Salt does not spare on the superlatives when marketing its GoMo budget brand. It hails the launch of GoMo – which it proclaims as the most digitized Swiss mobile service with the most cutting-edge offers – as the most important event in the Swiss telecom space in 2021. The plan is offered exclusively on its website. Signing up and account management are also done online. Customer service is provided by chat. GoMo is the second budget brand from Salt, with the other being Das Abo.
The plan includes 100 GB local data within Switzerland, and unlimited local calls and SMS messages. The introductory price is 9.95 francs per month. This price applies to the first 50,000 customers to sign up for the plan. Unfortunately, Salt has not communicated the plan’s standard price – even when moneyland.ch inquired about it. “Because the limit on how many people can get the plan at the promotional price is very large, the current introductory price should apply for some time,” believes moneyland.ch telecom expert Ralf Beyeler.
No roaming bundles
Unified pricing is used for both mobile roaming and for international calls from Switzerland to other countries. Unlike its competitors, GoMo does not include roaming allowances in its plan, and does not offer roaming options or bundles.
Roaming in Europe costs 2½ centimes per megabyte, which comes to 25 francs per gigabyte. Call roaming within Europe costs 45 centimes per minute. GoMo charges 10 centimes per megabyte and 1.95 francs per minute for roaming in some European countries like Andorra, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Serbia, as well as in most non-European countries. The pricing is identical for international calls from Switzerland to other countries.
The fine print is customer friendly. Contracts do not have minimum terms. You can suspend your plan at any time by giving 2 months’ notice. Other budget mobile services like Wingo and Yallo offer similar conditions. Salt itself is generally less customer friendly, and primarily offers contracts with long minimum terms.
A disadvantage of GoMo is that the terms and conditions forbid you from using your plan for mobile hotspots. That means you are not allowed to get online with your laptop or tablet using your phone’s data connection.
How GoMo compares with other offers
GoMo’s special promotional offer is very attractive for local use. “For the first time, a Swiss telecom service provider is offering unlimited local calls and data for a fee of 10 francs per month,” says telecom expert Ralf Beyeler. Though the GoMo plan only offers 100 GB mobile data per month, this amount will suffice for almost all customers. The next-best promotional offer for unlimited local calls and data costs 20 francs per month, according to Beyeler.
For consumers who use their mobile plans to make international calls or to roam outside of Switzerland, GoMo is expensive. If you were to use 6000 megabytes of data roaming and 120 minutes of call roaming over the course of four trips, GoMo would charge you 204 francs. “GoMo is one of the most expensive Swiss mobile services for mobile roaming,” says Beyeler. The cheapest solutions for the above scenario are Mucho Mobile at 77.80 francs, and Yallo Swype at 87 francs. Even Swisscom would be much cheaper than GoMo, at 111.60 francs.
Conclusion
“The biggest disadvantage of GoMo is that it does not offer data roaming bundles,” says Ralf Beyeler. The advantage of offering roaming bundles would be that customers can choose to buy a fixed amount of data for a fixed price. There are no additional, unexpected costs. “Without bundles, there is no way that customers can decide in advance which amount of roaming data they want to use,” adds Ralf Beyeler. GoMo blocks roaming once charges reach 250 francs in one month.
If you do not use your phone while traveling abroad, the GoMo offer is very attractive. The expert believes that “It is only a matter of time before other budget brands like Swisscom’s subsidiary Wingo and Sunrise subsidiaries Yallo and Lebara follow suit.”
This article was originally published on November 16, 2021. Update from December 14, 2021: According to the FAQ on the GoMo website, the plan does not really contain an unlimited amount of data – contrary to what was initially announced. The plan includes 100 GB of mobile data per month. If this quota is used up, the speed is reduced to 512 Kbps. At this speed you can send messages, email, and stream music. However, you will only be able to surf the Internet very slowly and video streaming will hardly be possible.
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