Thursday, 2024-10-28

3.se's approach to pay-as-you-go

When I bought the Brick I also got a tre.se prepaid card. But it's not really a prepaid card. Most GSM carries here in Sweden sell you a fixed amount of money in a certificate, which you can call for until the amount is finished.

Tre have a two-tiered model. You can buy talk minutes (also valid for video calls), but these will expire in 30 days, unless you buy more minutes. In this, the card is not really a prepaid, but true pay-as-you-go. Instead of getting billed in the future, you pay in advance for the amount you'll call in a month.

You can also buy traditional prepaid certificates that are only valid for data traffic (SMS, MMS, packet data, and games and ringtones from Tre's mobile portal). These credits don't expire.

As I'm only planning to use the Brick for data, this is a great deal. I already have a GSM phone with a subscription, and don't want to switch numbers. Now I can keep a close eye on my data traffic without paying for calls that I don't need.

It'll be interesting to see how many people take advantage of the faster, cheaper data in Tre's UMTS network and use their new phones exclusively for data.