Sunrise: Data Roaming Gets Cheaper, but Still Costly

As from May 17, 2024, Sunrise is offering new data roaming bundles. The new data bundles for Region 1, which primarily includes European countries, have bigger data allowances than the previous offers.

Data bundles for mobile Internet outside of Europe remain unchanged. But because around 20 countries have been reshuffled to other zones, data roaming in these 20 countries is now cheaper.

Data roaming bundles for Europe

The following changes (see Table 1) apply to data roaming bundles for Internet access in Region 1. This zone includes all EU and EFTA countries, as well as the United Kingdom, Turkey, and some other countries. It also includes the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Some European countries, like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro, are not included in Region 1. All of the data bundles shown in Table 1 have a 12-month validity period.

Table 1: Overview of the new Sunrise bundles

For the smallest bundle, the price increase is bigger than the increase in the data volume, with the price per gigabyte going up by 13 centimes, or 0.7 percent. That is the only price increase. The per-gigabyte price has gone down by one-third for the mid-sized bundle, and by nearly 17 percent for the biggest bundle.

A look at historical price developments shows that in summer 2021, per-gigabyte prices for annual bundles from Sunrise started at 7.79 francs. The price eventually went up, and now prices are going down again. But in spite of price reductions, one gigabyte of roaming data in an annual bundle still costs a minimum of 8.13 francs today, which is more than it cost in 2021.

Price comparison for data roaming in Europe

How does Sunrise compare to its competitors with regard to data roaming in Europe? To find out, moneyland.ch calculated the costs based on 10,000 examples with data volumes of between one and 10,000 megabytes per year.

The results show that how well Sunrise compares depends heavily on the yearly data volume. In 20 percent of the examples used, Sunrise is the cheapest service provider. In another 26 percent of cases, Sunrise is among the cheapest service providers, costing just a few centimes more than the cheapest provider. But depending on the annual data volume, Swisscom and Galaxus are also among the cheapest service providers.

From a data volume of 6645 megabytes per year, Swisscom is cheaper than Sunrise.

You can see which telecom provider is the cheapest in the graph below.

These data bundles from Sunrise cover Armenia, Bahrain, Chile, Fiji, Georgia, New Zealand, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint Martin, the Seychelles, Taiwan, Tunisia, Uruguay, and Belarus:

These Sunrise data bundles cover Curaçao, French Polynesia, Cuba, Mauritius, Saba, Sint Maarten, and Tanzania:

The biggest reductions in Sunrise roaming prices apply to data roaming in these countries:

• French Polynesia: The biggest reductions apply to prices for data roaming in France’s southern Pacific islands. Previously, Sunrise did not offer any data roaming bundles for this region to its private customers. One megabyte cost 15.40 francs, and one gigabyte of data theoretically cost more than 15,000 francs. Now, the per-gigabyte price with a Sunrise bundle is around 139.80 francs. By comparison, Swisscom charges just 19.90 francs for one gigabyte of roaming data for French Polynesia. So, in spite of the massive price reduction, Sunrise is still much more expensive than Swisscom.  
• Armenia, Fiji, Georgia, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin: Up until now, using Sunrise data roaming in these countries was very expensive. Instead of the former 500 francs, the per-gigabyte price now ranges between 12 and 28 francs, depending on the bundle. That is a price reduction of 97.6 percent. Sunrise is cheaper than Swisscom for data roaming in Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin, while Swisscom is cheaper in the other three countries.
• Seychelles, Taiwan: Up until now, one gigabyte of roaming data cost around 200 francs, in the best case. Now it costs between 12 and 28 francs, depending on the data bundle. That is a 94-percent price reduction. However, Swisscom is cheaper, with prices between 7 and 20 francs per gigabyte.
• Bahrain, Chile, New Zealand, Tunisia, Uruguay, Belarus: One gigabyte of roaming data for these six countries used to cost 140 francs. Now it costs between 12 and 28 francs. That is a reduction of 91 percent. But in spite of the massive price reduction, Swisscom is still substantially cheaper. For roaming in five of the six countries, Swisscom charges between 7 and 20 francs per gigabyte, depending on the size of the data bundle. However, Swisscom charges 50 francs per gigabyte for data roaming in Tunisia.
• Curaçao, Cuba, Mauritius, Saba, Sint Maarten: Using data roaming in these five countries used to cost nearly 500 francs per gigabyte. Now, the per-gigabyte price charged by Sunrise is just short of 140 francs per gigabyte. That is 72 percent less than before. Swisscom charges 50 francs per gigabyte for data roaming in those countries and regions.
• Tanzania: The price of 1 gigabyte of roaming data for this African country has fallen from nearly 200 francs to just short of 140 francs. That is a 30-percent reduction. But Swisscom is still cheaper, with a price of 50 francs per gigabyte of roaming data.

In short: Based on the per-gigabyte price, Sunrise is still more expensive than Swisscom for data roaming in 18 out of the 20 countries, even after its substantial price reductions.

Annual data roaming bundles

For this article, moneyland.ch only accounted for data roaming bundles that do not expire for at least one year. There are two reasons for that: Firstly, Sunrise made changes to these data roaming bundles. Secondly, many Swiss telecom service providers offer annual bundles, which makes them a good basis for comparisons.

Depending on your personal needs, there may be other offers that work out cheaper, especially if you only visit countries for one-time holidays. Some Swiss service providers offer bundles with shorter validity periods. Cheap travel eSIM offers also usually expire after relatively short periods of time.   

More on this topic:
Compare Swiss mobile plans with the interactive comparison
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