With immediate effect, Swisscom is changing the conditions for its inOne Mobile plans. Swisscom is promising its customers “more speed,” “more multi-device” and “more roaming.”
Swisscom responding to moves by Sunrise and Salt
The most important changes are the improved conditions for data roaming in Europe with the inOne Mobile plan. The most expensive inOne Mobile XL now includes 48 gigabytes of roaming data. With these updates, Swisscom is responding to the recent data roaming offensives by Sunrise and Salt.
Users of the affordable inOne Mobile XS plan will continue to receive a 1-gigabyte allowance for data roaming in Europe. User of the inOne Mobile S plan now receive 3 gigabytes instead of the previous 2 gigabytes, so the data roaming allowance has been increased by 50 percent. Swisscom also doubled the data roaming allowances for the inOne Mobile M plan (to 6 gigabytes per year) and the inOne Mobile L plan (to 24 gigabytes per year).
Time-based limitations remain in place
Swisscom continues to use a rate schedule based on so-called “roaming days.” Customers with an inOne Mobile XS plan can use the included data roaming bundle up to 30 days per year. Other plans limit data roaming to 45 or 60 days per year. As before, the two most expensive plans do not have time-based limitations.
Under the motto more multi device, Swisscom is offering SIM cards for additional devices. Three options are available: Supplementary SIM cards which enable 0.4 Mbps data transfer speeds for 3 Swiss francs per month; supplementary SIM cards for smart watches which enable 1 Mbps data transfer speeds for 5 francs per month; supplementary SIM cards for tablets for 10 francs per month. The SIM cards for tablets deliver data transfer speeds identical to those of primary mobile plans. Users of the inOne Mobile L plan receive two supplementary SIM cards on a complimentary basis, while inOne Mobile XL users receive three supplemental SIM cards on a complimentary basis.
Swisscom is also increasing data transfer speeds for its cheaper plans. The inOne Mobile S and inOne Mobile Light plans now come with a 30 Mbps connection instead of the previous 20 Mbps. The inOne Mobile XS plan now comes with a data transfer speed of 5 Mbps in place of the previous 2 Mbps. Existing customers automatically benefits from the new conditions.
Verdict by moneyland.ch telecom expert Ralf Beyeler
More roaming: Swisscom’s promise of “more roaming” is a response to increases in the included data and data roaming allowances for Europe on some Sunrise and Salt mobile plans. Swisscom is catching up with its competitors, which have both increased data allowances for certain mobile plans to 4 gigabytes per month. “Customers receiving higher data roaming allowances is a good development,” says Ralf Beyeler of moneyland.ch.
In spite of the improved data roaming benefits for these plans, most customers will still save money by taking out mobile plans with no data roaming included and then buying data roaming bundles when they travel abroad.
It is also regrettable that Swisscom has not done away with its time-based roaming limitations – a point of confusion for many customers. The “more roaming” slogan with which Swisscom promotes its upgrades would make more sense had they removed the time-based limitations on data roaming.
More speed: The new 5 Mbps data transfer speed now delivered by Swisscom’s slowest mobile plan is still very slow. Even plans which cost half as much now typically have data transfer speeds up to ten times higher than that. While Swisscom has upgraded to higher data transfer speeds, but you are still getting very slow data transfers for the price you pay, compared to other mobile service providers, according to the verdict by Ralf Beyeler.
More multi-device: Swisscom – and the telecom industry as a whole – is hoping that consumers will soon begin using fridges or watches that require SIM cards. That is the reason why Swisscom is offering relatively low-cost SIM cards which supplement existing mobile plans. In this way, Swisscom can also position its brand against both its competitors and its own budget brands such as Wingo, SimplyMobile and M-Budget Mobile.
Swisscom promises that the maximum data transfer speeds which customers receive with the supplementary SIM card for tablets match those of their existing mobile plans. But a look through the fine print reveals a significant limitation: data-transfer is capped at just 40 gigabytes per month. Customers can save themselves the cost of the supplementary SIM card and simply use their mobile phone as a hotspot – in which case they can make unlimited downloads.
More on this topic:
Mobile plan comparison
Roaming comparison
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