Tele2 provokes mobile broadband price war

A price war is brewing in Sweden’s mobile broadband market, writes newspaper The Local. Yesterday (8 April) the country’s second largest cellco by subscribers Tele2 dropped the monthly fee for its 3G mobile 5GB inclusive down/upload package to SEK159 (USD26), SEK10 cheaper than the new price announced the previous day by Glocalnet, a subsidiary of Sweden’s third placed mobile player Telenor. Mobile market leader TeliaSonera did not comment on whether it would join the price war: ‘We seldom comment on our price activities before pushing them through and we don’t comment on our competitors,’ said spokesperson Ola Kallemur. TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database says that Sweden’s 3G market is led by Hutchison subsidiary Hi3G Access Sweden (3), with at least 600,000 device users at the end of 2007, up from 557,000 at end-June. At the end of September 2007 Tele2 reported that it had 45,000 subscribers to its mobile broadband data packages, aimed at laptop users; it has scheduled an upgrade of its 3.5G HSDPA network with HSUPA technology to boost upload speeds in the first half of this year. 3 launched Sweden’s first commercial HSUPA services in September 2007, according to GlobalComms.