My mobile journey (experience) in Sweden

Hej!

I've been a lurker for quite awhile since I first moved here from the US six years ago and it has been an awesome place to find information regarding Swedish telecoms and thought that a broad overview and my personal mobile experience here in Sweden someone might find helpful and is my way of giving back in the international section since min Svenska suger.

When I first arrived I started off with Comviq since they're always handing away free sim cards at various tunnelbana stations and I knew I couldn't get a normal subscription since I had no credit here which was fine. After a few months here I found a job as a dishwasher and took my new contract (provanställning) to Tele2 and was granted a subscription along with a brand new Xperia Z2 and I was pretty ecstatic. So I would recommend Tele2 as I didn't need a fast anställning to get a new phone and subscription however this was approx. 6 years ago so they may have updated their policies.

I lived in Stockholm on the red line Norsborg - Ropsten and my experience with Tele2 was fine albeit a little annoying as there were always a couple dead spots, Örnsberg I remember in particular video would just stop since there was no connection and I want to say Axelberg but I could be wrong. It was at least one other outdoor stop but for the life of me I can't remember where. Otherwise Tele2 worked without complaint. This annoyance with the dead spots on the line I traveled on daily was enough for me to switch to Telia though after my contract with Tele2 was up.

It also helped that Telia was giving away a free PS4 with the purchase of an Xperia XZ (which I sold on this forum not too long ago!) I'll get right down to it. If you want the "best" mobile experience in Stockholm just pick Telia and be done with it. Dead spots were gone on the red line and I was getting bars everywhere. I was a happy customer with Telia until Telenor changed the game for me with free surf in the US and to me it was a no brainer to make the switch.

So now I'm onto my 3rd mobile operator in Sweden in 5 years and of course it helped that I got another free PS4 with the purchase of an Xperia XZ3 on Black Friday. I don't go back to the US often but when I do it's like magic to not have to pay a boatload of money for a measly 1GB of surf with Telia. It has worked flawlessly everytime I have landed at EWR it just works and the speeds were damn good to boot. Approx. 200+ Mbits down and 25-50 Mbits up on T-Mobile. I don't believe I was ever roaming on AT&T. I'm still a Telenor customer however I now have my eyes on 3 since they have launched 3Världen which includes a ridiculous amount of countries and some that I plan to visit in the near future so hopefully that sticks around by the time I make the switch.

A general (slightly confusing and convoluted) overview of the Swedish Telecom market looks like this

Telia is generally regarded as having the "best" overall network in Sweden. This performance comes at a price however.
Tele2 /Telenor are a close 2nd/3rd and share the same 4G network but have seperate 3G networks. Telenor does share its 3G network with Telia however.
3 is last of the bunch but still very respectable however one thing to note is that it does not have a 2G network so some older GSM phones won't work if it does not have or support any of the 3G/4G bands.

Telia and 3 are the cheapest when purchasing a phone since the phones are subsidized by 2 year contracts.
Tele2 and Telenor are more expensive when purchasing a phone since the there are no contracts and only have 30 day notice to cancel period.

They all have low cost operators as well.

Telia has Halebop and Fello
Tele2 has Comviq
Telenor has Vimla and
3 has Hallon.

The main difference is that they're cheaper but don't include many of the features such as (3Världen) that its parent company offers as well as lack of support in traditional brick and mortar stores though I've read about Halebop customers being able to get help at Telia stores but your miles may vary depending on operators and people in the store. Halebop, Comviq, Hallon (limited selection) offer phones along with contracts while Fello and Vimla do not. I've read that parent company customers are given priority on the network when congested and the speed is limited to 100Mbits however I can't confirm these claims so perhaps someone below can fill us in if that is true or not.

A tad bit longer than I expected but I hope I've shed some light onto the wonderful world that is Swedish Telecommunications. We really are spoiled for choice here in Sweden with 4 predominant networks to choose from with a population of just over 10 million, that is insane. Granted there is some network sharing however, that doesn't take away from the fact that each operator has its own perks and deals that can be had. I do believe consolidation will occur sometime in the future with 3 being acquired or merged into Telenor or Tele2 but for now they have been aggressively building and expanding their network and that's what we all want to see because competition breeds innovation.

If you're still here and read all my ramblings then a big thank you! I hope you find some of it helpful and enjoy this beautiful mobile journey we're all on. Thanks again!

Mauga

 

Hey Mauga! Great post! Fellow American here as well, been living in Sweden for 8 years now. Started off on Comviq as a student, ended up with Telia since I worked there for 2 years, and now using Telenor mostly because of the free USA surf + free international family calling + VoLTE/VoWiFi. I appreciate your rundown of the Swedish network situation, a nice read

What I find most interesting is how CHEAP mobile plan prices are in Sweden, especially data, when you consider what prices are in the USA. A massive difference.

Take care!