Swisscom is a major

telecommunication Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

s provider in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. Its headquarters are located in Worblaufen near

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

. The Swiss government owns 51% of Swisscom. According to its own published data, Swisscom holds a market share of 56% for mobile, 50% for broadband and 37% for TV telecommunication in Switzerland. Its Italian subsidiary, Fastweb, is attributed 16% of private clients and 29% of the corporate clients share of Italian broadband and is also active in the mobile market. The Swiss

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

network was first set up in 1852, followed by

telephone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most ...

s in 1877. The two networks were combined with the

postal service The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sy ...

in 1920 to form

Postal Telegraph and Telephone A postal, telegraph, and telephone service (or PTT) is a government agency responsible for mail, postal mail, telegraph, and telephone services. Such monopoly, monopolies existed in many countries, though not in North America, Japan or Spain. Many ...

(PTT). The Swiss

s market was deregulated in 1997. Telecom PTT was spun off and rebranded Swisscom ahead of a partial privatisation in 1997. The present-day Swisscom owns the protected brand NATEL, which is used only in Switzerland. In 2001, 25% of Swisscom Mobile was sold to

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public Limited Company () is a British Multinational company, multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates Service (economic ...

. In 2007, Swisscom acquired a majority stake in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

's second-biggest telecom company Fastweb.

History

Pioneers (1852–1911)

's entry into the

s era came in 1851, with the passage of legislation giving the Swiss government control over the development of a

network throughout the country. The government's initial plans called for the creation of three primary

lines, as well as a number of secondary networks. In order to lay the infrastructural groundwork for the system, the government established the Atelier Fédéral de Construction des Télégraphes (Federal Workshop for the Construction of Telegraphs). In July 1852, the first leg of the country's

system — between St. Gallen and

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

— was operational. By the end of that year, most of the country's main cities had been connected to the telegraph system. In 1855, the network was extended with the first underwater cable, connecting Winkel- Stansstad and Bauen- Flüelen. Night service was also launched that year, starting in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

, St. Gallen and Bellinzona. Telegraph traffic continued to rise in the following decade, but was nevertheless overtaken by the

. Switzerland's entry into the telephone age came in 1877, when the first experimental

telephone line A telephone line or telephone circuit (or just line or circuit industrywide) is a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system. It is designed to reproduce speech of a quality that is understandable. It is the physical wire or oth ...

s appeared, starting with a line linking the post office building with the Federal Palace and then with a link, using the existing

line, between

and

Thun Thun () is a List of towns in Switzerland, town and a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the administrative district of Thun (administrative district), Thun in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Canton of Bern, Bern in Switzerland. ...

. The following year, the government passed legislation establishing a

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

on the country's telephone network. By 1880, Switzerland's first private network had been created in Zürich. This was a central system with the capacity for 200 lines. Basel, Bern and

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

all launched their own local networks between 1881 and 1882. One year later, the first intercity telephone line was established, linking Zürich's private exchange with

Winterthur Winterthur (; ) is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. With over 120,000 residents, it is the country's List of cities in Switzerland, sixth-largest city by population, as well as its ninth-largest agglomeration with about 14 ...

's public system.

Telephone number A telephone number is the address of a Telecommunications, telecommunication endpoint, such as a telephone, in a telephone network, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN). A telephone number typically consists of a Number, sequ ...

s were introduced in 1890, replacing the initial system whereby callers had been able to ask for their party by name. Switzerland began testing its first public phone booths in 1904. Initially restricted to local calls, the public telephones allowed national calling for the first time in 1907.

1912–1965

The first automatic

telephone exchange A telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a central component of a telecommunications system in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It facilitates the establishment of communication circuits ...

s were installed by private networks in 1912. By 1917, a semi-automatic exchange had been installed in Zürich-Hottingen. In 1920, the Swiss government created the Swiss PTT, combining the country's

postal services The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sy ...

and telegraph and telephone systems into a single, government-controlled entity. PTT began

telex Telex is a telecommunication Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communica ...

services in 1934, and by 1936 had linked up the cities of Zürich, Basel and Bern, which were then linked via Zürich to the international market.

Space-age communications (1966–1981)

Telstar Telstar refers to a series of communications satellites. The first two, Telstar 1 and Telstar 2, were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched atop of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962, successfully relayed the first televisi ...

– the first telecommunications satellite – was launched into space in 1962. In 1974, the Leuk satellite earth station went into operation in the canton of

Valais Valais ( , ; ), more formally, the Canton of Valais or Wallis, is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of thirteen districts and its capital and largest city is Sion, Switzer ...

Moving towards mobile in the 1980s

Automation enabled PTT to introduce pulse-metering for local calls in 1963. In 1966, PTT introduced automated international dialing services, initially from

Montreux Montreux (, ; ; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, Swiss municipality and List of towns in Switzerland, town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Swiss Alps, Alps. It belongs to the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut (district), Riviera-Pays ...

and achieved full coverage in 1982. In 1970, PTT led an inter-organisational work group of Swiss telecommunications players, in an effort to create an integrated digital

telecommunications network A telecommunications network is a group of Node (networking), nodes interconnected by telecommunications links that are used to exchange messages between the nodes. The links may use a variety of technologies based on the methodologies of circuit ...

(IFS). In 1976, the company launched facsimile transmission services from its customer service centers. Two years later, PTT established its first mobile telephone network, called NATEL. In 1980, PTT enabled facsimile transmission for the home and office market. The

s business became known as Swiss Telecom PTT.

Public company in the 21st Century

The company initially formed a Unisource partnership with the Netherlands'

KPN Koninklijke KPN N.V. (Royal KPN N.V. in English), trading as KPN is a Dutch List of telephone operating companies, telecommunications company. KPN originated from a government-run postal, telegraph and telephone service and is based in Rotterda ...

and Sweden's Telia. Although the Unisource partnership attempted to enter a number of markets around the world, including Malaysia and India, it deintegrated after several years of losses. Telecom PTT's set up the service provider Blue Window (later Bluewin), which became the country's leading

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...

(ISP). In 1997, Swiss government passed new legislation fully deregulating the Swiss

s market. As part of that process, Telecom PTT was transformed into a special public limited company, its name was changed to Swisscom on 1 October 1997, its shares were listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange, and it conducted a public offering of its shares in 1998. In 1999, the company acquired Germany's publicly listed Debitel, then the third-largest mobile services provider on the German market. The company formed six primary business units, and in 2001, it sold a 25% stake in Swisscom Mobile to England's

was a major investor in so-called 3G (third-generation) mobile telephone technology. In 2000, Swisscom won a

UMTS The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a 3G mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. UMTS uses Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, wideband code-division multiple access (W-CDMA) radio access technolog ...

(Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems) license. In the early 2000s, Swisscom also started rolling out

DSL Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric di ...

(digital subscriber line) broadband technology with 200,000 subscribers by the beginning of 2003. In 2002, Swisscom Eurospot was founded, initially specialising in providing High-Speed Internet Access (HSIA) services to hotel guests 4- and 5-star hotels around Europe. Later becoming Swisscom Hospitality Services, it is based in Geneva. In May 2003, its newly formed subsidiary, Swisscom Eurospot, merged with the Netherlands' Aervik.

Modern times

The former state-owned PTT was privatized in several stages from 1988 onward and became a public limited company with special legal status in October 1998. The

Swiss Confederation Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerlan ...

currently holds 51.0% of the share capital. The Telecommunications Enterprise Act limits outside participation to 49.9% of the share capital. In its 5 April 2006 message, the Federal Council proposed Swisscom to be completely privatized. On 10 May 2006, the National Council declined the proposal. On 20 May 2006, the Advisory Committee of the Council of States advised the Council of States to endorse the proposal – but only so that it could be referred back to the Federal Council for revision. In 2007, the 25% stake in Swisscom Mobile AG, which had been sold to Vodafone six years earlier, was repurchased and the mobile telephony, fixed network and solutions businesses were merged organisationally into the new company Swisscom (Switzerland) Ltd. In the first half of 2007, Swisscom acquired a majority holding in the Italian telecommunications provider Fastweb, owner of the second largest broadband network in Italy. During the offer period, Swisscom acquired 80.7% of Fastweb's share capital, making it 82.4% of Fastweb shares by the cut-off date of 22 May. The total transaction amounted to 6.9 billion Swiss Francs. Swisscom announced its new visual identity on 14 December 2007. The previous sub-brands of Swisscom Fixnet, Swisscom Mobile and Swisscom Solutions ceased to exist on 1 January 2008. As part of the restructuring, Swisscom employed agency Moving Brands to redesign its logo and transformed it into a moving picture element, an innovation for

and the industry. On 23 July 2013, the CEO of Swisscom, Carsten Schloter was found dead from an apparent suicide and Urs Schaeppi was appointed interim CEO. Schaeppi's appointment was made permanent in November 2013. As of June 2018, Swisscom ranks on

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

"The World's Largest Public Companies" list, the Global 2000, at number 520. In June 2015, Swisscom Hospitality Services became part of a new company, Hoist Group, following its acquisition by the Sweden-based HoistLocatel. In June 2018, Danish software firm Nordija partnered with Swisscom to develop TVaaS 2.0. In 2019, Swisscom paid CHF 240 million to TX Group for the acquisition of the outstanding 31% stake in Swisscom Directories AG. On 17 April 2019, Swisscom began to deploy its 5G network. At present, the company delivers 5G service in 110 cities and villages including

and

as well as rural and touristic regions. In June 2019, Swisscom, SK Telecom and

Elisa The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (, ) is a commonly used analytical biochemistry assay, first described by Eva Engvall and Peter Perlmann in 1971. The assay is a solid-phase type of enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to detect the presence of ...

together launched the world's first 5G roaming service. From 17 July 2019, Swisscom customers with a 5G mobile phone were given access to the new 5G data network in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

and by the end of July in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. At the same time, Swisscom customers database exceeded 6 million mobile subscriptions. On 1 June 2022, Urs Schaeppi stepped down from his position as CEO of Swisscom and was succeeded by Christoph Aeschlimann. On March 15, 2024, Swisscom signed a binding purchase proposal to acquire 100% of Vodafone Italia for €8 billion, with the goal of merging it with Fastweb. The transaction is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2025. As part of the agreement,

will continue to provide certain services to Fastweb, as well as grant the use of its brand for a maximum period of five years. On April 3, 2024, Fastweb also entered the electricity market. A July 2024 opinion poll revealed that a majority of Swiss voters oppose the complete privatization of Swisscom whereby the Swiss government would sell its majority stake. 67% of respondents expressed opposition to the sale of the federal government's stake in the telecommunications company, while only 26% were in favor (the rest were undecided). This opposition was consistent across supporters of all major political parties and linguistic regions of the country. In September 2024, the

Antitrust Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...

Authority published a notice of investigation and launched an inquiry. Swisscom announced that the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

had approved the acquisition of Vodafone Italia under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation. The transaction was also approved by AGCOM and AGCM in November and December 2024, respectively. On December 31, 2024, Swisscom, through Fastweb, completed the acquisition of Vodafone Italia, giving rise to Fastweb + Vodafone.

Business areas

Swisscom consists of the customer segments ''Residential Customers'', ''Business Customers & Wholesale'' and ''IT, Network & Infrastructure''. The Group also comprises the Digital Business division and Group companies such as Fastweb in Italy. In addition, there are other Group companies in the individual business lines.

Swisscom (Switzerland) Ltd

As of 1 January 2008, all operational activities of Swisscom Ltd in Switzerland were outsourced to Swisscom (Switzerland) Ltd. While Swisscom Ltd has since operated purely as a

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

, the activities of its wholly owned subsidiary Swisscom (Switzerland) Ltd encompass the former Fixnet, Mobile and Solutions business units, whose activities have been restructured into ''Residential Customers'' and ''Business Customers'' according to customer segment. In addition, the IT platforms and the fixed-network and mobile communications infrastructure have been merged into the ''IT, Network & Infrastructure'' division.

Residential customers

The ''Residential Customers'' segment comprises mobile and fixed-network telephony,

IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV), also called TV over broadband, is the service delivery of television over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. Usually sold and run by a Telephone company, telecom provider, it consists of broadcast live telev ...

digital TV (''blue TV'') and the provision of broadband internet access (

). Swisscom combined its entertainment offering under the umbrella of the "blue" brand from 2020. The previous names "Swisscom TV", "Bluewin", "Teleclub" and "Kitag Kinos" have disappeared.

Business customers

The ''Business Customers'' segment helps business customers to plan, implement and operate information and communication infrastructure ( ICT). The portfolio includes

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...

outsourcing Outsourcing is a business practice in which companies use external providers to carry out business processes that would otherwise be handled internally. Outsourcing sometimes involves transferring employees and assets from one firm to another ...

, workplace and IoT solutions, as well as mobile communications solutions for mobile working and communication, network solutions, office networking, business process optimisation, SAP solutions, security and authentication solutions and services tailored to banks. The Swisscom Digital Business unit focuses on digital services for SMEs through localsearch, activities in the fintech area and blockchain-based services. Swisscom Wholesale provides other Swiss telecommunications providers with commercial voice, data and broadband products.

IT, network & infrastructure

The core tasks of Swisscom ''IT, Network & Infrastructure'' include the construction, operation and maintenance of Swisscom's comprehensive fixed-network and mobile communications infrastructure. This division includes the corresponding IT platforms.

Fastweb S.p.A.

Fastweb S.p.A. operates the second largest network in Italy and offers voice, data, internet and IP TV services to private and business customers. In the first half of 2007, Swisscom acquired a majority stake in the Italian Fastweb. The cost of acquiring the stake amounted to around five billion Swiss francs. Tower St

Other business areas

Other business areas include business segments that do not belong directly to, but are related to, the core businesses of telecommunications and IT.

Brands

In Switzerland, Swisscom offers products and services from its core business under the main Swisscom brand. Swisscom also sells lower-cost products and services under the Wingo flanker brand as well as third-party MVNOs such as Coop Mobile, M-Budget Mobile (in cooperation with

Coop Coop or Co-op most often refer to: * Chicken coop or other animal enclosure * Cooperative or co-operative ("co-op"), an association co-operating for mutual social, economic or cultural benefit ** Consumer cooperative ** Food cooperative ** Housin ...

and Migros respectively) and Lycamobile. Other brands, such as cablex and localsearch, are in Swisscom's portfolio and characterise the company's other areas of business. Abroad, Swisscom's presence is primarily in Italy through the Fastweb brand.

Business figures

The Group's financials for 2022 are as follows: Number of customers and market share

Governance

Board of directors

As of 31 December 2021, the Board of Directors comprised the following non-executive members:

Group executive board

The following table shows the composition of the Group Executive Board as at 1 Novembre 2023.

Locations

Swisscom is headquartered in Worblaufen. In addition, Swisscom owns 90 other office buildings in which around 18,000 Swisscom employees and partners throughout Switzerland work. Swisscom also operates 120 shops across Switzerland.

Innovation

Swisscom StartUp Challenge

The Swisscom StartUp Challenge provides selected tech startups the opportunity to join a week-long business acceleration program in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

. The Challenge is organized in collaboration with VentureLab.

Swisscom Ventures

Through its venture capital arm, Swisscom promotes start-ups developing solutions in the field of information, communication and entertainment technology.

Competition

In the Swiss Telecommunication market, the main competitors are

Sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning, at the start of the Sun path. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon. Terminology Although the S ...

and

Salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

. In Italy, Swisscom's main competitors are Telecom Italia ( TIM), Vodafone Italy and Wind Tre.

Connect network test

In 2021, Swisscom was rated the Swiss mobile communications provider with the best network by the trade journal "Connect", closely followed by

Criticism

In a survey in 2016, conducted by the Swiss newspaper '' Tages-Anzeiger'', some consumers criticized Swisscom's international roaming rates and its subscription rates for mobile phones. The main concern of the consumers in the survey was that they found the rates to be too high.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Companies owned by the federal government of Switzerland Telecommunications companies of Switzerland Internet service providers of Switzerland Telecommunications companies established in 1997 Swiss brands VoIP companies Internet service providers Companies listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange Companies in the Swiss Market Index Companies based in the canton of Bern Internet of things companies