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 general index for telecommunications services rose by 0.9% between 2023 and 2024, which was slightly below average inflation of +1.1% in 2024.
The index for mobile telephone communications rose last year (1.8%). After several years of sharp decline, prices for combined fixed and mobile services, which are becoming increasingly popular with customers, remained stable between 2023 and 2024 (+0.1%).
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 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 2024 (30 calls, 500 MB) was CHF 12 per month at M-Budget, which was about half the cost of the most expensive monthly offer, from Swisscom at CHF 23. For medium usage consumers (100 calls and 2 GB of data), the cheapest Salt offer at CHF 17 is almost 2.5 times cheaper than the equivalent Swisscom offer at CHF 39.90. For customers with high usage requirements (unlimited calls and 20 GB data), there is a difference of almost CHF 41 between Yallo’s cheapest offer of CHF 19.50 and M-Budget’s offer of CHF 60.40 (3 times more expensive).
Mobile telephony prices in Switzerland are still among the highest internationally for the medium 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 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 2024, users in Switzerland paid CHF 5.50 more for an average basket of voice and data connections than the OECD-wide average (CHF 17 versus CHF 11.50). Measured in respect of the cheapest offer, Switzerland ranks 31st and thus falls within the top third of the more expensive countries. Only six countries have higher prices.
In respect of small usage requirements (30 calls and 500 MB of data), Switzerland ranks 33rd, i.e. among the third most expensive OECD countries. In 2024, Swiss customers paid CHF 3.70 more than the OECD average.
Users in Switzerland paid almost CHF 4.40 less per month for a large basket than the average of OECD countries (CHF 19.50 versus CHF 23.90). This places Switzerland 16th in the rankings, among the mid-range of countries.