Before you start

Passport for prepaid registration
Personnummer and a Swedish payment method for a postpaid contract
An unlocked or eSIM-capable handset
The building's network operator, for home broadband

Step-by-step

1
Buy and register a prepaid SIM on arrival
Available in supermarkets, convenience stores and operator shops. Registration with identification has been compulsory since 2022 and can be done with a passport, which makes prepaid the way to have a working Swedish number before you are registered as resident.
In personWho: YouDay 1
2
Move to a contract once you have a personnummer
Postpaid plans are cheaper for the same data and run a credit check against your personnummer. Anyone carrying a payment remark will struggle here, which is another reason the first bills matter.
OnlineWho: YouMonth 1–2
3
Check the building's broadband arrangement before ordering anything
Most Gothenburg apartment buildings are connected to an open fibre network — much of the city's infrastructure runs on the municipally owned GothNet, part of Göteborg Energi — where you pick a service provider from the building's portal rather than ordering directly from an operator. Ordering from the wrong place is the usual cause of delay.
OnlineWho: You
4
Ask whether broadband is included in the rent
A great many Swedish rental buildings include a group broadband subscription in the monthly charge, at a speed that is usually plenty. Paying separately for a second connection is a common and avoidable waste.
Via employerWho: Your landlord or housing association
5
Keep your number when you switch
Number portability is free and straightforward. Start the switch with the new operator and never cancel the old contract first — cancelling first releases the number and you lose it.
OnlineWho: You
6
Expect to be asked for BankID rather than a password
Operator self-service portals, contract signing and even SIM replacement authenticate with BankID. Without it you are pushed into a physical shop for everything.
Mobile appWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Passport, for prepaid registration
Personnummer, for a postpaid contract
Swedish bank details or card
Proof of address, for home broadband

Things most newcomers don’t know

Anonymous prepaid SIMs no longer exist in Sweden, but prepaid is still the newcomer's route in.

Registration with identification has been compulsory since 2022 and unregistered cards are blocked. The practical consequence is the opposite of how it sounds: because prepaid can be registered on a passport, it is the one telecom product you can obtain before you have a personnummer, which makes it the bridge across your first weeks.

Source: Post- och telestyrelsen

The question to ask a landlord is which network the building is on, not which operator to call.

Gothenburg's fibre largely runs over GothNet, the municipally owned network operated through Göteborg Energi, with service providers competing on top of it. In an open-network building you choose from a portal list; ordering directly from a national operator's website produces either a refusal or a duplicate connection. One question at viewing saves a fortnight.

Source: Göteborg Energi / GothNet

Your Swedish mobile plan roams free in Norway, which is genuinely useful from here.

EU roam-like-at-home covers the whole EEA, and Norway and Iceland are in the EEA despite not being in the EU. From Gothenburg, Oslo is closer than Stockholm — about three hours by road — so weekend trips across the border are ordinary, and people routinely buy travel eSIMs they do not need. The same plan in the UK or Switzerland does not roam free.

Source: Post- och telestyrelsen

A payment remark will block a phone contract, and that is often how people discover they have one.

Postpaid plans run a credit check against the personnummer, and a betalningsanmärkning from an unpaid bill referred to Kronofogden causes an outright refusal. Because the remark is not announced to you, a rejected phone contract is frequently the first anyone hears of it. If a contract is refused for no obvious reason, request your credit file rather than trying another operator.

Source: community-reported

Common mistakes to avoid

Buying a SIM and not completing the compulsory registration, then finding it blocked.
Ordering broadband from an operator when the building runs an open network portal.
Paying for a private connection when the rent already includes group broadband.
Cancelling an old contract before porting the number, and losing it.
Assuming a contract refusal is bureaucratic when it is a credit remark.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.