest of the province. However, the company hasn’t shared yet when it plans to open stores and go online.
Freedom has already started offering plans to people in Manitoba, but it was using other carriers’ networks and operating kind of like an MVMO. Now that it plans to do its own infrastructure, it can move away from paying fees to one of the big three to rent its spectrum.
The press release from Freedom’s parent company, Quebecor, also mentions the possibility of working with Manitoba to develop and share more French-language content with the French communities in the prairie province. “Several projects were discussed, with anticipated economic benefits of several millions of dollars in production and filming expenditures in Manitoba,” reads the release.
Quebecor has been on a rise ever since it was able to buy Freedom Mobile a few years ago. It seems like the company is still making moves to become the fourth large-scale telecom player in the country, and the disruption couldn’t have come at a better time. However, after the sale of Freedom, it was mandated that the carrier needed to keep its rates 30 per cent lower than the big three telecoms. Time will tell if that price difference will remain.
Edit: 18/11/2025 3:28pm ET: This story has been updated to remove a line that claimed Fizz would be launching in the province as well. Fizz already offers plans in Manitoba.
Source: Quebecor
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