Switzerland has strong competition in the telecommunications space. Swiss and International service providers offer residents a fair amount of choice when it comes to Internet and mobile phone packages.
In terms of mobile operators, the three major service providers are Swisscom, Sunrise and Orange. All offer a variety of packages available, as both long-term contracts and pre-pay services. While tariff prices are competitive, some may find that less glamorous providers, such as Migros, offer better deals for those who don’t heavily rely on their mobile.
Network coverage is pretty decent across all three providers, however I’ve found that Swisscom seem to have a slight edge here, especially if you’re going up into the mountains! Roll out of 4G capability happened early and fast so now most developed areas are within reach of blazing fast mobile data.
When it comes to the Internet, as well as the same three providers mentioned above, there are a few local options available that will be different depending on your area. In some cases, local providers can offer better speeds at lower prices than the main three. This is what we found vs Swisscom for our own TV, Internet and fixed-telephone service.
Swiss Internet speeds are very good when compared to the global average, but there are still some remoter regions that will struggle to find an affordable and fast connection.
To give an idea of pricing, we currently pay 68-75CHF per month for 50Mbit down/5Mbit up. This is faster than Swisscom could provide, as they only offered us 20Mbit down/2Mbit up for around the same price.
Most of the better plans are unlimited in terms of the amount of data you can download/upload per month. There are very few Swiss ISPs throttle speeds on bandwidth-heavy websites during peak times. This should be mentioned during the sign-up process, but if you’re not sure then ask!