Telus Canada SIM card: new prepaid activations moved to Koodo

Is a Telus Canada SIM card a good choice for a visitor?

The Telus brand is not where a visitor now buys prepaid. Telus's prepaid page, as shown in search results, says new activations on the Telus Prepaid brand ended on 1 July 2026 and that new customers are directed to Koodo Prepaid, another Telus-owned brand. Existing Telus Prepaid customers keep service and can top up.

Telus's site returned an access error when we tried to open its pages directly, so what follows comes from search excerpts of Telus and Koodo pages. We mark that in the sources.

What is on offer for new customers?

Per those excerpts, Koodo Prepaid is sold in Koodo and Telus stores, through authorised dealers and online, and its prepaid page was showing an eSIM offered at no charge as a limited-time deal. Telus's SIM page listed a physical SIM from $15. Telus also says any in-market rate plan, prepaid or postpaid, can be put on an eSIM, which works by buying an eSIM voucher. Prices and offers change, so see Koodo's and Telus's own pages for today's numbers. We are not quoting any.

What we did not find

We found no official Telus or Koodo page written for tourists. We also did not find an official statement of what ID or payment card a visitor needs. Koodo community threads, which are users talking and not company policy, mention that Koodo does not ship SIMs outside Canada and that international cards have sometimes caused trouble. Take that as a reason to ask before you rely on it.

The same threads and Koodo's own pages suggest that prepaid has no roaming outside Canada and the US, but we could not confirm that on an official page.

Telus coverage

Some third-party guides say Telus and Bell share rural network infrastructure. We could not confirm that on Telus's own site, so we are not repeating it as fact. We found no coverage percentage or 5G claim we could read first-hand. Use Telus's coverage map for your route, and especially check it for national parks and rural highways.

Telus versus a travel eSIM

If your phone is unlocked, a travel eSIM bought before you fly avoids the store and payment questions entirely. You give up a Canadian number and voice calling. We compare the two approaches on the Canada comparison page. For other carriers see Bell, Rogers and Freedom Mobile.

For the wider picture see our Canada SIM and eSIM hub, the Canada SIM card comparison and our cheapest eSIM page. This page is desk research from the carriers' own public pages, not a test of any plan.