These are the most important things to know about the swype plan from Yallo:
Monthly and daily plans
The new swype plan is available in two different versions: A daily plan with a flat fee of 2 francs per day; and a monthly plan with a 39-franc monthly flat fee.
Roaming for 3 francs per day
The optional swype international option can be added to the plan. The option costs 3 francs per day. It provides unlimited call roaming, 10 gigabytes of roaming data per day in eligible countries, and unlimited international calls from Switzerland to eligible countries.
Eligible countries include 21 EU countries (including Germany, France, Italy, Austria), Liechtenstein, Norway, Canada and the US. Roaming in all other countries is automatically blocked, as are international calls to non-eligible countries.
Using swype requires an app
What makes Yallo swype unique is that it is only available via an app. The swype app is required in order to subscribe to the plan and then to manage the plan. A standard SIM card is still a requirement, as Yallo does not yet offer an eSIM.
Subscribing to Yallo swype works similarly to subscribing to online services like Netflix or Spotify. A credit card or the Twint payment app are required in order to subscribe. Payment via standard billing is not an option. If you choose to terminate your plan, you can give notice via the app.
An interesting feature of Yallo swype is that you do not pay an activation fee or a SIM card fee. This customer-friendly approach is rare among Swiss telecom service providers.
Verdict by moneyland.ch telecom expert Ralf Beyeler
“A mobile plan which can be subscribed to and managed via app is an innovation which is in keeping with the times,” states Ralf Beyeler. It is somewhat surprising that it has taken this long for telecom service providers to launch app-based mobile plans. Financial services providers, for example, adopted the app-based approach to accessing and managing accounts some time ago.
From a cost perspective, the most appealing thing about the swype plan are its roaming fees. A 3-franc daily flat fee for roaming is easy to understand. There are more affordable options for mobile roaming, but being able to pay a 3-franc flat fee and then use roaming all day without having to keep track of your roaming use is a big advantage of this model. With the swype international, if you spend 20 to 30 days outside the country each year, you would spend between 60 and 90 francs a year on roaming.
The cost of swype for local phone use in Switzerland is less convincing. Daily plans are interesting, but the vast majority of phone users are not likely to use their phone on certain days only. Smartphones require data connections for their constant updates and data transfers, and many apps also require data connections in order to function.
The 39-franc monthly flat fee is expensive. Plans with flat fees for unlimited local calls and data are regularly on offer for 20 to 30 francs. But it is likely that Yallo will offer the swype plan at heavily-discounted prices as part of special promotions in the future. If that happens – as it has with other Yallo plans – the new plan may be among the most affordable available.
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