Swedish dongles

Thomas Husson | April 24, 2008, 08:23 AM

I spent a few days in Stockholm recently. Really nice city by the way.

I was intrigued in 2007 by some stats from Telia reporting that for several months in a raw modems / USB Sim cards were the top-selling units in Telia 76 Swedish shops.

So I decided to spend some time in Telia shops but also in competitors' high street shops and in independent retailers outlets.

Well, merchandizing usually tells you a lot. There were really "dongles" everywhere, promoted at every corner. They cost roughly nothing provided you pay 200 Swedish Kronen (around 21 euros) per month during a year.

It is an easy sell. Most consumers decide based on a mix of coverage and price according to the vendors I spoke to.

Operators accross Europe (see the pic from the Voda billboard below) are promoting dongles but it seems that Austria and Sweden are ahead, probably because they have a dynamic 3G market with a good coverage. Another interesting reason is that Swedes (but also Finns, see here) have one of the highest rates of second houses / summer houses in Europe. Why paying a full Internet package when you just need to bring your laptop? Ah working from home in a nice Nordic island...