Costly Cellular Providers Become Even More Expensive

For consumers, keeping an overview of the more than 100 different Swiss mobile plans and prepaid offers is difficult. For that reason, moneyland.ch performed a comprehensive analysis based on data from its own Swiss mobile plan and prepaid mobile comparison.

Telecom expert Ralf Beyeler calculated the costs of Swiss mobile plans and prepaid offers based on three different user profiles: light users, average users, and heavy users. The following analysis is based on the cheapest plans and prepaid offers from all Swiss cellular service providers.

Three market trends

Ralf Beyeler sees three current trends in the Swiss cellular market:

• Price increases: With the exception of one prepaid mobile offer, this trend is primarily apparent in the mobile plan market. Price hikes are only found among mobile service providers that were already relatively expensive in 2022. The one-third of cellular providers with the lowest prices in 2022 have not raised their prices in 2023. In most cases, the prices have only been raised by several percentage points, but we have also seen more substantial price hikes.
• Price reductions: In the case of some Swiss cellular providers, the cheapest mobile plan on offer in 2023 is much cheaper than the cheapest mobile plan at the time of the last analysis in October 2022. Some of the mobile service providers that performed well in last year’s price comparison have lowered their prices even further this year.
• Less promotional offers: Swiss cellular service providers have made heavy use of special promotional offers to onboard new customers for around six years now. But this year we are seeing mobile service providers shifting away from special promotions towards low standard pricing.

“For some years now, mobile plans from the subsidiaries of the big three Swiss telecom companies and those offered by independent mobile service providers have often been much cheaper,” explains Beyeler. “The differences between individual cellular providers are huge. Customers can often save several hundred francs by moving to a cheaper offer.”  

Price hikes at Coop, Lebara, M-Budget, Salt, Sunrise, Wingo, and Yallo

Recently, many Swiss telecom service providers have added clauses to their general terms and conditions. These clauses give them the right to raise their prices once a year to match increases in the consumer price index without the customer being able to terminate their contract early. A number of cellular providers have already raised their prices since the start of 2023.

For customers matching the light user profile, the cheapest mobile plans from Coop Mobile, Lebara, M-budget Mobile, Salt, Sunrise, and Wingo now cost more than they did when the last moneyland.ch study was done in October, 2022. On the other hand, just one prepaid mobile offer has gotten more expensive for the light user profile: the cheapest prepaid offer from Salt now costs 735.80 francs for the first year, compared to 127.40 francs last year. The reason is that Salt’s cheapest data bundles with fixed amount of data are no longer being offered due to technical issues. Salt is working on making these data bundles available to customers again in the future.

For users matching the average user profile, the cheapest mobile plans from Coop Mobile, Lebara, M-Budget Mobile, Salt, Sunrise, and Yallo are more expensive now than they were a year ago. Price increases go up to around 2 percent, with only Sunrise having substantially higher price hikes. For the average user profile, not one of the cheapest prepaid mobile offers costs more than it did last year.

If a person matching the heavy user profile were to get a new mobile plan today, they would pay more than they did a year ago for the cheapest plans from Coop Mobile, Lebara, M-Budget Mobile, Salt, Sunrise, and Yallo. M-Budget’s price hike is particularly notable, with the cost for the first year increasing by 129 francs to 766 francs – and increase of 22 percent. For heavy users too, the cost of the cheapest prepaid mobile offers has remained unchanged over the past year.

“It is interesting to see that all the telecom providers which raised their prices were already among the more expensive ones in last year’s analysis. Of the cheapest one-third of telecom providers last year, not one has raised the price of its cheapest offer,” remarks telecom expert Ralf Beyeler. Cellular providers cite inflation as the reason for many of their price hikes. “I find that difficult to believe. I cannot imagine why the most expensive offers, specifically, would be more affected by inflation than cheaper offers,” says Beyeler.

Price reductions at Galaxus Mobile, Mucho, Swisscom, Sunrise, and Wingo

While some cellular providers have raised their prices, others have lower their prices by up to 61 percent. The new Galaxus Mobile plans, in particular, are notably cheaper than they were last year, when they were still sold under the Digitec Connect brand. All existing customers with Digitec Connect plans were automatically moved to the new, lower pricing, which is exceptional.

For light users, the cheapest mobile plans from Galaxus Mobile (compared with Digitec Connect), Mucho, and Swisscom cost less than the cheapest offers in 2022. The market leader, Swisscom, introduced a new plan which, for a person matching the light user profile, costs 16.80 francs for the first year, or 4 percent less than the cheapest Swisscom offer in 2022. The prepaid mobile offers from Sunrise and Wingo have also gotten cheaper.

For average users, the cheapest mobile plans being offered by Galaxus Mobile (compared with Digitec Connect), Mucho, Swisscom, and Wingo in October 2023 all cost less than the cheapest available offers in October 2022. The price reductions are notable: 48 percent at Galaxus Mobile, 27 percent at Mucho, 26 percent at Wingo, and 25 percent at Swisscom. For prepaid mobile offers, the cheapest offers from Sunrise and Wingo have gotten cheaper for the average user profile.

For heavy users, the cheapest mobile plans from Galaxus Mobile (compare with Digitec Connect) and Wingo cost less now than they did a year ago. The cost is 61 percent lower for Galaxus Mobile, and 45 percent lower for Wingo. The costs of the cheapest prepaid mobile offers from Wingo and Sunrise have gone down by one-fourth over the past year.

“The analysis shows that among the cheapest mobile plan offered by each cellular provider, there have been more price increases than price reductions, with 17 telecom providers now charging more for their cheapest plans, and 12 charging less. The exact opposite is true for prepaid mobile offers, with just one cellular provider raising the costs of its cheapest prepaid offer, while six providers have reduced their prices,” observes telecom expert Ralf Beyeler.

Cellular providers are rethinking special promotions

For more than five years, many Swiss telecom service providers relied heavily on special promotional offers. Carriers like Salt, Yallo, Wingo, and Lebara regularly sell their mobile plans at heavily reduced prices. Special promotions in which mobile plans were offered for a third of their standard price have been a common occurrence.

But now the telecom sector seems to be rethinking its marketing strategy. For example, Digitec Galaxus, Digital Republic, and Teleboy have all stopped running special promotions altogether. Instead, Digitec Galaxus has radically reduced the standard prices of its mobile plans. In September 2023, Wingo launched a new mobile plan with unlimited local calls and data in Switzerland for 27.90 francs per month. That price is just a few francs over the most attractive special promotional offers for unlimited local calls and data. However, for its other plans, Wingo has stuck with its former strategy of charging high standard prices, and then offering special promotions with big discounts. Offers from Sunrise’s Swype brand have affordable standard prices, but no promotional discounts.

Light users: From 53.80 francs per year

The light user profile is based on a person living in Switzerland who makes five calls with an average length of two minutes every month, and uses 500 megabytes of mobile data per month.

The cheapest solution for this user profile is currently a prepaid mobile offer from Mucho, with total costs of 53.90 francs per year (see the table below). Next in line are prepaid mobile offers from retailers Lidl (73.80 francs per year) and Coop (87 francs per year). The comparison does not account for special promotions. The seven cheapest offers have remained unchanged since the last moneyland.ch analysis in October 2022.

From a price perspective, prepaid mobile offers are much more attractive than mobile plans for light users. Talk Talk’s cheapest mobile plan costs more than twice as much as its cheapest prepaid offer, at 117.75 francs for the first year. The mobile plan in second place is even more expensive, at 168 francs.

Price differences are particularly pronounced for the light user profile. With costs of 735.80 francs, the cheapest prepaid offer from the most expensive cellular provider costs nearly 14 times more than the cheapest offer in the comparison. If you only compare offers from Salt, Sunrise, and Swisscom, then a Swisscom offer is cheapest. That is a surprising revelation, as Beyeler explains: “Swisscom is generally considered to be an expensive telecom brand.”

Promotional offers are widely used by Swiss cellular providers to attract new customers. But the moneyland.ch analysis shows that current special promotions do not make financial sense for light users. The cheapest special promotional offer matching the light user profile still costs 124 francs in the first year.

Average user: From 128.70 francs per year

The normal user profile is based on a person living in Switzerland who uses 5 gigabytes of mobile data every month and makes 30 phone calls with an average length of three minutes per call. “For many mobile users 5 gigabytes is more than enough. That is particularly true for people who do not stream videos and music over mobile networks,” explains Ralf Beyeler.

A new mobile plan launched a few days ago by Salt subsidiary Gomo is the cheapest for this profile. Without accounting for promotional prices, this plan has the lowest costs, at 195.35 francs in the first year. Second place is held by a prepaid mobile offer from Mucho that costs 209.80 for the first year. An offer from Galaxus takes third place, with 228 francs. It is worth mentioning that the offers from Gomo and Galaxus both include unlimited data and phone calls within Switzerland. Salt is the most expensive cellular provider for this profile, costing 882.80 francs – more than four times as much as the cheapest offer in the comparison.

Compared to the last moneyland.ch study in October 2022, there have been some changes in the cheapest offers available for average users. The plan from Gomo, with 195.35 francs of costs for the first year, is now the cheapest for this profile. The new plan from Galaxus has moved to third place. Swype now costs around 5 centimes less per month than it did last year.

Currently, there are 11 special promotional offers that are cheaper than the cheapest plan offered by the same Swiss carrier at standard prices. The cheapest promotional offer is around 70 francs cheaper than the cheapest standard offer on the market. Special promotional offers matching the average user profile start at 128.70 francs for the first year.

Heavy users: From 195.35 francs per year

The heavy user profile is based on a person who wants unlimited data and phone calls. For that reason, only offers that give you unlimited data and calls for a flat fee are accounted for in the comparison.

The cheapest offer for heavy users is a newly-launched mobile plan from Gomo, with costs of 195.35 francs in the first year. Galaxus Mobile takes second place at 228 francs. Digital Republic and the Swype offer from Yallo share third place, both costing 240 francs for the first year. Offers from the three big telecom companies Sunrise (742.80 francs), Swisscom (838.80 francs), and Salt (923.35 francs) are much more expensive. Since the last analysis in 2022, Gomo has taken first place for this profile. Last year, Gomo’s standard pricing was not yet known. At 159.35 francs for the first year, the promotional price of Gomo’s plan, as it was offered in 2022, was lower than the standard price which applies as of October 2, 2023. Otherwise, there have been hardly any chances in the cheapest offers for heavy users. Some cellular providers that sit in the middle, like Wingo and the prepaid offer from Sunrise, have gotten much cheaper, with price reductions of 24 and 45 percent, but are still much more expensive than the cheapest offers.

“Many consumers still think of Salt as being one of the cheaper cellular providers. But when you compare the cheapest available offers with unlimited data and calls for a flat fee, Salt stands out as being the most expensive provider,” says telecom expert Ralf Beyeler.

Currently (as per October 2, 2023), there are no special promotional offers that are cheaper than the cheapest standard offer for the heavy user profile. There are four standard offers that are cheaper than the cheapest promotional offers.

Compare offers based on your individual needs

The evaluations above are based on just three different customer profiles. Even if you are a close match for one of these profiles, your specific needs may be somewhat different. “Costs can vary substantially depending on your individual needs,” acknowledges Ralf Beyeler. “Comparing costs based on your specific situation is recommended.” The comprehensive, interactive mobile plan and prepaid mobile comparison on moneyland.ch gives you the option of creating a custom individual profile. It also provides information about the exact costs of mobile roaming in other countries. Offers can also be sorted based on customer satisfaction ratings.