Swiss Airline launches Swiss-Mobile

[inquisitor]

Congratulations to your first posting, dear Danidw! Reads like fabricated PR writing though.

There's nothing explicitly cheap nor sensational in Swiss Mobile. The only innovation I can see is that rates for South Africa are quite low, though totally overpriced when you compare to South African prepaid offers like those of Cell C. In South Africa you can get a SIM card including 1.2 GB of data for R89 (CHF 7.60). This amount of data would cost more than CHF 80 with Swiss Mobile.

Btw, the Swiss Mobile website does not disclose what happens once you've consumed your data allowance. Will data stop? Will bandwidth be throttled? Will exceeding traffic be billed based on volume? Can subscribers immediately reorder another pack?

In many other countires including USA, Australia and many European countries Toggle Mobile is much cheaper for both, data and voice and has the unique feature of having up to 9 local numbers from a choice of countries including Switzerland. Especially Swiss residents will find it great to have a Swiss number at which they can be called from Switzerland at local rates, something included in Toggle. In contrast to Toggle and to what the product's name suggests Swiss Mobile does not include a Swiss number but only a British one, which is usually expensive to call from Swiss cellular networks.

And regarding data Toggle gives you 1GB for CHF 30.45 which converts to unit costs fo CHF 0.03/MB:
http://www.togglemobile.co.uk/roaming-data/en

With Swiss Mobile data costs between CHF 0.078/MB (+260%) and CHF 0.09/MB (+300%) depending on which data pack you select. Depending on how of you allowance you actually need/consume, Swiss Mobile is up to three times more expensive that toggle.

Als Swisscom's "Natel Data Travel 1GB" is cheaper in many regions and comes with a native Swiss number:

Thailand
Swisscom: CHF 99
Swiss Mobile: CHF 1,220 (CHF 1.22/MB)

China
Swiwsscom CHF 99
Swissmobile CHF 12,290 (CHF 12.29/MB)


Lastly the fact that this company is hiding its shareholders and recalling memories of how many of us lost their prepaid credit when United Mobile went bankrupt, Swiss Mobile appears even less attractive to me, even though it comes with the logo of a prestigious airline.

Originally Posted by Danidw

[...] I have relatives in Swiss Airlines [...]

Interesting. Family relationships. Is that a hint?

[Danidw]

Inquisitor, I'm sorry my post sounds like PR. I am a real person and use the Naka card as a normal customer. If you want some proof, just ask for it: Monthly account statement, passport, ID, whatever you need.

I didn't know the other packages you mentioned. Toggle seems to be a valid alternative, although limited to only a few countries. Naka covers the whole world though.

Swisscom packages are very very expensive. You always have to buy a certain amount, after a month it's gone. With Naka you only pay for the data you used, that might be a few kB. For a pilot like me, being just a day in a country and the depart again, that is the perfect solution. I remember my life before: First day in a city running for some local sim cards, paying a fortune, fumble around with the passwords, sometimes it works, next time I come back the sim card is expired...

Yes, my brother works for Swiss. You can also have a copy of his passport, if you want.

When your prepaid amount is consumed, the service stopps. You can subscribe to automatical top-up. So you will never have to worry about an empty account. You have to choice for several numbers, you can have a US one and other countries. I don't know what's the advantage of having a number of one country. I just use data anyway. Is there anyone still making phone calls?

You don't have to buy the Naka card. But I will be forever greatful they exist. May they have a dodgy background, I don't know. But the service certainly is great!

Dani

[tux]

Originally Posted by Danidw

Is there anyone still making phone calls?

Yes, me.

[hrgajek]

Good morning,

all these products of United-Mobile and their successors were technologically excellent, but at the end of the day they had to pay their bills....

United Mobile shifted the customer base from Mobilkom Liechtenstein to Jersey Telecom after some "discussions" on terms and conditions. The Liechtenstein Authority had reduced the interconnection fees, which made this business model possible.

But Jersey Telecom disconnected the service, after unpaid bills.

Free Time Telecom (supported by "white label mobile") for example offered 3 IMSI on one SIM-card, one number from Germany, one from Liechtenstein and one from the U.S. The vendor of the german mobile number (Telogic) went bankrupt, which was absolutely not under control of Achilles Rupf et.al. at all, but soon they had some internal "disputes" and from one day to another the services went offline, without any prior notice to the customers.

So pressing thumbs, that Naka will continue. But be prepared, if not.

Only recharge the needed amount, have a backup solution (another provider with another SIM-card) ready and give the secondary number to your important contacts.

The business case of roaming-sim-cards is complicated. They have to find enough customers, which bring them continuous revenue. The playing kids, the nerds and the "I want to play with it, if it doen't cost too much for me) don't bring the basis for prosperous life.

But this is a fundamental problem of most roaming cards.