LTE in Finland

This translation was generated automatically.

My colleague Alex Olma (@iphoneblog) moved from central Helsinki to the suburbs. Same problem as in Germany: the DSL line is too long, and the provider hasn’t built DSLAMs at the roadside. Fibre may still take a while. Permafrost is harder to dig through than pavements in Upper Bavaria.

His alternative: attach an LTE antenna to the cabin and get 50/10 Mbit/s with no data cap. It costs €20 a month for the plan and €9 in monthly router payments. There’s also a generous cancellation period if coverage doesn’t deliver the expected speed.

For comparison, Telekom charges twice as much (€40 normally, currently €35 on offer), plus €5 monthly router rental, for a 10 GB allowance. Yes, ten. With that plan in mind, I won’t be moving to the suburbs—or the studio—any time soon, LTE rollout or not. My colleague Wölfle could tell you a thing or two about it.

You might be able to blog on that thin connection. But for video calls on Bits und so, the difference is enormous.

Germany is effectively back in the same situation as 2005–2007, before the iPhone launch, just one technology further along. 3G rollout was well underway and devices were ready. Google Maps for Nokia “smart” phones already existed, but per-megabyte billing (€1/MB) strangled every innovative service. Email over WAP was affordable; anything with colourful pixels was not.

While Telekom Germany throttles us into the digital Stone Age, Finland is on track to deliver 100 Mbit/s to every citizen by 2015.