This July I’m going to be celebrating my 3rd year in Finland. To say it’s been a roller coaster would be an understatement. One thing this country has taught me, besides how to put away a 700 mL bottle of vodka in less than 60 minutes, is how customer-operator relationships should work. Earlier this year, in January, I left Finland to escape the deathly grip of darkness that plagues this country, thinking I wouldn’t return, but I ended up lasting less than 2 months before I came crawling back to brutal winters, rye bread so hard that it’ll make your gums bleed and tall, gorgeous, skinny women.
Getting setup once I landed at Helsinki-Vantaa airport was a snap. After I got out of the plane, and strolled through customs, I went to the convenience store located by the baggage check-in area picked up a can of Red Bull plus a SIM card for less than 10 EUR. My operator of choice? Saunalahti. For people who are data intensive users, there’s no other operator who offers what they do for prepaid customers.
Until recently their rates were as follows: 1.50 EUR per megabyte, but with a cap of 1.90 EUR per day. In essence you could download as much as you want for less than 2 EUR per day. If you wanted to save some money, after all 1.90 EUR x 30 days = 57 EUR, you could send the text message “DATA7” to 15020 and get unlimited data for 7 days for only 6.90 EUR. This is what I’ve been using since first arriving in July 2007.
Less than an hour ago, while grocery shopping, I received an SMS from Saunalahti informing me of two new packages. If I wanted unlimited data for 31 days, but with my speed capped at 1 megabit per second, all I have to do is text “DATAMEGA” to 15020; total cost = 19.80 EUR. If I wanted unlimited data for 31 days, with no speed restrictions, then I should text “DATA31” to 15020 and it’ll cost me 29.80 EUR. I’ve hit over 3 megabits per second on the unlimited weekly plan, so it’s basically 10 EUR more for triple the performance. Since I mainly use mobile optimized websites I’m going to be using “DATAMEGA” from now on and saving around 10 EUR per month on my mobile phone bill.
Oh and in case you’re wondering how much minutes and texts costs with Saunalahti: 0.066 EUR per minute and 0.066 EUR per SMS or MMS sent, free incoming SMS and fone calls.
This is how prepaid pricing should work. Everywhere.
[More Information: Google Translate: Saunalahti Prepaid Mobile Broadband Prices]