{"id":6986,"date":"2015-05-19T11:37:44","date_gmt":"2015-05-19T18:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/?p=6986"},"modified":"2015-05-19T11:44:21","modified_gmt":"2015-05-19T18:44:21","slug":"local-sim-finland-edition-and-paying-for-transit-with-an-sms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2015\/05\/local-sim-finland-edition-and-paying-for-transit-with-an-sms\/","title":{"rendered":"Local SIM: Finland Edition (And Paying for Transit With an SMS!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

a brief note on buying a local SIM card in Finland<\/h3>\n

after landing at Helsinki Airport, you can find an R-Kioski (it’s like a 7-Eleven) on the upper (departures) level of Terminal 2 — if you land at Terminal 1, they’re connected by a walkway outside security. <\/p>\n

you have a choice of providers, but i went with Elisa’s Saunalahti because it has truly unlimited data with no fair usage policy, meaning they won’t throttle your speed if you exceed a certain amount of data traffic per day (though i’m always a fair user, thank you very much). the SIM (which is a nano, micro, and regular size all in one) costs \u20ac4,90 and comes with \u20ac6 of credit. activation is immediate and you don’t need to sign any forms or give your passport or anything.<\/p>\n

once you pop the SIM card in, it will prompt you to select a language, then you can send off a text message (see the Prepaid with Data wiki for options<\/a>) to purchase your desired data plan. i chose the 1 week package for \u20ac6,60. note that this means you need to add additional value to the card because it only comes with \u20ac6 — they can do that immediately at the time of purchase.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_3728\"<\/a><\/p>\n

i tried the 50% off thing described on the wiki page but couldn’t get it to work; you might have better luck.<\/p>\n

in any case, activation and the data pack application were immediate and i was on 4G in no time. service seems to be pretty reliable and quite speedy, except in my Airbnb because i’m in the middle of a mini-concrete jungle.<\/p>\n

paying for transit via text message<\/h3>\n

if you’re going to be taking the subway, it might be a good idea to load on some extra value to your SIM card. why? because you can pay for transit tickets at a slight discount. note that if you will be using the tram, it’s cheaper to buy a tram ticket with cash, and if you’re going to be using transit a lot, it might be cheaper to get a \u20ac5 reloadable travel card since prices on that<\/a> are significantly cheaper. <\/p>\n

more than likely you won’t need to take much public transportation at all if you’re a walker since everything is withing walking distance of the city center, but if you’re a transit geek like me…<\/p>\n

\n

Here we are! Northernmost subway station in the world. (@ Metro Mellunm\u00e4ki in Helsinki) https:\/\/t.co\/ijDZdZyStX<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/J8SN4QG9Z1<\/a><\/p>\n

— Jonathan Khoo (@jonk) May 19, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n