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Swisscom is reasserting its dominance over the mobile market in Switzerland, having taken OpenSignal's coveted 4G speed award from Sunrise in our latest analysis of the market. But Sunrise has pulled ahead of the incumbent in our 4G availability metric, and competition between the operators is building nicely as LTE speeds and availability continue to improve. Drawing on 187 million data samples collected by 12,700 OpenSignal users between Feb. 1 and May 1, we are taking our semi-annual look at Switzerland, examining the 3G and 4G performance of its three nationwide operators Salt, Sunrise and Swisscom.
It's neck-and-neck in the race for our 4G speed award, as Swisscom's average speed of 36.5 Mbps saw it win this category. The operator showed an impressive LTE speed increase of nearly 7 Mbps in our measurements over the last six months, leapfrogging Sunrise into the top spot.
Sunrise managed to overtake Swisscom in our 4G availability category, with its impressive score of 88.4% narrowly beating Swisscom's 86.2%. The intense competition in this metric was reflected in our regional scores, where the two operators drew in every region except Zurich.
The jump in Swisscom's 4G speed has catapulted it into the top spot in our overall speed metric, a category won by Sunrise in our last report. Swisscom's overall speed score, which measures the average speed across 3G and 4G networks experienced by our users, jumped by over 8 Mbps in the past six months.
Switzerland enjoys one of the more mature 4G markets in Europe, as both speeds and reach continue to increase. All three operators now have 4G availability scores of over 80% in our metrics, while their 4G speed scores are around the 30 Mbps mark.
Download Speed: 4G | Download Speed: 3G | Download Speed: Overall | Upload Speed: 4G | Latency: 4G | Latency: 3G | Availability: 4G | |
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Salt | |||||||
Sunrise | |||||||
Swisscom |
This metric shows the average download speed for each operator on LTE connections as measured by Opensignal users.
This metric shows the average download speed for each operator on 3G connections as measured by Opensignal users.
This metric shows the average download speed experienced by Opensignal users across all of an operator's 3G and 4G networks. Overall speed doesn't just factor in 3G and LTE speeds, but also the availability of each network technology. Operators with lower LTE availability tend to have lower overall speeds because their customers spend more time connected to slower 3G networks.
This metric shows the average upload speed for each operator on LTE connections as measured by Opensignal users.
This metric shows the average latency for each operator on LTE connections as measured by Opensignal users. Latency, measured in milliseconds, is the delay data experiences as it makes a round trip through the network. A lower score in this metric is a sign of a more responsive network.
This metric shows the average latency for each operator on 3G connections as measured by Opensignal users. Latency, measured in milliseconds, is the delay data experiences as it makes a round trip through the network. A lower score in this metric is a sign of a more responsive network.
This metric shows the proportion of time Opensignal users have an LTE connection available to them on each operator’s network. It's a measure of how often users can access a 4G network rather than a measure of geographic or population coverage.
This chart shows the regional winners in each category Opensignal measures. Click on the icons to see a more detailed graph showing each operator’s metrics in a particular region.
Region | Availability: 4G |
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Central | |
East | |
Espace Mittelland | |
Lake Geneva | |
Northwest | |
Ticino | |
Zurich |
In our third report on Switzerland, we parsed more than 187 million data points collected from 12,728 mobile users between Feb. 1 and May 1, 2018. We compared the 3G and 4G experience offered by Salt, Sunrise and Swisscom on the national level. We also examined 4G availability in seven Swiss regions.
Swisscom won our 4G download speed category, as its average speed of 36.5 Mbps beat Sunrise's score of 34.2 Mbps. Swisscom increased its speed by nearly 7 Mbps — a jump of nearly 28% — in the six months since our last report, allowing the operator to leapfrog Sunrise to the top spot. In general, LTE speeds in Switzerland continue to steadily increase, as all three operators were providing our users speeds of around 30 Mbps or greater in our measurements.
The impressive increase in Swisscom's 4G download speed results allowed the operator to pass over Sunrise in our overall speed category, which measures average download speed experienced by OpenSignal users across all of an operator's 3G and 4G networks. Swisscom's score of 31.6 Mbps beat Sunrise's average speed of 29.4 Mbps, while Salt was in third place with 25 Mbps.
Swisscom and Sunrise shared the spoils in our 3G speed category, tying with scores of 6.1 Mbps and 5.7 Mbps respectively. This category saw a three-way draw six months ago, but Salt's score dropped in our 3G speed measurements from 6.3 Mbps to 5.1 Mbps, seeing the operator fall behind its peers. However, it was Swisscom who came in third place in our 4G upload speed category, as Sunrise and Salt's scores of 14.4 Mbps and 13.9 Mbps easily beat the incumbent's 9.1 Mbps. In terms of latency, Swisscom led both our 3G and 4G categories fairly comfortably, beating its closest rival by 3 milliseconds in 4G and nearly 20ms in 3G.
Sunrise managed to pull ahead of Swisscom in the national 4G availability race, which saw the two operators draw in our last report. Sunrise's impressive score of 88.4% beat Swisscom's 86.2% and Salt's 81.5%. The close race between Sunrise and Swisscom was reflected in our regional results, where the two drew in every region except Zurich. In the capital, our Sunrise users were able to connect to 4G an impressive 89.4% of the time, beating Swisscom's availability score of 85.6% and paving the way for Sunrise to take our national prize. LTE availability is maturing rapidly across the country, with all three operators now having passed the 80% milestone in our measurements.
Sunrise's impressive score in Zurich was no surprise, since the city came fourth for 4G availability and third for 4G speed in our recent blog which compared 13 of Europe's most bustling tech hubs. On a national level, Switzerland made the top 10 for 4G availability in our recent study of 36 European countries, while the country was 12th in terms of 4G speed.
Swisscom has used its considerable financial muscle to upgrade its mobile network using LTE-Advanced, carrier aggregation and 256QAM modulation, which is a likely reason for its recent surge in 4G speeds. But Swisscom's rivals are fighting back. Salt was acquired by Xavier Niel, who has successfully disrupted the French mobile market with Iliad's Free. Salt is now busy upgrading its network to LTE-Advanced, while the operator has recently announced it will enter the multi-play sector.
Switzerland is among the global leaders in both LTE availability and speed, and its standing in both metrics is only improving. The Swiss mobile market is maturing nicely, and we expect the growing competition between the operators will push them to greater gains in our metrics.
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