The biggest reason for not subscribing to data plans for private users is that the phones on the market today are too bad for surfing and in most cases also e-mail. In Sweden it is very common to buy "mobile broadband" which is a kind of data plan but then it is mostly used together with a modem instead of a phone. However many business users using other carriers than Telia use flat rate data plans in their phones an the phone is then used as a modem to connect the laptop to the internet. Unfortunately this seem not to be possible with the iPhone and this is something that together with the lack of out of the box MMS capability is brought up by iPhone critics over and over again.
The iPhone service plans from Sonera (TeliaSonera) are steep compared to what you get and what is available from other operators in Finland. This comes as no surprise, since Sonera is the market leader and by far the most expensive of the operators operating in Finland. (I just recently compared operator prices to check if we should switch operator for our office (small biz - 4 employees). With our phone using habits, Sonera was about 3,5 times more expensive than our current operator.
Just for the comparison, some operators currently offer plans with about 3000 min voice calls, 3000 min video calls, 3000 SMS, 3000 MMS per month and unlimited data for around 50 euros/month.
I'd love to have the iPhone, and I know that everybody in our office would, but I just can't justify the added cost from switching to Sonera. However, I'd be happy to cough up the 400 or 500 euros for per phone if I was able to use the operator of my choice.
When N95 launched last year in Denmark it ended up costing approx. 4.500-5.000kr (£450-500) including plans. Yesterday TeliaSonera released all the plans in the Scandinavian countries + Finland, and when I compare the prices to the Danish market it's an ok deal (not fantastic, not awful). Denmark has only one plan available, probably because you can only sign up for a contract for max. 6 months. It's 599kr./mo. (£60), and includes:
Unlimitied SMS
Unlimitied calls to 1,5mio mobile Telia customers and landline
300 min. for every other carrier in Denmark (TDC/Vodafone, Telenor etc.)
300 MB data/mo. 1,25kr/MB (£0,13) if you reach the limit.
As I said, an ok deal (except for the crappy data plan), but you can get mobile broadband (with 10 GB cap) starting at £20, unlimited SMS, £7, 1 minute for about £0,06 etc.
Without upsetting our Swedish friends, Denmark usally have much better plans (except for mobile broadband) and I think that is the case here too.
När datatrafiken som ingår via 3G/EDGE är förbrukad gäller maxtaxa med 9 kr/dygn. M.a.o. finns ett maxtak på vad ditt surfande kostar.
This translates into English as
When the data traffic included via 3G/EDGE is used up, a maximal fee of SEK 9 per 24 hour applies. In other words there is a maximum cap to the cost of your surfing.
So if you were to go for the lowest-cost price plan (SEK 299 per month), even if you were to exceed your includes 100MB cap every single day (i.e., exceed your 100MB allowance on the first day, and use some data on every day after that), the most you'd pay in a month is SEK 299 + 31 * 9 = SEK 578 = USD 97.
If you do most of your surfing over WiFI and only occasionally need to transfer large amounts of data over 3G/EDGE, this can work out reasonably OK. And even if you overrun all the time, there's still a limit to your cost.
It's not the same as a properly unlimited-data plan; but it's nowhere near as bad as one that just racks up the charges per megabyte once you overrun your inclusion.
Good lord - are these guys owned by rogers Canada?? Or is Sweden similar to Canada in that it has near monopolistic carriers and no competition?
Please note that all prices in Scandinavia is inclusive of sales tax. In Norway the sales tax is a whopping 25%. Also the prices in general is somewhat higher in Norway compared to most places - for a lot of reasons. The current exchange rate between NOK and USD is also extremely low.
There has been a bit of ruckus of the iPhone prices here, but for the most part it is because inclusive subscriptions like these are very unusual here, and also because it is very uncommon that a phone can't be bought free of any contract. Actually the consumer board has already made contact with carrier NetCom on this matter.
That said, if you compare the plans to other current plans from the carrier these are not bad prices:
Actually it all comes down to your usage - if you "never" use your phone it might seem steep, but for people that use the services it is not bad at all. Especially if you count in the price for a comparable phone - like the N95 - the plans are actually a good deal.
Only thing I miss is a completely free data plan. Or an option to add that for a reasonable price.
Non-Scandinavian readers should note that it's very uncommon to pay this much per month for a mobile subscription in Norway and Sweden.
.....
It's like the Scandinavian winners of Apple's iPhone lottery forgot what kind of market they're operating in. This is not the U.S., where people have phones with disabled Bluetooth so they have to pay to get new ringtones.
People here expect to be able to buy a phone, pick whatever subscription they want (and according to the law must be able to do so) and use it as little or as much as they want.
Audun
I totally disagree with you (except for the picking whatever plan part). There are a lot of people paying way more than even the most expensive plans. People mix up here - they compare cheap deals with regular phones to a smartphone target group. The iPhone is a high-end usage phone - like HTC, N95, P1 and similar. Buyers of these phones pays several thousands for the phone WITH subscription plans (N95 launched at almost NOK 5000 with a NOK 200 plan not including anything). The iPhone are targeted to be used - a lot. That is why the carriers like it also, because it attracts the "right" customers - not the ones just looking for a cheap deal.
Somehow to me, it appears that everyone expects the iPhone to be a cheap phone, and they should not pay for any usage at all. At the same time. Well, we know that the "real" price of the iPhone probably would be around NOK 5-6000,- (an 8GB N95 will cost around NOK 5000). If you buy the iPhone on the cheapest plan it will cost you NOK 6178 the first year. I fail to see how this is so very bad.
The other thing is that the iPhone needs internet. To buy an iPhone and not use the internet options is totally loony. None of the "cheap" plans is geared towards this, and using the phone on those carriers will soon be very very expensive.
That said, I would of course like to see a phone available without plan attached - as I don't use NetCom myself, and don't want to change either.
You can get a Nokia N95 8GB for NOK 2290,- with this plan - 12 month subscription.
In short; you pay NOK 400 each month (i.e. NOK 1 more than the cheapest iPhone plan), and you get calltime for all of it. However each minute costs NOK 0,99 with an additional NOK 0,69 connectionfee for all calls - meaning you don't even get 100 minutes calltime. Additional minutes are still 0,99 (0,39 for the iTalk). You get only 30 SMS and 10 MMS included - and no data. So for the same price you get a shitty deal. Of course the iPhone is also NOK 900 (USD 180) less.
Another fact worth noting is that the iPhone is NOT the only exclusive phone in Norway. The operaters regularly buy out exclusive deals with phonemakers. The only difference is people don't really care about other phones. I suspect this is very similar in all countries, and all this noise is just because iPhone is the first phone people actually lust for (maybe with exception of the RAZR).
Some says it's madness but all I care about is getting an iPhone with warrenty that I can update as soon as the are there And by the way... It's only 6 months
This is not in line with European Regulation which stipulate that the warranty shall be 24 months
Comments
It doesn't matter --- because most of these people never subscribe to data plans.
http://disruptivewireless.blogspot.c...artphones.html
The biggest reason for not subscribing to data plans for private users is that the phones on the market today are too bad for surfing and in most cases also e-mail. In Sweden it is very common to buy "mobile broadband" which is a kind of data plan but then it is mostly used together with a modem instead of a phone. However many business users using other carriers than Telia use flat rate data plans in their phones an the phone is then used as a modem to connect the laptop to the internet. Unfortunately this seem not to be possible with the iPhone and this is something that together with the lack of out of the box MMS capability is brought up by iPhone critics over and over again.
http://www.sonera.fi/iphone/hinnat/
The iPhone service plans from Sonera (TeliaSonera) are steep compared to what you get and what is available from other operators in Finland. This comes as no surprise, since Sonera is the market leader and by far the most expensive of the operators operating in Finland. (I just recently compared operator prices to check if we should switch operator for our office (small biz - 4 employees). With our phone using habits, Sonera was about 3,5 times more expensive than our current operator.
Just for the comparison, some operators currently offer plans with about 3000 min voice calls, 3000 min video calls, 3000 SMS, 3000 MMS per month and unlimited data for around 50 euros/month.
I'd love to have the iPhone, and I know that everybody in our office would, but I just can't justify the added cost from switching to Sonera. However, I'd be happy to cough up the 400 or 500 euros for per phone if I was able to use the operator of my choice.
When N95 launched last year in Denmark it ended up costing approx. 4.500-5.000kr (£450-500) including plans. Yesterday TeliaSonera released all the plans in the Scandinavian countries + Finland, and when I compare the prices to the Danish market it's an ok deal (not fantastic, not awful). Denmark has only one plan available, probably because you can only sign up for a contract for max. 6 months. It's 599kr./mo. (£60), and includes:
Unlimitied SMS
Unlimitied calls to 1,5mio mobile Telia customers and landline
300 min. for every other carrier in Denmark (TDC/Vodafone, Telenor etc.)
300 MB data/mo. 1,25kr/MB (£0,13) if you reach the limit.
As I said, an ok deal (except for the crappy data plan), but you can get mobile broadband (with 10 GB cap) starting at £20, unlimited SMS, £7, 1 minute for about £0,06 etc.
Without upsetting our Swedish friends, Denmark usally have much better plans (except for mobile broadband) and I think that is the case here too.
If you do most of your surfing over WiFI and only occasionally need to transfer large amounts of data over 3G/EDGE, this can work out reasonably OK. And even if you overrun all the time, there's still a limit to your cost.
It's not the same as a properly unlimited-data plan; but it's nowhere near as bad as one that just racks up the charges per megabyte once you overrun your inclusion.
Good lord - are these guys owned by rogers Canada?? Or is Sweden similar to Canada in that it has near monopolistic carriers and no competition?
Please note that all prices in Scandinavia is inclusive of sales tax. In Norway the sales tax is a whopping 25%. Also the prices in general is somewhat higher in Norway compared to most places - for a lot of reasons. The current exchange rate between NOK and USD is also extremely low.
There has been a bit of ruckus of the iPhone prices here, but for the most part it is because inclusive subscriptions like these are very unusual here, and also because it is very uncommon that a phone can't be bought free of any contract. Actually the consumer board has already made contact with carrier NetCom on this matter.
That said, if you compare the plans to other current plans from the carrier these are not bad prices:
https://netcom.no/abonnement.html
Actually it all comes down to your usage - if you "never" use your phone it might seem steep, but for people that use the services it is not bad at all. Especially if you count in the price for a comparable phone - like the N95 - the plans are actually a good deal.
Only thing I miss is a completely free data plan. Or an option to add that for a reasonable price.
Non-Scandinavian readers should note that it's very uncommon to pay this much per month for a mobile subscription in Norway and Sweden.
.....
It's like the Scandinavian winners of Apple's iPhone lottery forgot what kind of market they're operating in. This is not the U.S., where people have phones with disabled Bluetooth so they have to pay to get new ringtones.
People here expect to be able to buy a phone, pick whatever subscription they want (and according to the law must be able to do so) and use it as little or as much as they want.
Audun
I totally disagree with you (except for the picking whatever plan part). There are a lot of people paying way more than even the most expensive plans. People mix up here - they compare cheap deals with regular phones to a smartphone target group. The iPhone is a high-end usage phone - like HTC, N95, P1 and similar. Buyers of these phones pays several thousands for the phone WITH subscription plans (N95 launched at almost NOK 5000 with a NOK 200 plan not including anything). The iPhone are targeted to be used - a lot. That is why the carriers like it also, because it attracts the "right" customers - not the ones just looking for a cheap deal.
Somehow to me, it appears that everyone expects the iPhone to be a cheap phone, and they should not pay for any usage at all. At the same time. Well, we know that the "real" price of the iPhone probably would be around NOK 5-6000,- (an 8GB N95 will cost around NOK 5000). If you buy the iPhone on the cheapest plan it will cost you NOK 6178 the first year. I fail to see how this is so very bad.
The other thing is that the iPhone needs internet. To buy an iPhone and not use the internet options is totally loony. None of the "cheap" plans is geared towards this, and using the phone on those carriers will soon be very very expensive.
That said, I would of course like to see a phone available without plan attached - as I don't use NetCom myself, and don't want to change either.
https://netcom.no/abonnement/youngtalkplus.html
You can get a Nokia N95 8GB for NOK 2290,- with this plan - 12 month subscription.
In short; you pay NOK 400 each month (i.e. NOK 1 more than the cheapest iPhone plan), and you get calltime for all of it. However each minute costs NOK 0,99 with an additional NOK 0,69 connectionfee for all calls - meaning you don't even get 100 minutes calltime. Additional minutes are still 0,99 (0,39 for the iTalk). You get only 30 SMS and 10 MMS included - and no data. So for the same price you get a shitty deal. Of course the iPhone is also NOK 900 (USD 180) less.
Another fact worth noting is that the iPhone is NOT the only exclusive phone in Norway. The operaters regularly buy out exclusive deals with phonemakers. The only difference is people don't really care about other phones. I suspect this is very similar in all countries, and all this noise is just because iPhone is the first phone people actually lust for (maybe with exception of the RAZR).
Some says it's madness but all I care about is getting an iPhone with warrenty that I can update as soon as the are there
This is not in line with European Regulation which stipulate that the warranty shall be 24 months