Keep your Canadian phone number active while abroad

To keep a Canadian number active abroad, start with the Wireless Code's seven days. They keep a prepaid account open, and they keep unused balance, after the commitment period ends. They are not a hold on the number. Rogers prepaid itself ended on 20 February 2025.

Seven days, for the balance, after the period ends

Telecom Decision CRTC 2020-91 quotes Wireless Code rule J.1.: "Upon the expiry of the commitment period of a prepaid customer, a service provider must allow at least seven calendar days for the customer to top up their account, at no charge, in order to maintain an active account and retain any existing balance." Seven calendar days after that period ends, a top-up at no extra charge keeps the account active and keeps what is already there.

The same decision extends that floor past prepaid cards: "This rule applies whether the commitment period of the prepaid customer is established via an activated prepaid card or otherwise, by contributing amounts to a prepaid account balance."

It also says what the seven days are not. The Commission writes that "the purpose of rule J.1. is not to require WSPs to carry over prepaid balances indefinitely, but rather to enable consumers to top up their accounts within seven days of the expiration of a prepaid balance." A late top-up inside that window is the right J.1. states.

Mexico's unused-balance year is a different statute and a different length. The Canadian floor is seven days after the commitment period, for the account and the unused balance.

The number's clock is the carrier's

What happens to the number is in the carrier's own prepaid terms, and the three we could read do not share a day 0.

chatr's terms deactivate a new prepaid account that is still inactive on day 58 after activation. After that, the account is deactivated if the balance stays below the monthly plan fee for 3 consecutive months, and the mobile number is lost. On the night before an anniversary, a balance below that fee suspends the services: you will not have access to any Services, unless you subscribe to an offer that allows access to the chatr network.

Koodo's March 2026 terms suspend service without an active base plan. They cancel it after ninety days without one. For new activations that are not renewed after the first thirty days of service, that wait is fifty-eight days. Those are two cases.

Freedom's prepaid billing page is the document, of those three, that states incoming calls and texts after a missed plan top-up. Data and outbound services are suspended; incoming calls and text messages still work; unused top-up balance is on hold. If the top-up still does not come, remaining services are disabled, and the number is reserved for 90 days after the service is suspended.

Brazil's regulation requires a reception period during a regulator-defined suspension. Freedom's incoming window is a carrier billing page after a missed plan fee.

Rogers prepaid, closed

The live Rogers prepaid page is a handoff: "As of February 20, 2025 Rogers customers will have to get their prepaid services through chatr." A Rogers prepaid inactivity rule is not a current product on that page. The number that used to sit on Rogers prepaid is now a chatr question, if it moved.

What we could read

Bell's prepaid top-up help, fetched 28 September 2026, states the Code's restore: "Missed a top-up? Top up within seven days following your expiry date and your unused funds will be restored," per that help page. A 90-day deactivation sits in Bell Terms PDFs dated November 2022. We did not open a 2025 or 2026 Bell terms file, so that 90-day figure is not a card on this site.

Public Mobile's live service-terms page returned a Cloudflare challenge to WebFetch on 28 September 2026. TELUS Mobility Service Terms dated 7 March 2024 were in search results; the prepaid wording we quote for the TELUS family is Koodo's file updated 9 March 2026. The simplified Wireless Code page at crtc.gc.ca also returned a Cloudflare challenge to WebFetch that day. curl returned HTTP 403 for Decision 2020-91 on 28 September 2026. Rule J.1. above is quoted from a WebFetch of that decision the same day, which restates it.

Questions people ask

Is the CRTC seven-day period how long I keep my Canadian number?

Those seven days are for topping up to keep the prepaid account and unused balance after the commitment period ends.

What happened to Rogers prepaid?

Rogers' own prepaid page, checked 28 September 2026, sends prepaid customers to chatr as of 20 February 2025. The sentence on that page is the product change. If the number is now on chatr, the day-58 and three-month rules are chatr's terms. If it never moved, the Rogers prepaid page we read does not give a current hold. Holding, parking, porting or letting the number go is compared on the options page.

If I just activated a Canadian prepaid SIM, when can it be deactivated?

On chatr, a new prepaid account that is still inactive on day 58 after the Activation Date is deactivated. On Koodo, new activations that are not renewed after the first thirty days of service are canceled at fifty-eight days. Those two sentences stay separate. Freedom's billing page counts 90 days from suspension. When a rule on this site moves, it is logged on the changelog.