Prices for telephony services
According to the National Consumer Price Index issued by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), which measures price trends on the basis of a basket of the principal consumer goods and services purchased by Swiss households, the global index for telecommunications services fell by 2.4% between 2022 and 2023; this was with an average inflation rate of +2.1% in 2023.
The index for mobile telephone communications rose slightly last year (+2.8%). Prices for combined fixed network and mobile services, which are proving ever more popular with customers, have been falling for several years. Between 2022 and 2023, the decrease was 5.9%.
The mobile telephony prices covered by OFCOM's Statistical Observatory, which are based on the lowest rates offered by providers on the Swiss market, reveal considerable differences, however.
Regardless of the service basket under consideration, the cheapest offer can be more than two to three times less than the most expensive.
The best offer for light phone users in 2023 (30 telephone calls, 500 MB) was CHF 12 per month at M-Budget, which was about half the cost of the most expensive monthly offer, which was Swisscom at CHF 23. For medium usage consumers (100 calls and 2 GB of data), the most cost-effective M-Budget offer at CHF 14 is almost three times cheaper than the equivalent Swisscom offer for CHF 39.90. For customers with high usage requirements (unlimited calls and 20 GB data), there is a difference of more than CHF 31 between Yallo's cheapest offer of CHF 19.50 and Swisscom's offer of CHF 50.60 (2.5 times more expensive).
Mobile telephony prices in Switzerland are still among the highest internationally for the medium-usage basket. This is confirmed by the Teligen price baskets published by the market research company TechInsights, which are based on OECD methodology and take into account the most competitive products offered by the largest carriers in each country. The gap relative to the average value of the OECD countries has narrowed significantly due to the price decrease in the prepaid offers of Yallo and M-Budget during 2023. In the case of the small service basket, the situation deteriorated slightly as a result of slightly increasing prices, while in the case of large service baskets, the situation improved further due to a sharp fall in prices.
The baskets for Switzerland factor in the three network operators Salt, Sunrise and Swisscom, as well as the secondary and tertiary brands Yallo and M-Budget. These include products and service options from both the prepaid and contract segments. In August 2023, users in Switzerland paid almost CHF 1.10 more for an average basket of voice and data connections than the OECD-wide average (CHF 14 versus CHF 12.90). Measured in respect of the cheapest offer, Switzerland ranks 23rd and thus falls within the top half of the more expensive countries. Thirteen countries have even higher prices.
In respect of small usage requirements (30 calls and 500 MB of data), Switzerland ranks 28th, i.e. among the third most expensive OECD countries. In 2023, Swiss customers paid CHF 2.20 more than the OECD average.
Users in Switzerland paid almost CHF 6.60 less per month for a large service basket than the average of OECD countries (CHF 19.50 versus CHF 26.10). This places Switzerland, at 14th place in the ranking, among the mid-range of countries.
