Cell Phones

[casuallyrad]

I did a search about cell phones in this forum but the info seemed quite dated. I currently have a really old Nokia, not sure the model and I know its locked. If I am planning on staying in Finland for at least a year should I bring my phone with me (and grab another power adapter for the charger) or plan on buying a new or used one when I arrive? What can I expect to pay for a standard contract or is Pay as you go a better option for most people? What am I forgetting to ask? Any advice is appreciated!!

-Hailey

[Jukka Aho]

I did a search about cell phones in this forum but the info seemed quite dated. I currently have a really old Nokia, not sure the model and I know its locked. If I am planning on staying in Finland for at least a year should I bring my phone with me (and grab another power adapter for the charger) or plan on buying a new or used one when I arrive?

The model number on Nokia phones can usually be found by taking a peek under the battery – the phone needs to be turned off and the battery removed for this, of course.

But if it’s a locked phone model and you can’t arrange to have it unlocked by the time you arrive in Finland, you probably wouldn’t want to bring it with you. And if it’s a really old or otherwise restricted model it might not support the European GSM frequency bands (see here as well.)

What can I expect to pay for a standard contract or is Pay as you go a better option for most people?

Finnish cellular operators (their Finnish pages generally contain more options and information):

• Elisa (Finnish) (English)
• Sonera (Finnish) (English)
• DNA (Finnish) (English)
• Saunalahti (Finnish)
• Tele Finland (Finnish)

What am I forgetting to ask? Any advice is appreciated!! :D

Do you just want to make voice calls and send SMS messages or are you interested in cellular broadband (Internet services) too? (usable either with the phone itself, or with your laptop while on the go – the phone can connect to the laptop via a USB cable or Bluetooth and provide the Internet connectivity to it that way.)

Do you want a smartphone or just something very plain and ordinary?

Do international calls and charges matter to you or will you handle these via VOIP solutions (such Skype etc.) on your computer? (Note: if you have a flat-rate data plan, there are VOIP clients for the smartphones, too)
 

[sinikala]

I did a search about cell phones in this forum but the info seemed quite dated.

Do a search for mobile phone instead, nobody here calls them cell phones.

[Pursuivant]

I currently have a really old Nokia, not sure the model and I know its locked. If I am planning on staying in Finland for at least a year should I bring my phone with me (and grab another power adapter for the charger)

To do exactly what with it? Set it on "vibrate" and stuff it into your pants? Illegal to use as a fishnet weight too.

What can I expect to pay for a standard contract or is Pay as you go a better option for most people?

You're a funny foreigner with no credit rating, so to *get* a contract you'd need to shell out serious money as funny foreigners tend to make funny bills and leave to the funny countries so the companies think its not funny. A prepaid is what you can get. Then you should also consider it costs to "E.T. call home" so figure out how to use Skype and figure out how to rig one up. There are "magic numbers" for overseas calls, but you still pay the local charge + the overseas charge on top.

[casuallyrad]

I currently have a really old Nokia, not sure the model and I know its locked. If I am planning on staying in Finland for at least a year should I bring my phone with me (and grab another power adapter for the charger)

To do exactly what with it? Set it on "vibrate" and stuff it into your pants? Illegal to use as a fishnet weight too.

What can I expect to pay for a standard contract or is Pay as you go a better option for most people?

You're a funny foreigner with no credit rating, so to *get* a contract you'd need to shell out serious money as funny foreigners tend to make funny bills and leave to the funny countries so the companies think its not funny. A prepaid is what you can get. Then you should also consider it costs to "E.T. call home" so figure out how to use Skype and figure out how to rig one up. There are "magic numbers" for overseas calls, but you still pay the local charge + the overseas charge on top.

Canadian cell phone companies are robbers. I pay more than $40/month for a very basic plan, no data or anything. I dont make an abnormal amount of calls or txts so Im looking forward to better rates in Finland. I noticed most phone plans have better rates if you are calling someone with the same service provider. Is one company more popular than the other so I can take advantage of that?
Skype is the best way to call home, it must cost an arm and a leg to call Canada from a cell phone. Do any prepaid plans offer a free phone when you start? Right now I have a Nokia 6682, its old but I think it will work there.

[sinikala]

Canadian cell phone companies are robbers. I pay more than $40/month for a very basic plan, no data or anything. I dont make an abnormal amount of calls or txts so Im looking forward to better rates in Finland. I noticed most phone plans have better rates if you are calling someone with the same service provider. Is one company more popular than the other so I can take advantage of that?
Skype is the best way to call home, it must cost an arm and a leg to call Canada from a cell phone. Do any prepaid plans offer a free phone when you start? Right now I have a Nokia 6682, its old but I think it will work there.

It will work here but it isn't 3G.

As Hank said, for most foreigners, the phone companies usually want a deposit of several hundred Euros to make sure you don't leave a large bill behind when you leave the country.

I have never seen a pre-paid "plan" being offered with a free phone, then again, I haven't looked very hard. I don't know anyone who uses pre-paid here. There are cheap phones, the most basic Nokia model can be bought for €40 or less. But there is no such thing as a "free" phone.

The most common way of not having to pay for the phone up front is that you take a fixed term contract out where the phone is part of the payment plan. Overall you spend far more money that way.

E.g. Phone X costs €240 cash ... your calls €12 per month, and the contract might be pay €35 per month for 12 months. After 6 months you'll see the same deal, same phone being offered by your provider for €25 per month ... and you are still paying €35 . Far cheaper just to save up and buy a phone when you have the money, instead of looking for "free" phones - they never are free.

[Pursuivant]

A basic phone is say 50 to 100 euros... then a prepaid you can get pretty cheap, theres some deals but usually they're more geared for people with contracts... and to get a contract... so you need to shell out 350-500 for your "free" phone... and they have 2 year contracts ATM, basically for the new fancy phones. See now theres a law forbidding "bundles" in regular 2G so the phone and the connection are separate, as a new wizmo-gizmo prices start from 300-500 they made a special law allowing bundles in them as otherwise it'd just not get any users. So basically thats why theres no "free phone" deals as its been illegal, so the operators have had to compete with cheap calls here. And the phone itself costs money, so they've had to compete with their prices too... so I'm not that convinced its been all *bad* - though people whine they cannot afford the toys they had somewhere else, as they have actually to pay for it up front. A bit like having had a leasing car and now having to buy your own.

[Jukka Aho]

A basic phone is say 50 to 100 euros...

To the OP: Here’s a price comparison site which should give an idea of how much the local phones cost when bought alone. They also do comparisons of different contracts.

Vocabulary:

Kaikki = all

min/kk = minutes per month
kpl/kk = number per month
Mt/kk = megabytes per month

Liittymä ja puhelin yhdessä = contract and a bundled phone
Liittymät = Contracts
Puheaika = Call minutes
Puhelut = Calls
Tekstiviestit (SMS) = SMS messages
Multimediaviestit (MMS) = MMS messages
Videopuhelut = Video calls
Data = Data transfer
Datan vähimmäisnopeus = Minimum speed for data transfer

[casuallyrad]

Well I arrived a few weeks ago and brought my old phone with me. Of course you cannot "unlock" north amrican phones here so its basically a very expensive alarm clock here in finland. my friends were nice enough to give me an old mobile, most of the buttons work.