TeliaSonera prices LTE service, offers free modem upgrade next year
It's pretty easy to fall far enough into the 4G mania trap that you lose sight of the important stuff -- like, say, how much cash you're going to be shedding every month for the delightful privilege of delivering 10Mbps-plus speeds straight to your lappie. Sweden's TeliaSonera -- which just launched service in Oslo and its home turf in Stockholm -- has revealed that users will be paying ridiculously low fees to get 'em to sign up before bumping rates mid-contract, a tactic stolen right out of Comcast's playbook. To start, Stockholm residents will be paying SEK4 a month until July 2010, which works out to just 56 cents, while Oslo folks pay a NOK1 (17 cent) pittance until April 2010. After those rates expire, though, watch out: Stockholm goes up to SEK599 ($83) for 30GB of usage and Oslo bumps to NOK699 ($120). That's a hell of an increase -- but then again, 30GB of service at torrent-friendly speeds is a tempting proposition. Anyhow, the other interesting tidbit of this story is the fact that early adopters (read: anyone lining up at the store to sign up today) will get a free upgrade to Samsung's HSPA / LTE dual-mode modem next year once it's available; the current model is LTE-only, which makes roaming a bit tricky. Kind of them, no?
