You hop on to another network, so coverage wasn't an issue, but it does cost more. You basically are paying roaming rates any time you aren't in a freedom area. We had a 2 person plan that I believe was $70 a month total, I worked outside of the zone for 1 year during the weeks and some weekends and my average costs (for mostly extra talk and text, I tried to use wifi/google chat/etc. instead of my phone as much as possible, only used data once or twice in an emergency), were $85-90 a month. So increase of $15-20 for consistent use outside of the zone. But for a few days of travel here and there outside the zone you wouldn't see that huge of an impact.
Coverage seemed ok inside buildings (about the same as outside buildings). Downtown Toronto is wonky anyway, so unsure if was freedom or just general cell service.