Save CHF 2'628/year, or CHF 38'855 in 10 years, are you in?
When I left the family nest, my mobile phone abo was one of the first things I had to pay for out of my own pocket. And at the time I got screwed by choosing one between CHF 75 and CHF 100 per month just for the mobile subscription (and Mrs MP was rather around CHF 125). In addition to that, there was the famous Bluewin Internet subscription and TV, which was also around CHF 100.
In total, we paid about CHF 325/month for telecoms. That is CHF 3'900 per year!
Then, becoming mustachian and frugal over the years, we learned how to hack the system.
If you follow us since the beginning, you know that we tried to switch to Orange with a 4G router modem in order to pay only CHF 100/month for our home internet and mobile unlimited subscription in Switzerland, but that it only worked halfway and that we were finally at CHF 105/month by combining Orange and M-Budget.
Then 2 years later, thanks go to QoQa and Sunrise who allowed us to move to CHF 110/month with home internet and unlimited mobile subscriptions (in Switzerland and also abroad). And this is always thanks to the hack of the 4G router modem where we put our 2nd free SIM card in order to have Internet throughout the house.
The disadvantages of 4G, the countryside, and an apartment too well isolated…
It was really a cool setup, and hacking the system had something to do with it :) (Matrix anyone?!)
Except that after more than two years in the countryside, we faced the following issues:
- The 4G speed is top compared to a standard ADSL connection (I’m not talking about the fiber, which we still don’t have…) but on the other hand we had problems of stability of the connection and also of bandwidth, especially in the evenings (Mrs MP was going crazy at the end ^^)
- Our small village is charming as possible but on the 4G reception level, there are only two places in our apartment where we get good reception, which did not help with stability
- Finally, when you say brand new apartment, it implies top insulation. So much so that the router couldn’t cover our entire home. I tried to add a wifi repeater but it didn’t work that well… and at the end, as we get an extra free SIM card each with Sunrise, I even put two routers in the house!
For me it was working OKayish, although on some days when I worked from home, I thought, just like Mrs. MP, that we needed to find a more stable connection solution.
Sunrise and QoQa again to the rescue!
Then last March, we see the QoQa/Sunrise offer for the Internet at home (200 Mbit/s or 1 Gbit/s, depending on where you live) for only CHF 29/month.
So I talk about it around me and I learn many things:
- Indeed, the internet via a standard connection is much more stable than 4G
- By combining this internet subscription with our mobile phone, we would save CHF 7/month (10% of the real value of the internet subscription at CHF 70), which brings us back to CHF 22/month!
- It’s possible to combine our two QoQa mobile subscriptions and thus benefit from 10% each on our respective subscriptions (I thought until now that you could get this discount if you took a mobile and internet subscription, but not if you and your partner had a mobile subscription each…). As a result, there is great potential for savings because once again the 10% applies to the real price of CHF 130, or CHF 13 each, reducing our mobile subscription to CHF 42/month instead of CHF 55/month
Given the recurring and painful problems due to our rural life, we decided to subscribe.
Summary
Our Swiss setup for home internet and mobile subscription now looks like this:
- Mrs. MP: CHF 42/month for the Sunrise “Europe & US” subscription (formerly called “Freedom Super Max”) with everything unlimited anywhere in the world and an additional free SIM “share data” card — we take this abo voluntarily because we have relatives all over the world, and we ourselves move quite a bit
- Mr. MP: CHF 42/month (same subscription as Mrs. MP)
- House: CHF 22/month for the “comfort” 200 Mbit/s Internet abo
- Total monthly telecom for the MP household = CHF 106/month
- Savings per year = CHF 2'628, or CHF 38'855 in 10 years!
The proof in pictures:
If you are lucky enough to have a top-notch 4G network at home, don’t hesitate to test the setup with a 4G router modem for 1-2 weeks, because you could only have to pay CHF 42/month, and save even more!
For the record, the last two routers I tested and that I recommend to my friends from now on are:
And you?
I think you can find even cheaper if you stay in Switzerland and only call in within it. I haven’t done much research but if you have some good tips to share with other readers, don’t hesitate to put a comment in the section below!
One thing I can give you on my side is to follow the blog scal.ch which shares all the latest telecom news in Switzerland.
If on the other hand you want to have the same setup as me, I recommend you to first put a reminder on December 9, 2019 hoping that QoQa renews its offer with Sunrise for the mobile subscription. And then to put a second reminder in January to look at the QoQa offers until the end of April in order to get the Sunrise’s home internet subscription (but make sure to delete their app afterwards to not be tempted by their other offers :) #frugal).
In any case, let me know what setup you have for home internet and mobile subscription?
