Basic service provision – com­pre­hen­sive network coverage

We are re­spon­si­ble for providing basic telecoms services in Switzer­land, and have been mandated to do so until the end of 2022 in accordance with the current universal service licence. The purpose of the mandate is the provision of network access through­out Switzer­land, primarily voice tele­phony and broad­band Internet access. Since 2020, the guaranteed minimum transmission speed for a broad­band Internet connection has been 10 Mbps (downloads) and 1 Mbps (uploads). Depending on the scope of the services purchased, the price ceiling for this service (including fixed-line tele­phony) is CHF 55 per month (excluding VAT).

A motion by the National Council’s Transport and Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee (TTC), calling for an increase in the minimum speed to 80 Mbps within the universal service, is currently pending in the national parliament. In addition, a cantonal initiative by the canton of Ticino, calling for a nationwide high bandwidth network, has been placed on hold in parliament. The im­ple­men­ta­tion of both these proposals will raise fun­da­men­tal questions about the future structure of the universal service and the financing of network expansion in Switzer­land. The issues of “public service” and “governance” in com­pa­nies with strong links to the government are currently the subject of various political initiatives and are also highly relevant to Swisscom’s business activities.

Even in locations that are difficult to access, we meet the technical challenges and guarantee the basic service. As part of the conversions, in the past two years we have retrofitted 304 alpine businesses and huts with the latest tech­nolo­gies (All IP and power supply).

As part of basic service provision, we also maintain special services for persons with disabilities (see “Accessibility”).