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Telecom News

M-Budget and Wingo: Data Roaming Gets Cheaper

August 22, 2023 - Ralf Beyeler

Customers of Swiss budget mobile service providers M-Budget Mobile and Wingo will pay less for larger roaming data bundles in the future. Data roaming with Coop Mobile is also getting cheaper, but only in a handful of travel destinations.

Swisscom announced that it is lowering its prices for larger data roaming bundles from its budget subsidiaries Wingo and M-Budget Mobile from August 31, 2023.

For EU countries and for many popular holiday destinations, the 3-gigabyte data roaming bundles previously offered by Wingo and M-Budget Mobile will be replaced by a 5-gigabyte data roaming bundle for the same price. Wingo and M-Budget Mobile are also introducing 10-gigabyte data roaming bundles.

Coop Mobile, M-Budget Mobile, and Wingo are also lowering the prices of their larger data roaming bundles for travel destinations like Costa Rica, Cuba, Tunisia, and Vietnam.

An overview of price changes at M-Budget and Wingo

The table below shows the price changes being made by M-Budget and Wingo. The data roaming offers from both of these service providers are identical.

Previous New Change
Data allowance Price Data allowance Price
All countries in the EU
500 MB CHF 9.90 500 MB CHF 9.90 No changes
1 GB CHF 15.90 1 GB CHF 15.90 No changes
3 GB CHF 42.90 3 GB CHF 42.90 Now with 5 GB instead of 3 GB
    10 GB CHF 64.90 New data roaming bundle
World 1 region (includes Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, and the US)
500 MB CHF 15.90 500 MB CHF 15.90 No changes
1 GB CHF 21.90 1 GB CHF 21.90 No changes
3 GB CHF 54.90 5 GB CHF 54.90 Now with 5 GB instead of 3 GB
    10 GB CHF 74.90 New data roaming bundle
World 2 (includes Costa Rica, Cuba, Tunisia, and Vietnam, among others)
100 MB CHF 9.90 100 MB CHF 9.90 No changes
500 MB CHF 39.90 500 MB CHF 39.90 No changes
1 GB CHF 64.90 1 GB CHF 54.90 Now CHF 10.00 cheaper

 

Coop Mobile is also getting cheaper – but only for roaming in niche travel destinations

For its World 2 zone, which includes countries like Costa Rica, Cuba, Tunisia, and Vietnam, Coop Mobile is slashing the price tags of two data roaming bundles: The 500-megabyte bundle will now cost 55 francs – 10 francs less than its previous price. The 1-gigabyte bundle will now cost 69 francs – 21 francs less than its previous price.

Conclusion by telecom expert Ralf Beyeler

From a customer perspective, the price reductions for data roaming are a positive development. But the newly-announced price cuts also come with an unpleasant aftertaste.

Firstly, it is a shame that the changes do not apply to the prices of smaller bundles. The result is that customers who use smaller bundles pay much more per megabyte, compared to using larger bundles.

Secondly, the price changes will take effect right after the summer holiday season, when most Swiss have completed the bulk of their traveling. Many customers do not understand why the lower prices were not introduced before the summer holidays. By waiting until after the holiday to make the change, Swisscom was able to quickly sheer a lot of money off its customers. Swisscom itself already lowered its prices for customers of its main brand back on July 1, 2023.

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Expert Ralf Beyeler
Ralf Beyeler is the telecom expert at moneyland.ch and also covers other areas of personal finance.