Nordic mobile operator Telia is becoming evil
I have been pretty happy with my mobile operator TeliaSonera. It has Sweden's best coverage and did recently introduce relatively cheap roaming packages for other EU countries.
Nevertheless, the company has a track record of limiting P2P traffic which means that Skype calls via 3G (or 4G if you have a compatible handset) are a rather frustrating experience.
Today ArcticStartup reports that the operator plans to charge for mobile VoIP calls as of Summer in both Spain and Sweden.
I get it: Losing regular voice minutes to VoIP is a challenge for operators since it means lower revenue. Still, charging customers extra for something they already pay for sucks big time and is nothing but an evil move.
It's not complicated: I pay 149 SEK (about 16 Euro) for 1 Gig of data/month. That's not even a very competitive price, but ok, Telia has always been a bit more expensive than the competition, and the special roaming deals make up for it.
BUT: I want to be able to use those 1 Gig the way I want. It's one Gig of data/month I am paying for and I don't want Telia to come and tell me "You can use it for surfing, but not for VoIP, which costs more". All data has to be treated equally, at least if I pay rather a lot for that data.
For the price of 149 SEK I expect full freedom in using my monthly data.
Fortunately, there is competition on the Swedish mobile market. If Telia pulls through with their plan an starts to block mobile Skype calls entirely, I will switch to Telenor, "3" or Tele2.

Comments [0]