S60 Open to new features

We have had now over one month long waited telecom freedom in Finland (well I wasn’t waiting for it to be exact). Operators are focusing to advertise as cheap as possible monthly packets to consumers. When in US for example the smallest Cingular monthly plan includes 450 min phone calls (anytime calls) and more common is to provide over 1000 min, here in Finland operators advertise 70 min plans and you pay extra from extra minutes. It’s nice to show 19,90€/month number and squeeze the basic value as low as possible, but it makes me wonder why the tactics are so different. Or maybe I know the reason. With 18€ per month you can get 500 min calls. It is very difficult to ask more than 20€ even when you give a phone for free. People have mindset that about 20€ should be enough for mobile phone usage. Then you still have money left for gas, beer and Norwegian smoked salmon too. US has different telecom history. Bundling of subscription and phone has been there forever and people have used to higher monthly payments.

Anyway I’m still against subsidies and haven’t seen reason to change my view. Mobile phone market was extremely competitive in Finland and we are now heading to less competition. This model leads to less choice. In US this is very visible. Nokia flagship store will help to increase the phone selection in certain areas.

Harri Koponen (Wataniya Telecom) had a funny comparison about phone subsidies in Mobile Monday Summit. It’s like gas companies giving customers a free gas hungry Mercedes.

Regulator allowed subsidies to get mobile services market to grow. Yes sure, you can get data plan added to all plans sold in here but basic 3G plan never includes a data packet. Hey you there in regulator office, don’t sleep! This was supposed to be a trial and in the end it’s better to look results and make decision after that. Results can not be measured only by counting penetration of 3G phones against all phones. Results should be based on measuring services and how this new law helped in that.