All Articles Tagged switzerland

TeliaSonera and their Norwegian subsidiary, Netcom, are pretty much dropping Ragnorok onto Scandinavians who dared hope for reasonable price plans, but how about Finland?

Small plans start at €31.69 for 100 min, 100 SMS, and 100 MB of data, with €159 for an 8GB handset and €385 for 16GB.

Large plans are €89.99 for 1000/1000/1000, with a €1 8GB and a €85 16GB.

US$142 for 1GB of data?

But wait, there’s more! Denmark gets only one (1) plan, DKK 599 for 300 min., unlimited SMS, and a paltry 300 MB of data, with DKK 1399 for an 8GB handset and DKK 1999 for a 16GB. Six months later, however, the price will drop to DKK 399, just to add to the confusion.

That’s US$128 for 300MB of data for the first six months, and US$85 thereafter.

EPIC FAILURE there for the Scandinavians.

Can the Swiss offer some Euro-redemption?

Swisscom’s Small plan kicks off at CHF 25 for CHF 0.68 hourly talk rate and 100MB of data, with an 8GB handset for CHF 245 and 16GB for CHF 243.

Large plans play out at CHF 55 for CGF 0.49 hourly talk rate and 1000MB of data, with a CHF 99 handset at 8GB, and CHF 199 for 16GB.

That’s topping out at US$54 for 1GB… Nowhere near as bad as their neighbors to the north, but not unlimited. Is there some rule that says the colder you get, the worse the telcos rip you off?

French iPhone exclusive, Orange, has just added to the iPhone country count by announcing a deal to bring the (presumably next-gen 3G version) device to:

Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and Orange’s African markets later this year.

Belgium and Romania are said to be exclusive, but this brings Dominican Republic (maybe), Egypt, Portugal, Switzerland, and South Africa (maybe) into the multi-carrier (co-exclusive or non-exclusive) column and for the first time suggests a previously exclusive region, Austria, may no longer be exclusive!

France Telecom spokesman Bertrand Deronchaine said Orange will be the exclusive iPhone provider in Belgium and Romania, with co-exclusive or non-exclusive deals in other countries. He declined to offer more details about the arrangement.

What might that portent, if anything, for the US, UK, France, Germany, and Ireland?

Table shattering score card now link list:

Launched: Austria (T-Mobile), France (Orange), Germany (T-Mobile), Ireland (O2), UK (O2), USA (AT&T) 

Announced: Africa (Orange), Argentina (America Movil), Australia (Vodafone / SingTel),  Austria (Orange), Belgium (Orange), Brazil (America Movil), Canada (Rogers), Chile (America Movil), Columbia (America Movil), the Czech Republic (Vodafone), Dominican Republic (America Movil/ Orange), Ecuador (America Movil), Egypt (Vodafone / Orange), El Salvador (America Movil), Greece (Vodafone), Guatamala (America Movil), Honduras (America Movil), India (Vodafone / SingTel), Italy (Vodafone / Telecom Italia), Jamaica (America Movil), Jordan (Orange), Mexico (America Movil), New Zealand (Vodafone), Nicaragua (America Movil), Paraguay (America Movil), Peru (America Movil), Philippines (SingTel), Poland (Orange), Portugal (Vodafone / Orange), Puerto Rico (America Movil),  Romania (Orange), Singapore (SingTel),  Slovakia (Orange), South Africa (Vodafone), Switzerland (Swisscom / Orange), Turkey (Vodafone), Uruguay (America Movil)

Rumored: Netherlands (?),

Note: Extent of America Movil and Orange Africa deployment not yet fully detailed.

So, with the board filling up like the cable car to WWDC, the question remains: who’s next?

(PS: We’re not claiming iPhone Candyland… yet.)

Read Via + Via

 

Joking that the iPhone Risk map was getting a little crowded up in Europe… turns out not to be a joke anymore:

Swisscom on Wednesday confirmed it will begin selling Apple’s iPhone in Switzerland this year, possibly bolstering a recent report on the matter which also stated that the handset would arrive with video conferencing and other fresh features.

What fresh new features? As if borrowing from Kevin Rose’s twitter feed, GPS, bi-direction video iChat Mobile, and mobile TV.

Checking the score board:

	Europe	North Am.	South Am	Asia	Africa	Oceania	Antarctica	Total
Launched	5	1	0	0	0	0	0	6
Announced	6	2	15?	3	2	2	0	30
Rumored	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Total	13	3	15?	3	2	2	0	38

Personally, I’m not sold on 2-way iChat yet, or Mobile TV unless Apple can break it out of the carrier-controlled sandbox in which it now languishes. This is a little too close to rumor-regurgitation for now. GPS, on the other hand, seems likely.

What do you think?

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